Will somebody put an end to this huge backlog?

T he number of pending cases in the country has reached 3.25 crore. The dispensation is steadily losing people’s trust due to delayed justice than tainted judiciary.

While a debate is underway on creating four divisions — north, east, west and south — of the Supreme Court (SC) to make it available to distant citizens, there’s little concern over speedy allocation of funds for strengthening infrastructure in subordinate courts and increasing the strength of the judiciary to cope with pressure and decide the 3.25 crore cases.

Noted constitutional lawyer KK Venugopal says the strength of SC, which started in 1950 with eight judges, increased to 12 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 17 in 1977, 25 in 1986, and now 30. There was a backlog of 680 cases in 1950 and 1 lakh by the end of 1989. The number fell sharply to 50,000 in 1993, 19,000 in 1997 and about 54,000 by 2009-end — a 150% increase in 12 years.

CJI KG Balakrishnan’s projection is of a 10% to 12% increase annually and the figure may reach 1.25 lakh in five years.

The backlog trouble is not recent, though. In 1987, SC judge ES Venkataramiah had to dispense with the constitutional right guaranteed to citizens to move the apex court for enforcement of the fundamental right under Article 32. The arrears before the court then weren’t as huge.

Venkataramiah relegated a petition that could be heard by the apex court to the high court. His reason was that “the court has no time today to even dispose of cases which have to be decided by it alone. Cases are pending from 10 to 15 years, and disposing them of may take another 15 years if no new case is filed.”

The legal fraternity raised a hue and cry accusing Venkataramiah of violating his oath of office. But the tempers cooled down soon.