{"id":37353,"date":"2025-02-14T18:42:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=37353"},"modified":"2025-08-20T11:56:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:26:45","slug":"pendency-of-cases-indian-judiciary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-02-2025\/pendency-of-cases-indian-judiciary","title":{"rendered":"Issue of Pendency of Cases in Indian Judiciary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court permitted <strong>High Courts to appoint retired judges on an ad-hoc basis<\/strong> to address the mounting backlog of cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court first endorsed the appointment of ad-hoc judges in its <strong>2021 ruling in Lok Prahari v. Union of India<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These judges were authorised to hear only criminal appeals as part of a bench led by a sitting judge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Backlog: <\/strong>As of January 2025, High Courts were burdened with a staggering backlog of 62 lakh cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"eaeeea\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #eaeeea;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"578\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Issue-of-Pendency-of-Cases-in-Indian-Judiciary.png\" alt=\"Issue-of-Pendency-of-Cases-in-Indian-Judiciary\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-37354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Issue-of-Pendency-of-Cases-in-Indian-Judiciary.png 578w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Issue-of-Pendency-of-Cases-in-Indian-Judiciary-300x102.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 578px) 100vw, 578px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>In 2021, the SC noted<\/strong> there have only been <strong>three recorded instances<\/strong> of ad hoc judges being appointed under Article 224A, calling it a \u201cdormant provision\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Related Constitutional Provisions&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Article 224A <\/strong>of the Indian Constitution allows the Chief Justice of a High Court to request retired HC judges to perform the duties of a judge again, with the permission of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/president-of-india\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/president-of-india\/\">President of India<\/a>.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Such appointees are entitled to allowances as determined by the President\u2019s order and have all the jurisdiction, powers and privileges of a Judge of that High Court.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lok Prahari v Union of India (2021):<\/strong> SC held that ad hoc judges can only be appointed when recommendations have not been made for less than 20% of the vacancies, after considering both the number of active judges and pending proposals for judge appointments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reasons for the Backlog of Cases in Indian Judiciary<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Insufficient Judges: <\/strong>India has one of the lowest judge-to-population ratios globally.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Increased Litigation:<\/strong> The growing number of litigants and cases, coupled with the increasing population and socio-economic complexities, contributes to the rise in the number of cases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Delays in the Justice System:<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>There are delays due to procedural inefficiencies, adjournments, and delays in filing of evidence, which further prolong case resolutions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lack of Infrastructure:<\/strong> Many courts, especially in rural areas, are under-equipped and under-staffed, making it difficult to handle the growing number of cases efficiently.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bureaucratic and Administrative Challenges: <\/strong>The judicial process can sometimes be slowed down by inefficiencies in the system, including paperwork, administrative delays, and a lack of modernization in court processes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How does it impact?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Delay in Justice: <\/strong>The backlog results in long delays in cases, and justice is often delayed for years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Increased No. of Undertrials:<\/strong> The number of undertrials (accused awaiting trial) in prisons has increased, prisons are running at an over-capacity of 114%.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Increased Costs: <\/strong>The delay in cases causes financial strain on the litigants and the government. It can also result in the erosion of public confidence in the judicial system.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Overburdened Judges:<\/strong> Judges are often overburdened with cases, leading to burnout and further delays.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Efforts to Address the Issue<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Judicial Reforms: <\/strong>It includes increasing the number of judges, modernizing court infrastructure, and implementing e-courts and technology to speed up hearings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR):<\/strong> ADR mechanisms like arbitration, mediation, and conciliation are being promoted to resolve disputes outside of the traditional court system.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>E-Courts and Technology:<\/strong> The E-Courts Project has been an important initiative to digitize court proceedings and allow online hearings. This helps in streamlining case management and reducing physical backlogs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fast Track Courts:<\/strong> Special courts or fast-track courts have been set up to handle specific types of cases like corruption, crimes against women, and long-pending cases to expedite the process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-law\/supreme-court-ad-ho-judge-appointment-need-9795039\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court permitted High Courts to appoint retired judges on an ad-hoc basis to address the mounting backlog of cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51687,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37353\/revisions\/51687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}