New approach brings down pending court cases by 20 lakh

Judicial authorities have said the number of pending court cases at any given time had drastically reduced from 50 lakh to 30 lakh since the launch of a new system that entailed segregating cases and providing specialised training to judges.

The registrar general of the Bombay high court (HC) said the initiative focussed on providing “specialised training” to judges in the lower courts so that they would be able to dispose of cases faster. Also, cases were segregated based on the year they were filed. “The pending cases were bracketed into two groups; namely, those that are older than five and 10 years. Judges in the lower courts have been asked to dispose of these cases on a priority basis, as a result of which their numbers have gone down by nearly 20 lakh since the initiative,” said Mangesh Patil, registrar general.

He said to address the flaws in the system of disposing of the cases, not only were the judges provided specialised training, but also their numbers were increased. “Judges are now given incentive-based targets to be achieved every month. Being successful in achieving the targets means better prospects for them, as a result of which the disposals have been faster,” said Mr Patil.

He said the HC was in the process of providing more help to judges through performance assessment and enhancement tools that helped them expedite the judicial process.