New Delhi, Concerns over pendency of cases in the courts was expressed by Lok Sabha members on Tuesday as the House discussed a Bill that seeks to clarify additional pension or family pension for retired judges of Supreme Court and High Court.
The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on November 30, was taken up by the House for discussion.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor expressed concerns over pendency of cases, and said, "Between 2010 and 2020, pendency across all courts has grown by 2.8 per cent annually. These grim numbers clearly imply that even if no new cases were to be filed starting from today, the time taken by the courts to dispose of just the currently pending cases at the current disposal rate, would be 1.3 years for the Supreme Court, and three years for each of the high courts, not to mention, even longer for the subordinate courts.".
He said the situation has been further aggravated by the pandemic which has resulted in a 20 per cent increase in pending cases in the high courts and 13 per cent in the subordinate courts.
Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee said there are 4.5 crore pending cases across all courts in India, as on September 15, 2021.
"In fact, in 2019, there were 3.3 crore pending cases, which means that in the last two years, India has added 23 cases every minute to its pendency list," he said.
"Today, our justice delivery system is facing multiple challenges. Two of them are stark and need immediate attention, namely, appointment of Judges and managing the humongous number of pending cases," he said.
BJP leader PP. Chaudhary meanwhile called for reforms in judicial appointments.
"When we come to the judicial reforms, the judicial reforms are not limited only for dealing with the vacancies and other issues. It is also related to the conditions of service of the judges. It is also related to the appointment of judges because the Constitution framers specifically provided under Article 124 that the judges of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President of India after consultation with the Chief Justice of India," he said.
He suggested that "an exam can be conducted at all-India level and the candidate may be allotted exam centre for its respective State at the most, and after examination, the High Court can interview them and they can make the appointment."
Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also raised concerns over pendency of cases and said it made the poor suffer.
"Everybody has expressed apprehension and concern on huge pendency of cases. Victims are poor people, while rich can afford expensive lawyers, the poor cannot," he said.
The Bill seeks to clarify additional pension or family pension for retired judges of Supreme Court and High Court.
It clarifies that the increase in pension of retired judges which come after attaining a certain age shall be implemented from the first day of the month in which they complete the age specified and not from the first day of his entering the age specified.