Explained | The clogged state of the Indian judiciary 

Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana has once again called for measures to improve the judge-to-population ratio. At present, India has a sanctioned strength of 25,628 judges. This is when over 4.7 crore cases are pending in courts across the country.

The story so far: The judicial system in India is under tremendous pressure. As of May 2022, over 4.7 crore cases are pending in courts across different levels of the judiciary. Of them, 87.4% are pending in subordinate courts, 12.4% in High Courts, while nearly 1,82,000 cases have been pending for over 30 years. Amid the rising trend of litigation, more people and organisations are approaching courts. This spike, however, is not reflected in the number of judges available to hear these cases. Inadequate infrastructure has resulted in overburdened courts, which in turn has led to a massive backlog of cases.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N. V. Ramana’s recent remarks on pendency and vacancies in the judiciary at a joint conference of CMs and High Court Chief Justices have brought the focus back on the chronic problem of shortage of judges. Speaking at the event, the Chief Justice underlined the need to improve the judge-to-population ratio to reduce the workload of judges who he said are already disposing of an “unimaginable” number of cases. “Unless the foundation is strong, the structure cannot be sustained,” the CJI said and called for an urgent resolution of the issue of unfilled vacancies in the judicial system.

An analysis of data on the National Judicial Data Grid, a database of the Department of Justice, shows that courts saw an increase of over 27% in pendency between December 2019 and April 2022.

The Ministry of Law and Justice had earlier this year informed the Lok Sabha that 3.7 crore cases – 3.2 crore in subordinate courts and 46.8 lakh in High Courts – were pending in courts till December 2019. Disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic further clogged the Indian judicial system. There was a drop in new cases as courts went digital, but with lockdown restrictions in place, a slower disposal rate resulted in more pending cases. According to PRS Legislative Research, pending cases saw an increase of 20% in High Courts and 13% in subordinate courts during the pandemic period (2019 to 2020).

The latest data from the Department of Justice, meanwhile, reveals that the current cumulative number of 47 million (4.73 crore) pending cases is a result of a massive backlog of 4.14 crore cases in subordinate courts, 58.95 lakh in High Courts and over 70,000 cases in the Supreme Court. 

A look at pendency status across judicial levels: 

Subordinate courts: Subordinate courts, comprising district and lower courts, have a record backlog of 4,14,07,847 (4.14 crore) cases at present. This includes 3.05 crore criminal cases and 1.08 crore civil cases, the Department of Justice data shows. Over 1.1 lakh cases have been pending for more than 30 years in district and lower courts.