Plea filed in SC to reduce pendency of cases

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Ministry of Law to take appropriate steps to reduce the pendency of cases from 15 to 3 years.

The petition, filed by Supreme Court lawyer and Delhi unit's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Spokesperson, Ashwini Upadhyay, claimed that the Apex Court should pass a direction to the Secretary-General to plan an Annual Calendar in a way so that the Courts function at least 225 days per year and 6 hours per day as suggested by the Law Commission Report.

The 112-page petition, a copy accessed by ANI, further pleaded for take appropriate steps for setting-up Division Benches at District Level and pass such other order as this Court may deem fit and proper to reduce the pendency of cases and minimize the probability of Procedural / Judicial error and allow the cost of the petition to petitioner.

It is immediately unclear as to when the petition would come up for hearing before the Apex court. But sources in the Supreme Court registry said the petition may come up for hearing in July.

The petition also stated that the paramount purpose of the speedy trial is to safeguard the innocent from undue punishments but prolonged pendency has created unaccountable barriers in this regard. Huge numbers of cases are pending for years together, which create mental and economic pressures on the litigants.

The Indian Judiciary would take 320 years to clear the backlog of about 31.28 million (approximately 3.3 crores) cases pending in various courts in India. The reason for the backlog of cases pending is inadequate judge strength which is 13.05 judges per one million people, the petition further claimed.

The petition, filed by Upadhyay, sought a direction to the Ministry of Finance to allocate sufficient funds from National Resources or Consolidated Fund of India to meet the demands of State Judiciary in line with the recommendations of the National Commission to look into the issues of the judiciary, the petition further claimed.