Punjab and Haryana HC faces 4.32 lakh pending cases, 40% judge shortage

The Punjab and Haryana High Court will reopen next week after a short winter break, with the wait for justice stretching up to nearly four decades in some cases.

Among the pending matters are five regular second appeals filed in 1986, along with “thousands” of others filed subsequently. In total, a staggering 48,386 second appeals are still pending.

The high court currently has as many as 4, 32,227 pending cases—just about 8,843 fewer than last year despite concerted efforts to deal with the “legacy” matters.

Of these, 2, 68,279 are civil matters and 1, 63,948 are criminal cases, directly impacting life and liberty. Alarmingly, nearly 85 per cent of these cases have remained unresolved for over a year.

A 40 per cent shortage of judges continues to exacerbate the problem. The high court currently has 51 Judges against the sanctioned strength of 85. No less than three Judges are retiring this year upon attaining the age of superannuation.

Though the high court collegium is in the process of recommending the names of nine district and sessions Judges from Punjab and Haryana for elevation, the process is likely to take time.

The system of appointing high court judges is lengthy and time consuming. Once cleared by the states and the governors after recommendation by the high court collegium, the file containing the names with intelligence bureau reports is placed before the Supreme Court collegium when it meets.

The names cleared for elevation are then sent to the Union Law Ministry before their warrants of appointment are signed by the President. The entire exercise can take several months, if not taken up on priority basis.

National Judicial Data Grid — the monitoring tool to identify, manage and reduce pendency — reveals that 65,165 pending cases or 15 per cent of the total fall in the category of less than one year. Another 76,433 cases, or 18 per cent, have been awaiting adjudication for one to three years.

Available information suggests 34,653 cases, accounting for eight per cent, have been pending for three to five years, while 1, 29,122 cases or 30 per cent remain unresolved for five to ten years. As many as 1, 26,854 cases or 29 per cent of the total have been pending for over a decade.

The last time judges were appointed was over a year ago. It is believed that the high court is currently in the process of considering the names of advocates for elevation to the Bench. However, the urgency to address the chronic shortage of judges has never been clearer, with the backlog continuing to grow and justice hanging in the balance.