Even nil vacancies won’t cut backlog: Report

A study ordered by the Supreme Court shows that more judges in the High Courts, or even filling all the vacancies in them, does not necessarily end pendency. The study was conducted by the National Court Management Systems Committee (NCMSC).

Background:

The two-year study was commissioned by the court through an order dated August 20, 2014 while hearing Imtiyaz Ahmad versus State of Uttar Pradesh.

• The court had directed the committee to study the recommendations made by the Law Commission of India on pendency and the relation between backlog and judges’ strength.

Highlights of the study:

The study notes that not a single High Court has been able to eliminate backlog even when vacancies are non-existent or very low (say zero to 20%).

• The study also questions Chief Justice Thakur’s recent observation that 70,000 judges are required to clear pendency.


• The committee says blindly increasing judicial strength with the sole aim to hike the rate of disposal of cases and avoid backlog was skewed logic. In fact, it said, avoiding backlog seems to be the “central and sole objective” of having more judges in the High Courts.
• According to the study, the current method of calculating judges’ strength in High Courts is not scientific or robust, nor has it produced desired results of pendency resolution.
• The report calls for a long-term scientific method to assess the number of judges required in a court. It said judges’ strength should be augmented after calculating the judicial hours required to hear and dispose of cases on the basis of their individual nature and complexity.

Background:

Effective judicial strength has not expanded adequately to meet the rising inflow of cases in the country. In the last five years, the number of new cases filed in the High Courts of India has increased by 24% and pendency by 32%. Yet, effective judge strength has increased only by 8.5%.

• Only 49 judges have been added to the effective strength of High Courts in five years in the whole country to deal with 3.72 lakh additional new cases — this means an average of 7,591 cases per new judge — and 7.2 lakh additional pendency at the rate of 14,693 cases per new judge.