Over three crore cases are pending in High Courts and subordinate courts of the country, including more than 12 lakh cases in the Odisha courts.
According to official data, total 3,08,95,968 cases are pending in all the High Courts and subordinate courts in the country by December 2015, of which 12,33,492 cases are pending in the Orissa High Court and lower courts in the State.
Compared to Odisha, the numbers of cases are pending more in other States like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka than Odisha. While more than 41 lakh criminal cases are pending in Uttar Pradesh courts, around 20 lakh pending in Maharashtra, 18 lakh in Bihar, 15 lakh in Gujarat and 21 lakh in West Bengal, only over 8 lakh criminal cases are pending in Odisha courts.
Other States including Kerala and Madhya Pradesh also registered higher number of pending cases in their courts than Odisha.
A total of 1,69,453 cases including 1,30,748 civil and 38,705 criminal cases were sub-judice in the Orissa High Court by end of December last year. There were 10,64,039 cases including 2,63,879 civil and 8,00,160 criminal cases pending in the lower courts during the period. Total pending cases, more than 4.65 lakh, are five-year-old.
In Odisha, total pending cases, 65,007 civil and 16,455 criminal cases, are five-year-old in the high court, while 66,496 civil and 3,17,303 criminal cases are pending for the past five years in lower courts. “A total of 68,715 civil and 3,33,208 criminal cases have been registered in the lower courts of the State during the year 2015.
However, no data about cases filed by the State in Supreme Court are available with the State law Department.
According to official data, total 38,76,013 cases are pending in all high courts of the country of which the number of criminal cases is 10,35,743. There were 2,70,19,955 cases pending in all lower courts of the country by December last year, while 10,64,039 cases were pending in lower courts of Odisha.
Total 1,86,14,308 criminal cases are pending in lower courts of the country, out of which 14,19,324 and 29,63,026 cases are ten-year and five-year old respectively.
While the conviction rate in Odisha is recorded 16 per cent, it is 10 per cent in case of women atrocity cases.