Over 31 lakh cases await next date of hearing in Indian courts

New Delhi, Jun 26: Amid the debate on ways to check rising pendency in courts, new data say out of the over 2.20 crore cases awaiting disposal across the country, the next date of hearing has not been fixed for over 14 per cent of them.

This means that the courts have not yet decided on when these 31,45,059 cases will be taken up for the next hearing. According to the data available on the National Judicial Data Grid, as on June 24 this year 2,20,75,329 cases are pending in various courts.

Out of these, 31,45,059 (or 14.25 per cent of the total pending cases) have been categorised as 'undated cases'. Any case for which the next date of hearing has not been assigned is called an undated case.

The data say that of the over 31 lakh undated cases, 21,75,750 are criminal cases, while 9,69,309 are civil in nature. Gujarat, according to the data available on the Grid, leads with 20.46 per cent undated cases, followed by West Bengal with 14.96 per cent cases.

Madhya Pradesh has 13.13 per cent undated cases and Delhi 3.22 per cent. At a recent meeting of the Supreme Court eCommittee, the Himachal Pradesh High Court had suggested introduction of "some sort of incentive" for reducing the number of undated cases.

The eCommittee of the Supreme Court was set up in 2004 to assist the Chief Justice of India in formulating a national policy on computerisation of Indian judiciary and advise on technological, communication and management-related changes.

Of the over two crore cases pending, more than 10 per cent have remained unsettled for over 10 years. Out of the total pendency, 83,00,462 or 41.38 per cent cases are pending for less than two years, while 21,72,411 or 10.83 per cent cases are pending for over 10 years.

PTI