High Courts Buried Under 65 Lakh Pending Cases, Justice Delayed for Decades

The Indian judicial system is facing a severe backlog of cases in its High Courts. As of now, the total pendency has crossed 65 lakh cases. Of these, nearly 15 lakh cases have been pending for more than a decade. This means that for thousands of litigants, justice remains a distant dream.

A striking example is that of a daily wage health worker from Jalore district in Rajasthan. His services were terminated in 1999. He approached the Rajasthan High Court in 2004. Twenty-two years later, his petition has still not been heard. This is not an isolated case. Many such litigants, tired of waiting, approach the Supreme Court with a simple plea: not for a decision on their case, but for an early hearing in the High Court.

The numbers paint a grim picture. The Allahabad High Court has the highest pendency, with 12.5 lakh cases. The Rajasthan High Court follows with 7 lakh cases. Other High Courts with large backlogs include Bombay (6.4 lakh), Madras (5.6 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (4.9 lakh), Karnataka (3.3 lakh), and Andhra Pradesh (2.5 lakh). The Delhi High Court has a relatively lower pendency of 1.2 lakh cases, while the Calcutta High Court has 1.9 lakh.

In the Allahabad High Court, each judge or bench takes up an average of 150 to 200 cases every day for hearing. Despite this, the massive pendency continues to overwhelm the judicial decision-making capacity. The system is struggling to keep up.

When litigants approach the Supreme Court seeking directions to High Courts for early hearing, the Supreme Court often finds its hands tied. The Constitution grants High Courts independence. The Chief Justices of High Courts are the masters of the roster, meaning they decide which cases are listed before which bench and when. The Supreme Court has itself ruled that it cannot direct a High Court to list a particular case for early hearing.

Moreover, if the Supreme Court were to request an early hearing for one old case, the principle of equality would demand that all similarly old cases be given the same priority. This would be practically impossible given the scale of pendency.

Therefore, the Supreme Court typically passes a standard order: it sees no ground to entertain the petition but gives the petitioner liberty to move an application before the concerned High Court seeking early hearing. This was the response in the case of the Rajasthan health worker as well, when a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India heard his plea.

The root cause of this crisis is a shortage of judges and infrastructure. While the government and judiciary have taken some steps to fill vacancies and improve technology, the backlog continues to grow. Experts say that without significant reforms, the situation is unlikely to improve.

For the common citizen, the message is clear: if you have a case in a High Court, you may have to wait for years, perhaps decades, for a final hearing. The promise of justice for all remains unfulfilled for many.