1.5L criminal cases pending in State

Be it the Orissa High Court or the subordinate courts, the State figured among top-10 in country in pendency of criminal cases that has a direct bearing on State’s law and order.

The worse is Odisha figured at 6th in the country when it comes to pendency of criminal cases for over a decade in subordinate courts.

However, the Orissa High Court posts a better show as in pendency of criminal cases of over 10-years, State stood at 9th in country.

Moreover, of total pendency of criminal cases in the Orissa High Court, a high of around 21 per cent of criminal cases are pending for 10 years and of the total pendency of criminal cases in subordinate courts, a whopping of around 19 per cent have been pending since last 10 years.

Such a grim data on Odisha was brought to fore by the National Judicial Data Grid recently. As per data available, around 23 per cent of criminal cases pending in the Orissa High Court are of over 10-yr-old. The average proportion of criminal cases pending for 10 years in all High Courts nationally is also estimated at 23 per cent.

Data reveal that over 16 per cent of such over decade-old criminal cases are pending at the District and Sessions Judge Courts in Odisha, which is poorer than national average.

When State’s subordinate courts have over 8 lakh criminal cases pending, the pending criminal cases pertaining to women are over 4 per cent. Also, around 1.5 per cent pending criminal cases pertains to senior citizens.

Similarly, of over 43, 100 criminal cases pending in Orissa High Court, around 2 per cent were filed by women vis-a-vis around 0.5 per cent national average of the High Courts.

How scary the future scenario looks is evident from the fact that last month when State’s subordinate courts saw institution of over 13, 240 criminal cases, disposal rate of criminal cases in the State stood at around 8, 296. And a mere around 600 decade-old cases were disposed of.

The sub-State data details the devil. When Khurda district in State has the largest criminal cases (83, 976) filed in District and Sessions courts, the disposal rate last month stood at mere 350.

However, Cuttack district, which has the State’s 2nd highest criminal cases (64, 536) filed in subordinate courts, has a disposal rate of around 840 criminal cases last month. Angul, Odisha’s industrial nerve-centre, has seen disposal of mere 62 criminal cases; when the criminal cases load in the district stood at a whopping 41, 668.

Moreover, of total cases (civil plus criminal) instituted in districts, Gajapati tops with around 90 per cent of criminal cases and is followed by Kalahandi, Koraput, Nuapada, Kandhamal, Sambalpur,

Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Subarnapur, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Ganjam and Nabarangpur where criminal cases filed stood at more than 80 per cent of total cases filed. Also, vacancies at district level zoomed to over 200 in 2017 from 81 in 2015 resulting in a dip in judge to population ratio to 11.8 per 1million.