CJI Misra Recommends New Mechanism to Clear Judicial Backlog

In a letter addressed to the High Courts, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dipak Misra, has reportedly advised the chief justices to set up a new 'disposal review mechanism' to fast-track the clearance of pending cases in the Indian judiciary system.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the letter recommends that a system be initiated, where each high court "takes stock of cases filed and disposed" on a monthly basis, both in the high courts as well as the subordinate courts.

The CJI has also requested the courts to at least ensure that the overall disposal of cases matches with the overall filing of cases, apart from prioritising old cases.

This framework, he said, is to be set up in addition to the arrears committees, which were set up earlier to reduce backlog at the courts.

The letter, which was accessed by Hindustan Times, read:

Continuing formative assessment is the key to strengthen and reinforce the justice delivery system. It is essential to align a process-oriented approach with a result-oriented approach in an effort to build core processes into strength and achieve the desired goal.

According to HT, the arrears committee was set up with the aim to "monitor and prepare an action plan" complete with deadlines for the disposal of 10 and 5-year old cases.

Citing data from the National Judicial Data grid website, the daily mentions that over 27 million cases are currently pending across lower courts. Of thse, 8.2 million are of civil nature, while 18.9 are criminal cases.

Meanwhile, in the 24 high courts, over 3.7 million cases are pending, of which more than million are over 10 years old, reported HT.