Supreme Court Expresses Alarm At Criminal Appeals Pending In High Courts For Decades; Seeks Suggestions From Centre

A Bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai was apprised that in Madhya Pradesh High Court there are appeals which are pending for 20-30 years and the oldest appeals pending before the Allahabad High Court are from the year 1980.

When an application seeking bail was filed before the Apex Court, Advocate, Mr. Rajesh Inamdar, appearing for the petitioner informed it that the appeal against the conviction under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and sentence of life imprisonment passed by the Trial Court was pending before the Allahabad High Court for a considerable period of time. The appellant had already undergone 3 years of imprisonment by the time he approached the Apex Court. Being apprised of the deluge of criminal appeals pending for decades before several High Courts, the Court had asked the Solicitor General, Mr. Tushar Mehta to assist in evolving solutions to curb pendency. On Wednesday (4th May), the Court also requested Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, who was incidentally present in the court, to assist it in this matter.

Considering that such pendency would affect the right to speedy trial protected under Article 21 of the Constitution, on 15.06.2020, the Court had directed the High Courts before which a barrage of such cases are pending for a considerable period of time (High Courts in the State UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Rajasthan, Bombay and Orissa) to submit a plan of action for deciding the criminal appeals. It pointed out some of the issues that it wanted the above-mentioned High Courts to highlight in its affidavit -

"(a) Total number of convicts awaiting hearing of their appeals pending before them.

(b)Segregation of single judge and Division Bench matters;

(c) The number of cases where – in such old pending cases, bail has been granted;

(d)Steps proposed to expedite hearing of appeals, including steps to prioritize hearing of cases of convicts in jail

(e) Steps proposed to trace and ensure hearing of cases of those who were granted bail, and the timeline for starting hearings

(f) Appropriate use of information technology, such as digitization of appeal records/paper books

(g) Feasibility of creation of a dedicated pool of amicus curiae who would assist the court in such old matters

(h) Feasibility to creation of dedicated special benches for hearing and disposal of old cases or alternatively assigning a certain number of appeals to a large number of judges to be decided by them, regardless of which rosters they are assigned."

Appearing before the Bench, on Wednesday, Advocate, Mr. Arjun Garg, representing the Madhya Pradesh High Court, submitted that it has provided suggestions to curb pendency as directed by the Apex Court. 

Justice Rao enquired, "In MP which years' appeals are pending in the High Court?"

Referring to a chart, Mr. Garg responded, "There are various appeals between 20-30 years pending, There is no appeal more than 30 years."

Acknowledging the problem, Justice Rao asked Mr. Garg for a solution to the same. He responded stating that the suggestions of the High Court pertains to listing, hearing, written submissions and adjournments. He also addressed the issue of vacancy. To this, Justice Rao, reckoned -

"Where are the judges, that is a problem."

The constitution of separate Special Benches was also suggested, but Justice Rao opined that each High Court already has separate Benches to criminal appeals.

"Every High Courts have a separate criminal appeal bench, so there is no need for a special designated court."

Mr. Gargl submitted that a mechanism could also be devised for hearing the new appeals within a stipulated time period.

Justice Rao was concerned that if such a mechanism is devised, then it might adversely affect the listing and hearing of the older appeals.

"What will happen to the old appeals? See, this has a cascading effect. You cannot keep aside the old appeals and start hearing the new ones."

Justice Rao asked the Counsel appearing for the Allahabad High Court, "Which years appeals are pending in Allahabad High Court?"

He was informed that criminal appeals from the year 1980 are pending.

Perturbed, Justice Rao remarked -

"That means 42 years. The trial would have taken 4-5 years. So the person who has committed an offence in the 1970s, at the age of 30-40 years would be 80-90 years now."

The Bench was further apprised that -

"In fact from 1982 - 1991, on average there are 200+ appeals. In total 14,112 appeals pending before the Single Judge and 13192 appeals before the Division Bench. In total, 27304 appeals pending from 1980 to 2020."

It is pertinent to note, that looking at the burgeoning pendency of criminal appeals in the Allahabad High Court and its reluctance to grant bail to the accused in the interim period, a Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh has already aid down some broad parameters that can be adopted by the High Court in granting bail.

"A list should be prepared for the ones who have served more than 14 years and is not a repeat offender. In all these cases there is a high possibility that if they are released they may not be interested to also pursue their appeals. The second category can be one where people have served more than 10 years and in one go bail can be granted", the bench led by Justice Kaul had noted.

[Case Title: Khursheed Ahmad v. State of Uttar Pradesh Diary No. 35524 of 2019]