2555 CBI cases pending trial for over a decade

The number of cases pending under investigation and trial, as on October 31, 2016, is 2,197 and 9,347 respectively

New Delhi, Dec 8: A total of 2,555 CBI cases are pending trial for over a decade while investigation in seven cases too is pending for the same time period, the government told Parliament today.

"The number of cases pending under investigation and trial, as on October 31, 2016, is 2,197 and 9,347 respectively.

Of these, seven and 2,555 are pending for more than ten years for investigation and trial respectively," Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office, Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

He was asked whether the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has a huge backlog of cases and how may of these were a decade old.

The Minister cited a number of reasons for the delay in disposal of cases like complex and voluminous nature of cases and large number of witnesses, large number of cases referred by state governments, Supreme Court and High Courts, delay in handing over the cases to CBI for investigation after initial investigation by local police, delay in getting expert opinion, stay by courts, delay in execution of Letters Rogatory with foreign countries and non-appearance of accused persons and adjournments taken by them on different grounds.

He added the government has set up "46 courts of Special Judge and ten courts of Special Magistrate exclusively for trial of CBI cases all over the country. "Subsequently, in order to speed up disposal, it was decided to set up 92 additional Special Courts out of which 88 are functional," he said.

PTI