From Times of India E-paper.
Bengaluru : Courts in Karnataka had, as of 7pm Sunday, disposed of nearly 17 lakh cases in 2023, even as pendency continued to haunt them.
Analysis of the National Judicial Data Grid data shows that the high court disposed of 87,506 cases, while the lower courts across taluks and districts managed about 16 lakh cases. A majority of the cases disposed of — 14.7 lakh — had been filed in the past three years, while over 10,000 were older than 10 years.
With the increasing use of technology, the courts are expected to clear more cases in the coming year, as Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had said while addressing the state judiciary earlier in December 2023. Commending the Karnataka judiciary’s accomplishment of disposing of cases in 2023, Justice Chandrachud had encouraged judges to become more acquainted with technological tools.
Notwithstanding the efforts, separate data shows more than 22.3 lakh cases — nearly 2.9 lakh of them in the high court — are still pending.
Of these, 153 have been pending for more than 30 years, while a majority — 19.4 lakh — have been pending for only a year. Multiple experts TOI spoke with said a key concern is the judge-to-population ratio, which is about 21 per million in India, and a similar trend is seen across the states, including Karnataka.
“While India does have a huge population compared to other countries, there is nothing that stops the govern- ments from appointing more judges, which is not happening,” one of them said, adding that the sanctioned strength itself needs a relook and the situation on the ground is that not even the sanctioned posts are filled.
Another expert, while pointing out that case pendency is a complex subject which cannot be crystallized for a ready-made solution, said: “… The inception of disputes, resolution of the same, and delivery of justice have to be dealt with very carefully and should be subjective.”
Daksha Legal 