New Delhi: In a reflection of the slow pace of justice delivery in India, a study has found that it takes more than three years on an average before a case is disposed of in the high courts.
The study conducted by Bengaluru-based NGO Daksh on 21 high courts has found the average pendency of a case in the Allahabad HC is over three-and-half years or 1,337 days, topping the chart. It is followed by Bombay HC which has 1,245 days of average pendency of a case.
The Gujarat HC comes third, taking 1,186 days for a case to be disposed of, followed by Patna (1,073), Karnataka (982) and Delhi (959). The Sikkim HC has the lowest average pendency of 281 days, also for the fact that the state has one of the lowest number of cases registered. The oldest case yet to be disposed of is of January 1, 1958, The Times of India reported.
“The study has also reviewed 17 lakh cases in 417 district courts, the oldest case being of November 22, 1931. In the district courts, the average pendency has been more than five years or 1,953 days as compared to 1,128 days in HCs,” said Kishore Mandyam, co-founder of Daksh. The database of number of cases used to arrive at the average pendency days of a case has been almost similar for both district and high courts.
The NGO, which is collaborating with the law ministry to analyse its data, has reviewed 18 lakh cases and 59.60 lakh appearances/hearings from 21 HCs.
According to the study, besides Sikkim, the HCs that have faster disposal records include Uttarakhand, Goa, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Kerala, in that order. Though law minister Sadananda Gowda had last year written to all chief justices of HCs for compiling an annual report listing performances of their courts — pendency of cases, disposal rates, etc. — and put the same on their websites for public scrutiny, barring HCs of Delhi, Himachal, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madras and Tripura, none had responded to the government’s request