India's Courts Grapple with Over Five Crore Pending Cases

India faces a backlog of over five crore pending cases, with the highest number in Uttar Pradesh's subordinate courts. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal attributes delays to infrastructure issues, complex cases, and lack of time management. Both Supreme and High Courts also have significant pending cases.

India is grappling with a judicial crisis, as more than five crore cases remain pending across various courts. The maximum backlog is in Uttar Pradesh's subordinate courts, tallying over 1.18 crore cases, according to a government report in the Lok Sabha.

Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal highlighted that while the Supreme Court has 84,045 pending cases, various high courts account for 60,11,678. The situation is most dire in district and subordinate courts with a staggering 4,53,51,913 cases.

Meghwal outlined multiple reasons for the backlog, including inadequate physical infrastructure, complex case facts, and minimal cooperation from stakeholders such as legal personnel and investigators. Other contributing factors are the lack of a prescribed time frame for case disposal, frequent adjournments, and insufficient tracking mechanisms.