Cases pending in Bombay High Court on a rise, reveals RTI

Mumbai, Aug 19: The pendency of cases in Bombay High Court continues to rise, even as the number of ongoing cases in district and subordinate courts registered an upsurge this year, an official data said.

The number of pending cases under different laws, Acts and tribunals in Bombay High Court and its Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa benches have gone up from 3,51,297 in 2010 to 3,76,604 in 2015, revealed an RTI query, filed by Pune-based activist Vihar Durve.

Total 8,19,184 (fresh) cases were instituted from January 2010 to June 2015 while 7,80,763 cases were disposed of by all benches of Bombay HC, it revealed.

As regards the district judiciary (districts and subordinate courts), the overall number of pending cases went down over the years, but 2015 witnessed a considerable rise.

While in 2010, a total 39.05 lakh cases were pending in districts and subordinate courts, the number decreased over the years and it came down to 28.69 lakhs in 2014.

However, the figure went up this year and total 29.51 lakhs cases were pending by June this year in districts and subordinate courts, as per the RTI.

From 2010 to June 2015, total 98.16 lakh fresh civil and criminal cases were instituted while 1.30 crore cases were disposed by all districts and subordinate courts.

The RTI query has also revealed that actual strength of judges in Bombay High Court has gone significantly down as there were 61 judges working out of sanctioned 75 judges in 2010.

In 2015, there were only 65 judges working with the Bombay High Court as against the sanctioning strength of 94.

The number of judicial officers in Maharashtra has also seen a significant decline. According to the RTI reply, the actual working strength of judicial officers was 1,786 in 2010 against the sanctioned strength of 2,057.

This actual working strength came down to 1,784 in 2015 while the sanctioned strength went up to 2,072.

PTI