Pendency of cases in courts coming down, says Gowda

Maintaining that pendency of cases in courts was coming down, Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today said the government is working with judiciary to address pendencies by increasing the number of judicial officers and providing better infrastructure.
As some members raised concern over rising pendency, the Law and Justice Minister told the Lok Sabha said he could not agree with them saying the number of cases being filed were on the rise.
As many as 61,081 cases were pending in the Supreme Court as on April 1, while the number of cases in High Courts stood at 41.53 lakh at the end of December 2014.

During Question Hour, Gowda said disposal of pending cases in courts was within the domain of judiciary. "The government has adopted a coordinated approach to assist judiciary for phased liquidation of arrears and pendency in judicial systems," he said.
Such measures include better infrastructure for courts including computerisation, increase in strength of judicial officers/judges, policy and legislative measures in the areas prone to excessive litigation and emphasis on human resource development, the Minister said.
Gowda said main factors for pendency of cases include increasing number of state and central legislations, accumulation of first appeals and indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction.

Other factors were continuation of ordinary civil jurisdiction in some High Courts, vacancies of judges, appeals against orders of quasi-judicial forums going to High Courts, number of revision/appeals, frequent adjournments, lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing, he said.