Pendency Project: With 6 Supreme Court judges to retire in 2012, 500 pending cases added in Jan

Monday, 13 February 2012 By Legally India Bar, Bench & Litigation

January 2012 Supreme Court pendency: same old tragedy

Pendency at the Supreme Court of India has crossed 59,000 cases for the first time ever, with numbers up 8 per cent on May 2011 figures, two judges having already retired this year to date and four more due to leave.

Arrears cases older than one year too have increased to 38,084 from 37,385 in December 2011.

That said, the court did have to deal with an unprecedented number of new cases in January (see graph below). While almost 8,400 cases came in the door, their lordships only managed to clear barely more than 7,800.

In January, Justice Cyriac Joseph had retired. Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly retired on 3 February, and four more judges, including Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia are due to retire in the second half of 2012.

All this is bad news for the graphs, no doubt.

Click here to read more about The Pendency Project data analysis by Legally India.

Comments

Santokh Singh Sahi 19 Feb 2012, 17:48

+0 -0

SC itself is responsible and not much will change, because SC will again and again increase its tribe. Nothing will change unless out of box solution is adopted. Admittedly all is not well with working of the collegium system. No where in the world judiciary appoints itself without taking over the responsibility of removal. As a result once a judge is always a judge has become a rule. Removal by impeachment is by Parliament alone. No wonder, no one has been removed till date. Now time has come for the change in the system. Let authority of appointment,promotion,transfer and removal vest in one the same authority. We do need independant judiciary, but not unaccountable and untransparent. We request the SC itself to reconsider/revisit its earlier decision. SC either take over the responsibility of removal as well or constitute National and State Judicial Councils involving all the stake holders; legislature,executive and judiciary bar included. Let NJC may consist of CJI;Nominee of; SC Justices; CJ's; Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha; SC Bar; Bar Council of India and Law Minister. For SJC. Let CJ be assisted by Nominee of: HC Judges; Assembly; Vidhan Parishad; DJ's; HC Bar; State Bar Council and State Law Minister. Let these judicial councils take over the entire working of the judiciary to ensure arrear-free and independent justice delivery system, where rule of law and not man prevails. In case SC fails, then let Parliament step in.

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