Pendency is not due to less judges: Law Ministry

New Delhi: Contrary to common perception, the shortage of judges is not the “sole reason” for increasing pendency of cases, Union law and justice ministry has said citing data of states like Delhi and Gujarat which are struggling to dispose of cases despite a higher judge-population ratio.

The law ministry said, quoting experts, that a variety of factors contribute to delay in disposal of court cases which include, lack of court management systems, frequent adjournments, strikes by lawyers, accumulation of first appeals, indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing.

The data reveals that states with a higher judge-population ratio such as Delhi (ranked 2 in terms of the judge-population ratio) and Gujarat (ranked 5 in terms of the judge population ratio) are still struggling to dispose of the pending cases.

“Conversely, states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab which are ranked lower in terms of judge-population ratio have comparatively lesser number of pending cases,” the ministry report said.