Bhubaneswar: The country saw swearing-in of new Chief Justice of India Monday. Justice Sanjiv Khanna took the oath as 51st CJ of India. The biggest challenge that stares at the new CJI is the ‘unprecedented’ load of pendency in the Apex court.
When Justice DY Chandrachud took oath as 50th CJI of India, the pendency load at the country’s Apex court was mere 69,000, but the pendency in Supreme Court as on today stands at 82,498. A glance at the above data with Union Ministry of Law underscores a rise in case pendency in the top of the country by over 19%.
CASE BACKLOG
As per the data available with Supreme Court, the total case pendency as on Nov 11, 2024 stands at 82,498. The SC has a higher load of civil cases than criminal. The pendency of Civil cases as on today stands at 64,231; whereas its 18267 for Criminal cases.
Data shows in the apex court’s pendency list, only one-third of Civil cases were recently instituted, because, over around 70% pending cases have a tenure of more than 1-year old.
However, the rise in pendency load in criminal cases has been attributed to filing of new cases at a higher rate than the previous years. The reason is a high of 43% pending criminal case are of 1-year old cases.
DISPOSAL RATE OF SC
As per the data available, the total number of cases instituted (means filed) in the Supreme Court in the current year stands at 51.861 having a proportion of Civil – 34,316 and Criminal – 17,545.
The Apex court has disposed a total of 50,457 cases with a proportion of Civil – 33,521 and Criminal – 16,936.
The disposal rate thus worked out at 97.68% in Civil and 96.53% in Criminal cases.
Now, take a glance at the disposal rate in the month of October 2024.
- Cases Instituted: 5,177
- Civil cases : 3,365
- Criminal cases : 1,812
- TOTAL CASES DISPOSED: 4,562
- Civil cases disposed: 3,265
- Criminal cases: 1,297.
- Disposal rate Civil: 97%
- Criminal: 71.6%
- The disposal rate of Criminal cases has been yards behind from the yearly average.
REASONS FOR HIGH PENDENCY
While a Supreme Court analysis blames the high pendency in High courts and district courts to largescale vacancies of judges, the Apex court has no such vacancy burden as of now. In 2019, the SC has increased its sanctioned strength to 34, and the requisite number of judges has been appointed.
JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA’s SOUTION TO PENDENCY
In the State of Judiciary report prepared by the Supreme Court of India, 51st CJI Sanjiv Khanna has made the following recommendations. He has proposed two steps
- Short Term: That will reduce present case pendency
- Long term: Will reduce the case life cycle.
- The major step to reduce pendency and life cycle of a case given below
- Establishing stringent timelines for completion of trial, akin to commercial laws of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and Commercial Courts Act. However, the qualitative component of justice must not be compromised in an effort to eliminate delay or clear the arrears
- Modernising trial proceedings through video conferencing.
- Automated transcription and translation
