The Supreme Court Bar Association on Friday (29 April 2022) organized a reception in honor of the Chief Justices of the High Court. Members of the Bar including CJI N V Ramana, Justice U U Lalit, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Law Minister, Kiren Rijiju, Attorney General KK Venugopal, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta were present at the event. During this, Attorney General KK Venugopal urged all the judges to find ways to cut down the pending cases as well as reduce the pending cases in the courts.
Addressing the gathering, especially the Chief Justices of the High Courts, Attorney General KK Venugopal spoke about the hurdles in the delivery of justice and the increasing pendency of cases at all levels of the judiciary. Referring to the data of the National Judicial Data Grid, the Attorney General said that there are 24 thousand posts of judges in the trial court, out of which 5000 posts are vacant.
4 crore cases pending in trial court: Along with this, KK Venugopal told that 42 lakh civil cases and 16 lakh criminal cases are pending in the High Court. He said that there are 24,000 judges in the trial court and similarly there are about 650 judges in the high court and 4 crore cases are pending in the trial court. The Attorney General said it would be difficult for the public to have faith in the judiciary due to the 30 years pending in the trial court and about 10-15 years in the high court.
Together we have to find the solution: Talking about this, the Attorney General said, “The time has come for lawyers, judges and the state to come together to see what is possible. 75 per cent of the undertrials are in custody and most of whom are poor, and do not have the means. Something has to be done.” He said that both the executive and the judiciary have to find a solution to the issue of pendency which affects the delivery of justice at the right time.
Agreeing with the points raised by the Attorney General, CJI Ramanna said, “I fully support the concerns expressed by the AG. Tomorrow I will tell why these issues are pending in the judiciary.