Justice is not to be delayed but that is precisely what is happening in our State and in the country at large. Entire Indian judiciary and the civil society in the country are seized of the question how quick and timely justice can be done to those who come with their cases and complaints to the courts of law. A host of remedial measures are suggested and implemented. But taking into account the bulk of pending cases which runs into lakh in or state, it seems rather unbelievable that any foolproof mechanism will be evolved that would bring justice to the affected people as early as possible.
According to statistics available to us from dependable sources the number of pendency cases in the State is about 2.20 lakh both criminal and civil. Obviously, the number of courts and judges to handle this huge volume of work should have been commensurate with the number of pending cases which would have meant speedy justice to the seekers of their intervention of law courts. As per the official data provided to the Legislative Assembly by the Department of Law, a total of 62040 cases are pending in J&K High Court. Of these, 56112 are criminal and 5928 are civil cases. Similarly, a total of 160154 cases are pending in Subordinate Courts. Of these, 52036 are criminal and 108118 civil cases. A total of 11250 cases—9589 criminal and 1661 civil were instituted in the High Court with effect from April 1, 2017 to December 1, 2017. Similarly 98896 cases—21788 criminal and 77108 civil were instituted in Subordinate Courts during this period. During this period, a total of 9603 cases—8137 criminal and 1466 civil were disposed of by the High Court while as a total of 78496 cases-22050 criminal and 56446 civil cases were disposed of by the Subordinate Courts.
It is true that J&K will not be singled out for such big backlog of court cases. This is perhaps the situation in most of the States in the country. Consequently, this issue should be seen from national point of view of which the states form only part. Consequently, a solution to the problem has to be looked from national perspective in the first place. As regards J&K, and for that matter the entire country, the main hindrance in speedy disposal of court cases is owing to shortage of judges who would hear and decide the cases as placed before them. The irony is that on the one hand pending cases are accumulating day in and day out and on the other hand the Government in unable to fill the vacant posts of judges from the High Court down to the District courts and to the level of Munsiffs. According to the data, the sanctioned strength of High Court Judges including Chief Justice is 17 but at present the working strength is 11 and 6 posts have been lying vacant since long. Similarly, the sanctioned strength of District Judges is 75 and at present 11 posts are lying vacant. At the level of Sub-Judges and Munsiffs 18 posts have been lying vacant. The sanctioned strength of Sub-Judges is 71 but the present working strength is 68. Similarly, the sanctioned strength of Munsiffs is 107 and the working strength is 92. Evidently, the deficit in manpower is adversely affecting reduction of pending cases in the High Court and Subordinate Courts in the State. Though Lok Adalats functioning something like supplementary to the judicial establishment are also helping in disposing of many cases yet the bulk of pending cases remains where it is. Lok Adalats are being held after regular intervals. As per the data, 267 Lok Adalats were organized by State Legal Services Authority in 2017-18 in which 82281 cases were settled.
The point is that several suggestions have been accepted and implemented to reduce pendency in the High Court and Subordinate Courts. Some vacancies of judges have been filled but the entire process is so slow and lengthy that there appears no immediate hope of any significant reduction in the numbers of pending cases. It is not good for the society and even the judges know. They are helpless. Legislative Assembly has been told that the Government has no plans of opening new courts. What is needed is that the vacant posts of judges in the High Court and in Subordinate Courts should be filled up immediately through the recognized process so that with more manpower more cases would be disposed off in shorter period of time. A fault prevalent in the investigation of criminal cases by the police is that there is also shortfall in manpower with the investigating agencies and besides there are no modern gadget of information gathering available with the investigating agencies. Unless conditions improve at that level, there can be no quick results at the higher levels of investigation. Thus, we find that the entire judicial system is complicated and multi-layered. It is necessary for the authorities to take a holistic view of the prevailing situation and with due consultations with judicial high-up a strategy is evolved that would make it possible to reduce pendency.
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