Case pendency nears 7 lakh in Punjab and Haryana High Court

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 3

The problem of plenty is getting worse in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, with the pendency of cases almost touching the 7-lakh mark, up by more than 60,000 since the beginning of the year.

The National Judicial Data Grid — the monitoring tool to identify, manage and reduce pendency of cases — indicates the pendency of 6,99,268 cases in the High Court, as against 6,37,188 in January and 5,28,340 in January 2020.

The only other HC with pendency more than the Punjab and Haryana High Court is Allahabad with 7,98,976 matters await adjudication. Of the total pending cases in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, 3,04,447 are criminal matters, predominantly involving life and liberty.

As many as 1,58,570 (22.68 per cent) of the total pending cases are up to a year old; 2,31,637 (33.13 per cent) are between one and three years old; 92,551 (13.24 per cent) are pending between 10 and 20 years, and 10,519 (1.5 per cent) cases are awaiting adjudication for last 20 to 30 years.

To make matters worse, the HC is expected to witness a flood of litigation once it reopens for normal “physical” operations. Available information suggests a substantial number of cases, filed but yet to be numbered, are lying in the HC Registry to be taken up upon the resumption of physical hearing.

The situation is expected to further worsen because of the impending retirement of judges. The HC is currently functioning at almost half the sanctioned strength with just 46 judges against the sanctioned strength of 85. No less than two judges are retiring this year, including one in August. Another five judges are retiring next year.

The last time the Collegium made recommendations for elevation was in August 2020. The names of five advocates — Jasjit Singh Bedi, Pankaj Jain, Vikas Suri, Sandeep Moudgil and Vinod Bhardwaj — were finalised and forwarded. These were further forwarded by the Centre to the Supreme Court in April this year and are believed to be pending. On the other hand, the last time the Collegium recommended the names of judicial officers for elevation as High Court judges was more than two years ago.