94,000 cases pending for more than 20 years in 25 high courts

NEW DELHI: There are 94,000 cases pending for more than 20 years in 25 high courts in the country, of which, the Allahabad High Court accounts for 47%, or 44,000 cases. The country’s largest HC is functioning at 63% of its sanctioned strength of 160 judges —a key reason besides lack of administrative reforms in courts that has stymied the justice delivery system.
Though the matter of long delays in hearing of bail applications in criminal cases in the Allahabad HC came up before the apex court on Monday, the situation is more or less similar in other HCs.Since January this year, the total vacancies in 25 HCs have gone up by 32, according to the Union law ministry. As on November 1, there are 40% judges post vacant in these high courts on a sanctioned strength of 1,079 judges. The five other HCs grappling with long pendency of over 20-year-old cases include the HCs of Bombay, Rajasthan, Madras, Patna and Orissa. Together these six high courts have 82,746 cases pending for more than two decades, accounting for 88% of all such pendency.
In the Allahabad HC, twice in the past few years, the HC collegium had recommended 33 advocates for their elevation as judges. However, in both instances the SC collegium withheld or rejected 50% of the recommendations amid allegations of nepotism and ineligibility pointed out by the Union law ministry.
Currently, there are at least 13 recommendations from the SC collegium for appointment as judges of the Allahabad HC pending with the government, of which at least 10 do not meet the minimum income criteria. To become an HC judge, an advocate must have an average net professional annual income of at least Rs 7 lakh in the preceding five years before he is recommended by the HC collegium.
However, it has been found that three recommended candidates have reported an average annual income of around Rs 4-4.5 lakh, while others have an average annual income of less than Rs 7 lakh, thus making them ineligible, according to sources. To a large extent, the apex court collegium has failed to adhere to its own eligibility guidelines set for elevation as a HC judge when last year it diluted the income criteria for a select few while on a similar ground it had earlier rejected candidature of several recommendations made by some other HCs.
There are 44.62 lakh cases pending in 25 HCs across the country, again the highest in the Allahabad HC where the pendency is at an all-time high of 7.31 lakh cases. The long list of pendency of court cases is rising as the subordinate courts are grappling with similar problem—more than 5,000 vacancies of judges and over 3.13 crore cases pending, 3.68 lakh cases for more than two decades. Though the SC is currently functioning at its full strength, it has 59,600 cases pending disposal.