When Justice Is Κeρt Pending

The Supreme Court has sought plans from six High Courts with the highest backlog of cases on how they propose to dispose them quickly. The oldest appeal is pending before the Allahabad HC and is 42 years old

-  Banshika Garg and India Legal Bureau

Focus/Pendency

JUSTICE delayed is justice denied. However, with over 4.5 crore cases pending across courts in the country, justice is not just delayed, but is often kept pending indefinitely.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, an online platform created under the eCourts Project for maintaining a database of orders, judgments and case details of district and subordinate courts and High Courts, there are over 1.6 million criminal cases pending across High Courts in the country.

Recently, the apex court expressed resentment over the huge backlog of criminal appeals in some High Courts for over four decades, and sought an action plan to tackle pendency. A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai was dealing with the bail application of Khursheed Ahmad, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in relation to a murder case.

The appeal challenging the said order was pending before the Allahabad High Court for a considerable period of time and as there appeared no likelihood of it being heard in the near future, Ahmad approached the apex court seeking release on bail. By this time, he had already undergone three years' imprisonment.

During the hearing, the top court was told that the Madhya Pradesh High Court was seized of criminal appeals which were as old as two to three decades, while the oldest appeal pending before the Allahabad High Court dates back to 1980.

That means 42 years! The trial would have taken four to five years. So, the person who has committed an offence in the 1970s at the age of 30-40 years, would be 80-90 years now, Justice Rao orally remarked. The Court was also informed that in the Allahabad High Court, over 27,000 appeals were pending from 1980 to 2020.