President worried over huge pendency of court cases

New Delhi: The President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday expressed serious concern over the huge pendency of cases in various courts across the country and said that frequent adjournments sought by lawyers is one of the reasons for delay in disposal.

Inaugurating a national conference on “Technology, Training, and Infrastructure: Key to Speedy Justice” organised by the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) at Vigyan Bhavan, here President Kovind pointed out that there is a backlog of 3.3 crore cases in various courts. Of these he said that 2.84 crore cases are in the subordinate courts and another 43 lakhs in high courts and 58,000 in the apex court. He said, “India’s judiciary is respected across the world as an upholder of justice for the defenceless. It is also true that the sheer volume of cases overburdens our judges. As a consequence, the Indian legal system is marked by long delays.”

He cited several reasons for pendency of cases including the infrastructure gaps and frequent adjournments took by the lawyers in the courts. He said there are infrastructure gaps and considerable vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts.