90% cases pending for over 10 years are in six states

NEW DELHI: Six states account for around 90 per cent of the 23 lakh cases pending around the country that are older than 10 years, though not all of them are the largest states in terms of overall pendency. UP accounts for 30 per cent of all 10-year-old cases pending countrywide, followed by Gujarat with 22 per cent, Maharashtra (11 per cent), Bihar (10 per cent), Odisha (8 per cent) and West

Bengal (8 per cent). Out of 2.29 crore cases pending in subordinate courts across the country, 22.95 lakh are older than 10 years. In addition, 40 lakh cases have been pending between five and 10 years.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, UP has close to 7 lakh cases which have been pending for 10 years or more. Gujarat has 5.13 lakh such cases, Maharashtra 2.57 lakh, Bihar 2.37 lakh, Odisha 1.82 lakh and West Bengal 1.72 lakh. Many of these cases remain unresolved in subordinate courts for decades and are reflective of the slow moving justice delivery system. Around 71 per cent of all cases pending for over 10 years are criminal cases where a court is bound to dispose of the matter in a fixed time. However, of late, the judicial system in some states have shown the willingness to take up older cases on priority. For instance, Gujarat, which has the second highest pendency of old cases, disposed of 9,000 last month — over 6,400 criminal and 2,500 civil cases. UP has performed well too, with 6,600 cases older than 10 years disposed off last month alone, half of these were criminal cases.

There are also huge vacancies in lower courts across the country. At least 4,432 judges' posts were vacant as of December 2015. Out of a sanctioned strength of 20,502 judges for subordinate courts, the strength stood at 16,050 last year.