The Odisha High Court here is overburdened with pending cases and their number keeps mounting as the number of cases disposed of every year is far less than the number of cases instituted.
According to official sources, as many as 3,55,631 cases were pending in the HC by the end of June this year. While a little less than two lakh of these pending cases are main cases, both civil and criminal in nature, a record 1.6 lakh miscellaneous cases arising out of these main cases are still pending disposal by June 30, 2013, the sources informed.
Statistics reveal that on an average, nearly 10,000 civil (main) cases and 11,000 criminal (main) cases are instituted in the High Court in every quarter of the year. With it, are added another 10,000 miscellaneous cases, thereby registering more than 30,000 cases in every three months. But due to a dismal disposal rate, the cases pile up every month, and every year about 40,000 cases add up to the pending list.
The mounting backlog of cases has created a massive trust deficit and, therefore, the legal luminaries across the country are now focusing on clearance of this huge backlog in order to win back the trust of the people on judiciary. In a programme here last week, newly-appointed Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam too expressed concern over the issue.
While legal experts here feel that the vacancy of judges is the main reason behind the mounting of pending cases, many, like Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik suggests measures like alternative dispute redressal mechanisms such as lok Adalat for reducing the burdens on courts. It may be mentioned that the law Commission of India, a decade ago, had suggested for increasing the strength of judges in the Odisha High Court to 29 for clearance of the backlog of cases within a period of five years. But the Odisha Government, citing financial crunch, has sanctioned for only 22 judges and, shockingly, the High Court has never witnessed at least 18 judges in its Bench even once during this period.
Against the sanctioned strength, the High Court in June this year had the opportunity to have 14 judges, including the Chief Justice, when three permanent judges were sworn in, still leaving a vacancy of eight other posts.