Acting On SC Communiqué, Delhi HC Seeks Data On Undated Cases [Read Communiqué]

With the Supreme Court expressing concern over large number of “undated cases”, Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal has directed all judicial officers of the district courts to send data on undated cases pending in each district and update the same once every two weeks.

Undated cases are those in which the court has not assigned any next date of hearing.

Justice Mittal expressed the need for updating the data on such cases immediately for accuracy and purity.

The communiqué from the high court also directs all district and sessions judges to update the data online on biweekly basis.

All judicial officers would now be required to give a certificate on monthly basis certifying that there are no undated cases in their respective courts. The certificate would be forwarded to the high court by the district and sessions judge of every district along with monthly disposal report.

In case, the data is not uploaded, a reasonable explanation will have to be put before the high court.

The order from the high court is in pursuance of a communiqué received by it from the Supreme Court informing that in Delhi, there are a total of 35,330 undated cases - 4,136 civil and 31,194 criminal cases.

According to the data available on the National Judicial Data Grid, as on September 30, there are 34,127 undated cases in district courts in Delhi, which includes 4,550 civil and 29,577 criminal cases and makes for 5.94 per cent of all cases.

There is a pendency of 5,74,207 cases before the district courts in Delhi, which comprises 1,62,621 civil and 4,11,586 criminal cases. This includes 6,105 cases pending for over 10 years.

If the figures of district courts across India are considered, 14,19,365 cases - 4,00,574 civil and 10,18,791 criminal - are undated.

These undated cases await the next date of hearing as the judicial system grapples with shortage of manpower.