Pendency of court cases in India is the delay in the disposal of cases (lawsuits) to provide justice to the aggrieved person or organisation by judicial courts at all levels. The judiciary in India works in hierarchy at three levels - federal or supreme court, state or high courts, and district courts.[1] The court cases is categorised into two types - civil and criminal. In 2024, the total number of pending cases of all types and at all levels rose above 51 million or 5.1 crores, including over 169,000 court cases pending for more than 30 years in district and high courts.[2][3][4] 4.5 crore out of 5.1 crore cases, i.e more than 87% cases are pending in district courts as of 2024.[2] Government itself is the biggest litigant having 50% of the pending cases being sponsored by the state.[5][6] Land and property disputes account for the largest set of pending cases. About 66% of all civil cases in India are related to land and property disputes; and 25% of all cases decided by the Supreme Court involve land disputes.[7]
India has the largest number of pending court cases in the world.[8] Many judges and government officials have said that the pendency of cases is the biggest challenge before Indian judiciary.[9] According to a 2018 Niti Aayog strategy paper, at the then-prevailing rate of disposal of cases in the courts, it would take more than 324 years to clear the backlog.[10] At that time in 2018, the pending cases stood at 29 million. With the cases taking time in courts, it leads to delays in the delivery of justice for both victim and accused. In April 2022, a court in Bihar state acquitted a man of murder for lack of evidence after he spent 28 years in jail.[11]
Pendency of cases cost 1.5%-2% of India's GDP.[12] Rule of Law Index 2023, a country ranking published by the World Justice Project, ranked India at 111 out of 142 countries in the civil justice, and 93 out of 142 countries in the criminal justice.[13] U.S News & World Report ranked India at 60 out of 87 countries with "Well-developed legal frameworks".[14]
^"Department of Justice | India". Retrieved 2022-11-09.
^ ab"Welcome to NJDG - National Judicial Data Grid". njdg.ecourts.gov.in. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
^"Welcome to NJDG - National Judicial Data Grid for High Courts of India". njdg.ecourts.gov.in. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
^"Justice delayed: Over 1 lakh cases in lower courts more than 30 years old". India Today. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
^"Half of judiciary's problems due to state-sponsored litigation: NV Ramana". www.business-standard.com. Press Trust of India. 2022-09-24. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
^"CJI terms govts as biggest litigants, says docket explosion due to executive, legislature". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
^"Understanding Land Conflict in India and Suggestions for Reform". CPR. 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
^"India has world's largest backlog of court cases: PM". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
^"Pendency of court cases 'huge challenge': Chief Justice N. V. Ramana". The Hindu. 2022-08-26. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
^"44 million pending court cases: How did we get here?". Moneycontrol. 5 December 2021. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
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