Nearly 62,000 Cases In High Court Stuck For Over 30 Years

New Delhi: Almost 62,000 cases are still pending in various high courts, which are dating back over 30 years. Notably, three cases have been awaiting resolution since 1952—two of which are in the Calcutta High Court and one in the Madras High Court. Additionally, there are four cases pending since 1954 and nine since 1955, an official data revealed. 

Across the high courts, there are approximately 58.59 lakh cases pending, comprising 42.64 lakh civil cases and 15.94 lakh criminal cases. The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) reports that nearly 2.45 lakh of these cases have been pending for 20 to 30 years.

President Murmu Calls For Change In ‘Culture of Adjournments’

Addressing the national conference of district judiciary here earlier this week, President Droupadi Murmu had called for a change in the "culture of adjournments'' in the judiciary.

She said long-standing pendency and backlog of cases is a big challenge before the judiciary.

"All stakeholders have to find a solution by giving priority to this problem," she said.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), nearly 2.45 lakh cases are pending in high courts which are 20 to 30 years old.

Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had also called for breaking the perception that Indian courts follow the "tareekh pe tareekh culture".

He said the law ministry has analysed that there were cases pending since five, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years.

He said an analysis of pending cases mentioned on the NJDG shows that parties involved in litigation are either not present or not interested in taking the case forward. He said 25 to 30 per cent of such cases can be closed in one go.

In this regard, some high courts have taken effective steps.

Referring to the concepts of 'ageing analysis' and 'clubbing of similar cases', he said these have helped settle pending cases in a time-bound manner.

More than five crore cases are pending in various courts, including district courts, high courts and the Supreme Court.

(With inputs from PTI)