2 crore cases pending across district courts

New Delhi, February 9

More than two crore cases are pending in the country’s lower judiciary, out of which more than 10 per cent have remained unsettled for over 10 years, latest Law Ministry data says.

As per available data on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) website as on December 31, 2015, there are a total of 2,00,60,998 cases pending across the district courts in different states.

Of these, 83,00,462 or 41.38 per cent cases are pending for less than two years. At the same time, 21,72,411 or 10.83 per cent cases are pending for over 10 years, a note prepared by the Department of Justice for a high-level meeting on Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms says. The meeting will be held next week.

While referring to the data available on NJDG website, the note clarifies that it does not cover all courts across the country, therefore, the Department of Justice periodically collects the data on pendency of cases from the 24 high courts and the Supreme Court.

The data states that 36,30,282 or 18.1 per cent of the cases are pending for the past 5-10 years. The number of cases pending between 2 and 5 years stands at 59,83,862 or 29.83 per cent of the total cases.

In a written reply, Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda had informed the Lok Sabha in December that the subordinate courts settled 1,9019,658 cases in 2014. He had said the 24 high courts disposed of 17,34,542 cases in 2014. — PTI