IT, infrastructure needed to reduce pending court cases: Sibal

Around 30-35 per cent pending cases could be easily resolved with use of IT, says the minister

Anticipating that pending court cases might rise five-fold to 15 crore in coming years, Law Minister Kapil Sibal today said more use of information technology and infrastructure creation could help.

'Pendency of court cases is three crore today and this is going to rise in coming years to 15 crore...This requires financial support, infrastructure and planning...Around 30-35 per cent pending cases could be easily resolved with use of IT,' he said during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha.

Noting that the government was a litigant in many cases, he said of the three crore pending cases, 18 per cent relate to Negotiation of Instruments (NI) Act like cheque bounce, 10 per cent are regarding disputes on motor vehicle claims and 5-7 per cent relating to Electricity Act.

Sibal said such cases accounting for 33-35 per cent of the all pending cases could be resolved with the use of IT.

He said 26 per cent of the pending cases are over five years old and 40 per cent are more than one year old.

Sibal said there was need for creating more infrastructure to deal with the pendency and added that there were plans to double the population to court ratio in the next five years from 10 lakh people to 15 courts now.