Skip to main content

State of courts in Gujarat: One of the highest pending cases, highest vacancies in district, subordinate courts

 
A recent analysis by a non-profit institute, IndiaSpend, has suggested that Gujarat has one of the highest number of pending cases in the district and subordinate courts. With 2,251,122 pending cases, Gujarat's pending cases are higher than all other states except for Uttar Pradesh (5,714,695), Maharashtra 2,937,846, and West Bengal (2,583,685). The figures are as of April 1, 2014.
Alongside the pending cases, the analysis says, Gujarat has the highest number of vacancies of judges in its lower courts compared all other states -- 728. It comments, India needs "more judges", pointing out, "India has 15 judges for every million people, one of the world’s lowest ratios."
Titled "Indians Under Trial Exceed Dutch Population", carried out by policy researcher with IndiaSpend, Prachi Salve, with the help of two other researchers, Aadya Sharma and Pratiksha Wadekar, the analysis says, "For the 13 years the Salman Khan hit-and-run case was in trial, it was one of 18.5 million criminal cases pending in India’s district and lower courts, and the 50-year-old Bollywood star was one of 22.2 million people under trial."
"Driven by a shortage of prosecutors, judges and courts and — among other reasons — slow procedures, there are more people under trial in India than there are people in the Netherlands or Kazakhstan", the analysis points out. 
Pointing out that in 2013, the cases of as many as 85 per cent of people put on trial were pending, quoting according to the data obtained from the Supreme Court sources, the researchers say, as on April 1, 2014, 75.9 per cent cases are pending in the Supreme Court, followed by 90.2 per cent in High Courts, and 86.3 per cent cases in district and subordinate cases.
"Criminal cases form 19 per cent of the Supreme Court’s pending cases and 25 per cent of the settled cases", the researchers, who base their analysis on Supreme Court data as well, say. "In high courts, 23 per cent of pending cases (a million of them) are criminal cases, while 6.9% of those settled are criminal cases." 
But things get worse in in district and subordinate courts, where "67 per cent of pending cases are criminal."
"New cases flood in, and together with the backlog, they outnumber settled cases and increase the caseload. For instance, in the first quarter of 2014, the Supreme Court had 5,466 new criminal cases and 12,211 cases carried over from the previous year, but only 5,267 of those cases were settled", the researchers point out.
They conclude, "Delays tend to be higher in lower courts and correspond with the number of judicial vacancies. High courts with the most pending cases are also those with the most vacancies, the data show."

Comments

TRENDING

Why predictions of an imminent collapse of the Russian economy may be wrong

A veteran Canadian journalist, settled in Russia, stated in a Facebook post that President Donald Trump "is apparently listening to experts who tell him that Russia's economy is on the verge of 'imploding,' and if he just squeezes a bit harder," his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "will fall into line."

Talking of increased corporate control over news, Rajdeep Sardesai 'evades' alternative media

When I received an intimation that well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was to speak at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on February 2, my instant reaction was: I know what he is going to say—his views are quite well known; he wouldn’t be saying anything new. Yet, I decided to go and listen to him to catch his mood at a time when the media, as he (and I) knew it, is changing fast due to the availability of new technological tools that were not accessible even a decade ago.

DeepSeek censors uncomfortable queries on China, but why's Gemini so touchy on India?

The powerful Chinese AI app DeepSeek, which has taken the Silicon Valley by surprise, as it has capacities matching Google’s Gemini and Open AI's ChatGPT, is being criticised for restricting free speech, and rightly so. It is being said that those signing up for the chatbot and its open-source technology "are being confronted with the Chinese Communist Party’s brand of censorship and information control."

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

Gujarat's water anarchy? 16.7% of Narmada water going to industry, 33% of targeted area irrigated: Govt insider

The Narmada project is something that has always excited me, including how much water will be distributed and to which sector. A few days ago, when I was talking to a top Gujarat government insider, I was a little surprised when I was told that it is up to the “respective states to decide how much Narmada water they would distribute among various sectors” out of the total quota allocated to the four states—Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan—as per the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award of 1979.

Russians at a Bali yoga camp to avoid drafting for war? Things aren't any different in Ukraine

Are people in Russia becoming frustrated with the prolonged war in Ukraine? And is the war having a similar impact on the people of Ukraine? I have no firsthand information about this, but it is well known how nationalist hysteria often seeks to conceal such frustration, particularly among the youth.

I'm flattered: A New York media house claims I was a KGB agent! Wow, I didn't know that

I was astonished, let me say pleasantly surprised, on receiving a comment by Rich TVX News  on my blog   "Why predictions of an imminent collapse of the Russian economy may be wrong" (January 28).  I don't know who wrote the strange comment from this "media house", which is based in New York, and claims to "hold sway not only among the masses but also within global corridors of power, influencing esteemed politicians and shaping international diplomacy, especially evident during pivotal events like the ongoing crisis in Ukraine."

A shocker for parents? Rush for 'prestigious' varsity degrees to reduce; instead, industry may prefer skills

Recently, I had a conversation with a senior researcher working on a project for a consumer goods multinational corporation (MNC) at one of the top institutes abroad. Insightful and articulate, he holds a PhD from a prestigious university and has a remarkable ability to analyze social dynamics. I am withholding his name because our discussion took place informally during a friend’s lunchtime gathering.