Cases accumulating due to shortage of judges: Justice Agarwal

A senior judge of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Sudhir Agarwal today said that shortage of judges is the reason behind accumulation of cases in high courts and district courts.

Out of the sanctioned strength of 160 judges in the Allahabad High Court only 106 judges were working, he said, adding that many of them would retire in coming months reducing the strength to below 100.

Justice Agarwal, who has been appointed by the Supreme Court as chairman of the arrears committee, told PTI that the Allahabad High Court has over 9 lakh pending cases, whereas the district courts have over 63 lakh pending cases.

"Over three lakh cases are filed every year in the Allahabad High Court", the judge said.

The apex court had constituted the arrear committee to work out ways to reduce the pendency and impart speedy justice to the suffering people.

"Other members of the committee include Justice RD Khare and Ramesh Sinha", he added.