5.15 crore cases pending in courts: Govt

New Delhi, Dec 12 There are 5.15 crore cases pending in various Indian courts, including the Supreme Court, High Courts and District and Subordinate Courts, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha that there are 82,171 pending cases in the Supreme Court, as per information available on National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) till November 30.

He said the number of pending cases in High Courts is 57.82 lakh and in District and Subordinate Courts, it is 4.56 crore.

MoS Meghwal said the pendency of cases in courts can be attributed to several factors, which include the availability of physical infrastructure and supporting court staff, the complexity of facts involved, the nature of evidence, cooperation of stakeholders like bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures.

"Other factors that lead to delay in disposal of cases include lack of prescribed timeframe by respective courts for disposal of various kinds of cases, frequent adjournments and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing," the MoS said.

The MoS told the House that based on the population as per the Census 2011, which was 1210.19 million, and as per available information regarding the sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court, High Courts and District and Subordinate Courts in the year 2024, the judge-population ratio in the country works out to be approximately 21 judges per million population.

Giving details of the appointment of judges in High Courts, MoS Meghwal said: "In 2024, the number of fresh appointments was 34, in 2023 it was 110, in 2022 it was 165, in 2021 it was 120, in 2020 it was 66 and 2019 it was 81."

"The number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court in 2024 was four, in 2023 it was 14, in 2022, it was three, in 2021, it was nine and in 2019, it was 10. There was no appointment in 2020," said the MoS.

Source: IANS