LI Network
Published on: January 1, 2024 at 11:00 IST
As of the conclusion of 2023, the Bombay High Court reported a backlog of more than seven lakh pending cases, with over 83 percent of them categorized as civil cases.
The data, sourced from the ecourts website, indicates that just over one lakh cases are criminal, and over 2,500 fall under the category of Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
Within the total pending cases, more than 1.7 lakh cases are less than a year old, constituting over 24 percent of the backlog.
The second-highest category is cases pending for five to 10 years, amounting to 1.5 lakh cases. Another 1.3 lakh cases fall within the range of 10 to 20 years.
The figures encompass all benches of the High Court, including the Principal bench in Mumbai, the benches at Aurangabad, Nagpur, and the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
Of the pending cases, slightly over 1.5 lakh are writ petitions, over 2,500 are Public Interest Litigation (PIL), and over 1.2 lakh cases involve applications for interim relief. Bail applications account for almost 7,000 cases. Among the cases pending for over 30 years, six are criminal, and the remaining are civil.
The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) reveals that in 2023, while cases filed exceeded 1.5 lakh, disposed cases were slightly over 1 lakh.
The number of criminal cases filed in 2023 was 41,577, with disposals reaching 37,229. In comparison, 2022 saw over 44,880 criminal cases filed and 37,642 disposed of.
Overall, the total cases in 2023 amounted to 154,696 (combining civil and criminal), with disposals higher at 109,740, surpassing the corresponding figures for 2022, which were 155,734 and 108,514.
In 2021, cases instituted were 1.4 lakh, with disposals exceeding 98,000. The pandemic year of 2020 witnessed the least number of cases filed at 89,000, with disposals reaching over 57,000, including fewer than 30,000 criminal cases filed and over 22,000 disposed.
Across all high courts, there are over 62 lakh pending cases, with more than 17 lakh being criminal and over 44 lakh civil cases.
The Bombay High Court, in 2023, reported 596,154 total pending civil cases, 116,276 total pending criminal cases, and an overall total of 712,430 pending cases.
Cases filed by women amounted to 64,540, with 56,238 civil and 8,320 criminal cases. Cases filed by senior citizens reached 92,504, including 80,348 civil and 12,156 criminal cases.
Cases pending for 1-3 years totaled 92,205, with 18,199 being criminal cases (over 15 percent), and cases pending for 3-5 years reached 126,496, including 22,680 criminal cases (about 20 percent).
