As per the statistics presented by Union minister of law and justice D V Sadananda Gowda in the Parliament, the Rajasthan High Court had 3,07,640 cases pending before it in 2013. While 2,92,551 cases were carried forward from 2012, the rest 5,089 cases were added up in that year. In 2011, the pendency was 2,81,306 cases.
Lack of judges, frequent strikes by lawyers and noncategorization of cases have been attributed for massive backlogs of cases in courts.
Only Allahabad, Bombay and Madras High Courts have more backlogs than Rajasthan. The minister told the House that to reduce the pendency, Chief Justice of India has given in-principle concurrence to the recommendation to increase sanctioned strength of high courts by 25 per cent of current strength.
The Rajasthan government, one of the biggest litigants, claims to be working out on mechanisms to reduce pendency in the high court. All cases of similar nature will be applied for hearing in a 'bunch'. The departments will specifically mark such cases so that government appointed lawyers can take up all these cases in a single hearing and can be resolved immediately.
"The most pertinent reason for pendency is inadequate judge strength.We are concerned with prolonged trials that leads to pendency. The government is committed to resolve arrears and expedite the process of trials in which government is a party," said NM Lodha, advocate general, Rajasthan.
The law practitioners however points out that lack of judge strength is just an excuse and the real problem is inefficiency of system. "We have a judicial system which is non-functioning. There is hardly any categorization of cases and time is being consumed for unnecessary disposal of cases," said AK Jain, advocate, Rajasthan High Court.
Meanwhile, feeling pressure with piling of cases and burden on exchequer, the finance department has also issued a notice to all department heads to take prompt action on litigations. It has instructed officials to review court judgments in-depth with legal experts and cases where opinion emerges that the government cannot make an appeal, then the court orders should be strictly followed.
Adding more accountability on officers concerned, for any delay in court matters, the finance department asked them to cite reasons for each day the case was held up with them.
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