Visakhapatnam: With more than 2.7 lakh pending cases, the Hyderabad High Court, which has jurisdiction over Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, ranked the fifth in the backlog of cases in the country.
In south India, the Hyderabad High Court is second only to the Madras HC, which reported 2.84 lakh pending cases. As per data with the government, over 38.7 lakh cases are pending in all the 24 high courts in the country and 62,657 cases were pending in the SC.
District and subordinate courts in AP and TS have reported a backlog of over 10.3 lakh cases. At the national level, around 2.7 crore cases are pending with district and subordinate cou-rts and it would take over a decade to clear all pending litigations.
Of the 2.7 crore pending cases in lower courts, 62.8 lakh (23.2 per cent) are on wait for more than five years. Similarly, 16 lakh out of the total 38.7 lakh pending cases in all the High Courts are pending for more than five years. In the SC, the number of cases pending for the last three years, stood at 27,184.
A senior judge said that they can issue warrants against accu-sed and thereafter it is the duty of the police to execute the warrant. “Sometimes, it takes time to arrest an accused on the run. It may take days to years, and as a result many cases are pending with courts,” he said.
Senior advocate and Forum of Legal Profe-ssionals president K. Muralidhar, however, feels that there were many reasons behind the pile up of cases in courts.
Absence of witnesses and accused (in case of more than one invol-ved in offences) for hearing in the courts is also adding to delay in dispensation of justice and to the workload, with the shortage of judicial staff being another reasons for pending cases.
