Judicial backlog cause for concern

Hyderabad: Judicial backlog is a serious concern on the law and order front in both TS and AP.

More than one lakh cases booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) get stuck in the judiciary, awaiting trial in each state every year. The large number of cases moving to court each year, and the fewer number of judges, are the major reasons for the backlog. Cases from previous years had piled up in the courts as well, data from National Crime Records Bureau and state police reveals.

Apart from the huge number of cases booked under IPC sections, the courts also have to deal with cases booked under Special and Local Laws (SLL). Cases booked under the Arms Act, Gambling Act, NDPS Act etc. come under SLL. Courts in each state have close to 10,000 SLL cases pending at present.

Besides the staff crunch at courts, there are a few more reasons for the backlog.
In her academic paper published in Journal of Law, Policy and Globalisation, Vandana Ajay Kumar, a researcher from the department of Law, Punjab University, stated that frequent adjournment of cases on frivolous grounds and lack of a fixed time period for case disposal were two important reasons.

“Lawyers are known to take adjournments on frivolous grounds. With every adjournment, the process becomes costly for the court and for the litigants; but the lawyers get paid for their time and appearance. Another issue is that there is no time limit fixed either by any Act or Code within which the cases must be decided. Therefore the judges, lawyers and even the litigants take it for granted that there is no urgency to finish the case. The cases drag on for years together,” she stated.

Legal experts say that only when the quantum of cases coming to the courts is reduced by discouraging trivial litigations, the judicial backlog will be solved. Increasing number of judges will also solve the issue up to some extent.