Calcutta HC has 2 lakh cases pending, 41% judges' posts remain vacant

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court has more than two lakh pending cases attributed mainly due to a shortage in the number of judges currently present there. Out of the sanctioned 72 judges, the High Court is functioning with only 39 judges while more than 30 seats remain vacant.

Although on Saturday the Union Ministry announced the appointment of 3 new judges to the court, the remaining slots are left unoccupied resulting in a massive backlog of cases. Even with the number of judges increasing to 42, there will still be 30 judges short of the entire strength, i.e., a shortage of 41.66%.

Despite efforts from the court to reduce the backlog, an astounding total of 2,34,539 cases are still pending. Legal experts have said that there needs to be an increase in the number of judges to mitigate the problem of unresolved cases.

Justice Ashok Ganguly, a retired Supreme Court judge has said that there should be an immediate increase in the number of judges to the high court, as well as the sub-divisional and district courts which are also facing shortages.

Civil cases form the bulk of the total 2,34,539 cases pending standing at 1,97,184 cases while 37,355 criminal cases are pending according to data taken on February 28.

Ganguly said that as people have nowhere else to go for justice, the number of cases filed at the court keep increasing. He also added, "Even with full strength, the number of judges is inadequate and so with over 40 per cent less it is far more difficult to reduce the backlog. Number of cases is increasing while judges' strength is going down; governments need to expedite appointments of new judges."

As per the data on May 14, a total number of 26,64,284 cases remain pending in different courts in West Bengal. 20,47,901 of these are criminal while the remaining 6,16,383 are civil cases.

Holding that both the central and state governments need to put in more effort to alleviate the situation, Ganguly said there are huge vacancies in the lower judiciary also, which need to be filled up. He remarked that lawyers would also need to put in extra effort to ensure that litigants get justice in time.

Arunabha Ghosh, the president of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association has pointed out the issue of judges not getting jurisdiction as per their specialization. Jurisdiction of a judge is the discretion of the Chief Justice, which denotes the subjects on which a judge will hear petitions, according to The New Indian Express.

"Many recommendations of the high court collegium which have also been passed by the Supreme Court collegium are pending before the Union Law and Justice ministry," he said.

Ghosh claimed that all across the country, more than 200 posts of judges are vacant which needs to be filled up immediately.

On April 30 in Delhi, a joint conference of chief justices of high courts and chief ministers were held where they discussed the need for a creation of frameworks for simple and convenient delivery of justice.

Holding that the number of service judges needs to be increased in the lower judiciary, he also called for more concerted efforts by all the stakeholders to fast track the justice delivery system.