Besides the chief justices, the CJI has also invited two seniormost judges of each high court to be a part of ... Read More

(This story originally appeared in on Jul 23, 2018)

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has called for a meeting with chief justices and seniormost judges of all high courts this month to chalk out a roadmap for clearing the backlog of ailing cases in courts.

More than 100 judges are expected to participate in the two-day meeting slated for July 27 and 28. Two chief justices confirmed the development to ET.

Besides the chief justices, the CJI has also invited two seniormost judges of each high court to be a part of the meeting.

While the agenda of the meeting is being given final touches, the judges have been conveyed that the meeting will turn the spotlight on pending cases. Also, “modalities to dispose” of ailing cases will be deliberated upon, sources said.

“This is purely an internal administrative discussion to map out a plan to tackle the menace of pending cases,” said one of the chief justices cited earlier.

The other chief justice said this meeting is unlike the “annual” meeting attended by chief justices and chief ministers followed by the prime minister’s address. “For, Judges alone will be in attendance in these discussions,” said the chief justice requesting not to be named.

According to recent data, there is a backlog of nearly 3.3 crore cases of which almost 2.84 crore cases are hanging fire in the subordinate courts. Whereas the pendency in high courts is 43 lakh, in Supreme Court the number of cases pending is 57,987.

According to National Judicial Data grid, five states which account for the highest pendency are Uttar Pradesh (61.58 lakh), Maharashtra (33.22 lakh), West Bengal (17.59 lakh), Bihar (16.58 lakh) and Gujarat (16.45 lakh).

CJI Misra had last month written to all the high courts to put a framework in place whereby each high court “every month takes stock of cases filed and disposed” there as well as in subordinate courts. This was done after the Arrears Committee of the Supreme Court had underlined the alarming situation of pending cases in Indian courts.

