56,444 cases pending in Gauhati High Court

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: According to a Union Law Ministry report, the Gauhati High Court has 56,444 pending cases – around 45,000 civil and 11,000 criminal cases – till March 4, 2022.

Pending cases burn holes in the pockets of parties concerned, besides denying (delaying) justice. The strength of judges not being commensurate with the number of cases, daily registration of new cases exceeding the daily disposal of cases etc., are some of the reasons behind pending cases. The increase in business and trade increases the number of cases. Civil cases are mostly job and promotion-related ones filed against various departments. The Union of India is a party to 10,949 of the 56,444 pending cases in the Gauhati High Court.

Expressing concern over the number of pending cases, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju recently said, "In the UK, a judge disposes of three to four cases a day. In India, a judge presides over 40-50 cases daily on average."

Pending cases, Rijiju said, are not because of deficiencies in the delivery of justice or lack of support from the government. "If the authorities concerned do not take some concrete steps, the number of pending cases is bound to increase," he said.

A legal expert said, "The sanctioned judges' strength of the Gauhati High Court is 24, including the Chief Justice and six additional judges. It is high time the authority concerned increased the number of judges, besides updating the legal infrastructure. The hearings of several thousand cases have been going on for over five years. When the hearing of a case lingers, the parties concerned have to spend more money. The problem of pending cases in district and lower courts is even more intense due to shortage of judges, staff and infrastructure."

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