With 16% vacancies, lower courts in Karnataka grapple with 20L+ pending cases

BENGALURU: District and subordinate courts in Karnataka - staring at 20.2 lakh pending cases - are burdened by unfilled posts of both judicial officers/judges and staff. As per data from the Union law ministry, lower courts in Karnataka have 16.4% posts - or, 225 of 1,375 - of judicial officers unfilled.

Of the 20.2 lakh pending cases, as per the national judicial data grid (NJDG), 2,098 are pending for 20-30 years and 58,577 cases are pending for 10-20 years. Nine lakh cases are pending for a year and 5.1 lakh cases are pending for 3 years. Overall, there are more criminal cases pending than civil cases, but the latter have been pending for a longer time than the former.

Karnataka law and parliamentary affairs minister HK Patil told TOI the issue of vacancies is being addressed and shared data of vacant judicial staff posts.

As per Patil, nearly 28% of the judicial staff posts remain vacant as of date.

"The sanctioned strength of judicial staff as of 2023-24 is 21,527, of which we have 15,545 positions filled. We will fill up these vacancies, including those of judges. We will support all actions taken by the high court to fill up these vacancies," Patil said.

Separate data from the Union law ministry shows that the sanctioned posts of judicial officers in Karnataka have reduced from 3,972 as of Dec 31, 2018, to 1,375 as of Dec 31, 2023.

Patil said: "I think this data needs to be checked as no sanctioned posts have been abolished by the govt other than a few fast-track courts getting decommissioned. That is not more than 30 or 40."

On pendency, a former Supreme Court judge said a major way forward is to increase the number of judges. The other option is to reduce the number of appeals and introduce penalties for speculative litigation.

Legal activists pointed to how cases pending for many years could destroy families, with many of them going bankrupt fighting civil cases, while delays in criminal cases have seen hundreds of undertrials serve more time pending trial than the quantum of punishment prescribed in law for the crime they may have committed.

Advocate Maitreyi Krishnan said a key concern is the judge-to-population ratio, which is about 21 per million across India and incomparable with many other countries. She argued that the sanctioned strength itself needs a relook.

In fact, the SC, in multiple judgments, has endorsed a target of 50 judges per million population. This recommendation, originally made in the 120th Report of the Law Commission, highlights a significant gap between the current situation and the ideal judicial strength.

Despite this, the current ratio indicates that the judiciary remains understaffed, potentially contributing to the backlog of cases and delays in the justice system. Nationally, of the 25,439 sanctioned judges' posts in subordinate courts, 21.3% or 5,428 posts are vacant, as per the ministry.