The Punjab and Haryana High Court is now at the fourth position among the 25 high courts in India, in terms of pendency of cases. (Express Photo) With nearly 4.5 lakh pending cases, the Punjab and Haryana High Court is now at the fourth position among the 25 high courts in India, in terms of pendency of cases. The Rajasthan High Court tops the list with a maximum of 5,89,086 pending cases, followed by the Bombay High Court with 5,81,469 cases and 5,67,747 pending cases at the Madras High Court.
However, with all the benches of the Punjab and Haryana High Court now functioning through physical mode from March 28, the pendency of cases here, which has reached 4,49,943, is expected to come down.
On March 24, 2022, the Chief Justice of the HC ordered that all cases will be held through physical mode only from March 28. The decision was made in view of the decline in the number of Covid-19 cases and ease in restrictions.
It was in March 2020, that the High Court had imposed restrictions on conducting the Courts through physical mode, due to the spread of Covid-19 cases.
37 judges short against sanctioned strength of 85
The Punjab and Haryana High Court is currently short of 37 judges, and is functioning with 48 judges against the sanctioned strength of 85. The collegium of HC, comprising the Chief Justice and two senior-most judges, has recently recommended the names of 13 advocates for elevation as the high court judges, after a gap of more than one-and-a-half years. But, 15 of its judges are retiring in the next two years, including four this year.
The names of sessions judges to be recommended for elevation is believed to be in the pipeline. The previous list for elevation was cleared by the HC collegium three years ago.
The process of appointing judges is, in fact, lengthy and time consuming. Once cleared by the states and the governors after recommendation by the HC collegium, the file containing the names with intelligence bureau reports is placed before the Supreme Court collegium, when it meets.
The names cleared are then sent to the union law ministry before their warrants of appointment are signed by the President. The entire exercise can take several months, if not taken up on priority basis.
Chandigarh District Court has more pendency than Mohali, Panchkula
Among the trial courts of Tricity, Chandigarh has a pendency of 74,007, while Mohali has 48,846 cases, and Panchkula has the least, 25,291 cases pending.
NJDG data show that Chandigarh District Court has 23,757 civil cases and 50,250 criminal cases are pending. At Mohali District Court, 25,048 civil cases and 23,798 criminal cases are pending. At Panchkula District Courts, a total of 9,719 civil cases and 15,572 criminal cases pending.
No administrative member at CAT Chandigarh
While crisis in the Punjab and Haryana High Court is far from over, a similar crisis of non-availability of administrative member in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Chandigarh bench, has come under the judicial scanner of the High Court.
The HC, on a petition filed by Boota Singh, has asked the Additional Solicitor General, Government of India, to assist the HC on what steps the Union of India proposes to take to resolve this.
Singh is a retired Assistant Plant Protection Officer of Central Integrated Pest Management Centre. Singh had initially moved CAT seeking a relief in his service matter.
However, due to non availability of an administrative member, required to constitute the bench at CAT, his matter couldn’t come up for hearing. Then, he moved the High Court, stating that the functioning of the CAT has been handicapped and the hearing of his case is being delayed.
The last administrative member stationed at Chandigarh demitted her office in June, 2020 and the present situation has been prevailing for the last almost two years.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
