Calcutta HC lawyers to start work today, face huge case backlog

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court lawyers are set to resume work on Monday after a 70-day cease-work, the longest in the court’s history since its establishment in 1862, but the bench and bar may have a daunting task ahead.
Data on the Calcutta HC’s website show it disposed of 8,721cases in the 31working days this year before the ceasework started on February 19; March saw the number of disposals dipping to a two-digit figure: 98, which was a mere 1.1% of the figure the court clocked when the bar had been working normally.



“Yes, we know we have to clear a huge backlog,” said Calcutta HC Bar Association president Uttam Majumdar. “But our stir, which began last September and continued in several forms, also forced the Centre to appoint 13 new judges and give us a full-time chief justice after two-and-a-half-years,” he added, seeking to explain the agitation’s “successes”. “Calcutta High Court,” he said, “has already recommended 10 more names to the Centre. The state says it is keen on all vacant slots being filled up.”

Even functioning below 50% of its sanctioned strength of 72 judges, Calcutta High Court had disposed of 4,744 cases in December 2017; 4,979 cases in January 2018; and 3,471cases in February 2018. In March, this figure dipped sharply to

98. March, incidentally, was the first full month in which the functioning of the court was seriously affected.

2.2L cases pending in high court

The lawyers remained on cease-work for practically the entire month of April, barring Monday. As things stand now, 2.23 lakh cases are pending at the high court.

Another facet of the HC lawyers’ strike was the significant dip in the number of fresh cases lodged. In March, only 1,258 fresh cases had been lodged. In February 3,471 fresh cases were lodged, and 4,979 in January. By disposing 281 cases on an average every day since January, the HC had managed to keep the disposal rates slightly higher that the rate of filing per month. Thanks to this, the case pendency has been what it is now.

“The case pendency remains a challenge,” said Bar Library Club president Jayanta Mitra. “The ceasework contributed to it. A proposal to work on alternate Saturdays had been earlier mooted to bring down the pendency.”

“With more judges on the bench now, we wish to collectively work hard to bring the case pendency down,” said Majumdar.