pendency

Allahbad high court, which is the country’s biggest court in terms of judge-posts (160), leads the way in case-pendency. Out of the 43 lakh cases pending in India’s high courts, 10 lakh are in Allahbad alone. Madras with 4.6 lakh, Bombay with 3.6 lakh and Calcutta with 3.4 lakh follow Allahbad.

Of the 160 judge-posts in Allahbad HC, 75 lie vacant, while 28 out of the 85 sitting judges are only additional judges.

21 high courts across the country recommend names of judges to be appointed, and the Supreme Court collegium finally decides whether those names can be sent to the government for appointment.

The collegium headed by the recently retired chief justice of India SH Kapadia rejected seven of 15 names recommended this year for Allahbad HC, before his retirement on 28 September. [HT]

After he retires as Chief Justice of India (CJI) today, Sarosh Homi Kapadia will leave a legacy that will be both defined and shrouded by his circumstances.

Exclusive: Over the summer holidays the cases pending at the Supreme Court has shot up by around 3,000 cases, with 2,000 pending cases added in the month of July alone when just over 500 cases were disposed of – a record since the start of Legally India’s Pendency Project in May 2011. It’s not looking good.

When Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia started his term in May 2010 it was widely reported that he didn’t take the traditional May-June court vacation but worked through it, aiming to look at ways of reducing the time it takes to hear cases and making the Supreme Court administration more efficient.

The pendency of cases at the Supreme Court of India is within a whisker of 60,000 – a new record - after rising by more than 700 cases in March 2012.

Mint-LI: The number of pending cases at India’s debt recovery tribunals (DRT) has increased by almost 70% in about a year, with the economic slowdown affecting the repaying capacity of borrowers and thus worsening the asset quality of banks.

Pendency at the Supreme Court of India has crossed 59,000 cases for the first time ever, with numbers up 8 per cent on May 2011 figures, two judges having already retired this year to date and four more due to leave.

As expected after the winter court holidays, 2011’s Supreme Court case pendency closed with a spike, which could prove to be the final nail in the coffin of the project to reduce pending cases by the end of this financial year.

Legally India’s Pendency Project has made its debut in Mint today, after pending Supreme Court cases in November 2011 reached the highest number ever after increasing by more than 800.

Mint has summarised the revolutionary case pendency stats prepared by the Supreme Court in a concise chart, while Legally India asked two academics researching case pendency for comment on Kapadia’s Law Day speech and the new figures.

The Supreme Court saw the backlog of cases increase by another 80 in a slow holiday-ridden October where almost 3,000 fewer cases were filed than in the previous month. However, in more positive news the apex court has managed to continue its now four-month record of getting cases older than one year off its books.

Bad news: in September 2011 the Supreme Court booked an apparent net deficit of more than 1,000 cases in its monthly pendency clearance efforts. If this rate were kept up, pending cases could double in less than five years.

Click on through for a detailed analysis of the Supreme Court’s performance in clearing its backlog in August 2011.

Exclusive: Click through for more stats, data and an explanation of The Pendency Project.

- 57,179 cases pending in SC as of 30 June; on 1 May 2011 only 54,547 cases were pending. [Supreme Court / PIB]

- Law ministry to examine deal for Mukesh Ambani Mumbai residential tower, may get referred to CBI [Mint] (via @SonyBhatt)

- Bail denied to three company promoters in CWG scam [ET]

- Men in Black ‘Follow the Money’ as CJI Kapadia battles fight against graft [Bloomberg]

- Court summons Shilpa Shetty, Richard Gere for lip-kiss in 2007 TV show on AIDS: indecent act and crime under IPC hurts Bhojpuri community [TOI]

The Mega Lok Adalat organised by the Delhi Legal Services Authority and the Delhi High Court yesterday has set a new record by disposing of one lakh cases, including 1,042 MACT (Motor Accident Claims Tribunal) claims, 90,000 traffic challans and 15,000 disputes related to recovery, injunctions, rent, cheque bouncing the Times of India reported.

The Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) has enlisted 200 judges to work this Sunday and resolve over 30,000 civil and criminal compoundable cases in a “Mega Lok Adalat” in a bid to reduce the increasing backlog of cases.