IMPORTANT POINT
Shortage of judges in District judiciary is a major cause for pendency of cases.

JUDGMENT

Dr. D.Y. CHANDRACHUD, J.

These Appeals arise from a batch of interlocutory orders of the Allahabad High Court in a criminal writ petition (1786 of 2003). On 9 April 2003 a learned Single Judge of the High Court admitted a writ petition filed by the second and third respondents and stayed an order dated 7 December 2002 of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, directing the registration of a case against them. The case was adjourned before the High Court on several dates on which it was listed. As a result of the adjournments, on the date of the institution of the Special Leave Petitions, the writ petition was pending in the High Court for six years.

2. This Court was concerned with the pendency of similar cases before the High Courts, where proceedings were stayed at the stage of the registration of an FIR, investigation, framing of charges or during trial, in exercise of the power conferred by Article 226 of the Constitution or Sections 397/482 of Code of Criminal Procedure,1973. Hence this Court, by an order dated 8 January 2010 called for reports from the Registrars General of the High Courts, in regard to serious cases involving: (i) murder; (ii) rape; (iii) kidnapping; and (iv) dacoity. On the basis of the data received, reports were presented to the Court by the amicus curiae. These reports were considered in an order dated 1 February 2012 by a Bench of two learned Judges, including one of us (the learned Chief Justice of India). In the order of this Court dated 1 February 2012 the findings in the second report submitted by the amicus curiae were summarized thus :

“(a) As high as 9% of the cases have completed more than twenty years since the date of stay order;

(b) Roughly 21% of the cases have completed more than ten years;

(c) Average pendency per case (counted from the date of stay order till July 26, 2010) works out to be around 7.4 years;

(d) Charge-sheet was found to be the most prominent stage where the cases were stayed with almost 32% of the cases falling under this category. The next two prominent stages are found to be “appearance” and “summons”, with each comprising 19% of the total number of cases”.

3. During the course of the hearing of these proceedings, the Union Government has been impleaded as a party to the proceedings having regard to the fact that seminal issues are involved directly impacting upon the administration of justice. This Court has assumed jurisdiction since the long delays in the disposal of cases, particularly criminal cases, has a serious impact both on the rule of law and on access to justice which is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

4. In 1958, the fourteenth Report of the Law Commission of India on the Reform of Judicial Administration dealt with the issue of delay and arrears and identified inadequate judge strength as the “root cause” of the problem. This perspective has been reiterated in several successive reports, including of the Law Commission. These include the 77th Report of the Law Commission of India on “Delay and arrears in trial courts”, November, 1978 (Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India); 78th Report of the Law Commission of India on “Congestion of under trial prisoners in jails”, February, 1979 (Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India); 79th Report of the Law Commission of India on “Delay and Arrears in High Courts and other Appellate Courts”, May, 1979 (Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India); 121st Report of the Law Commission of India (method of review of judge strength at regular intervals), 1987; 124th Report of the Law Commission of India – The High Court Arrears – A fresh look, 1988; Report of The Arrears Committee (Three Chief Justices Committee : Kerala, Calcutta & Madras), 1989-90.

5. The 120th Report of the Law Commission on Manpower Planning in the Judic