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Nearly 24 million cases are pending in different courts in India, Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday in Patna.
He said 3.5 million cases were pending in 21 high courts and 20 million in subordinate courts.
Due to a delay in disposal of cases, 200,000 undertrial prisoners, on whom the government is incurring an annual expenditure of Rs 400 crore, are languishing in different jails for past several years, he said.
Prasad said the courts have to deliver justice quickly.
He said his ministry has decided to set up 1734 fast-track courts for speedy delivery of justice. Cases that are pending before the sessions court for more than two years would be transferred to these courts.
By September, 869 such courts had been set up, which decided 63,581 cases out of the 1,63,025 cases transferred to them till date, he said.
He said the Centre will review the sanctioned strength of the high court judges, adding around 140 posts were lying vacant. The sanctioned strength of the high courts now is 647.
He said an amendment has already been made to the Civil Procedure Code and a time limit set up for each stage of civil litigation.
Referring to reforms in personal law, Prasad said that section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been amended to provide for a guaranteed interim compensation within 60 days to separated/divorced women, besides removing the ceiling on such compensation.
Realising the fact that the government was party to litigation in majority of the cases, the Legal Services Authorities (Amendment) Act, 2002, has also been enacted, he said.
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