Government all set to withdraw ‘frivolous and ineffective cases' to reduce pendency of cases in courts

The biggest litigant in the country, i.e. the government is all set to take steps that will reduce the number of pending cases in various courts of the country. Reportedly, the Ministry of Law and Justice has drafted a 10 point litigation policy and has even shared it with states. The Ministry has asked the states to review all the pending litigations.

The policy is set to promote arbitration and mediation as methods of dispute resolution, with government introducing mandatory arbitration and mediation clause in work contracts and also its contracts with public sector employees.

Reportedly, the Union Law Ministry has also sent a letter to Chief Justices of all the High courts and has asked them to invoke Section 258 of Code of Criminal Procedure by virtue of which court has “Power to stop proceedings in certain cases.” Meanwhile, some states have already started working on reducing pendency, as Himachal Pradesh has framed guidelines to remove ‘stale’ and ‘ineffective’ criminal cases.

The Government has asked the states to take reducing pendency as a mission as more than 3.2 crore cases are pending before Indian courts. Of the 3.2 crore, around 44 lakh are pending before the various High courts while the lower judiciary is dealing with 2.8 crore cases. Allahabad High Court, working at half its sanctioned strength tops the list with a pendency of 60 percent.

Governments are the biggest litigants in the country, with most cases being trivial ones. The National Lok Adalat, organized on December 6, 2014 was another step that helped in reducing the number of pending cases.

You may read more of our coverage on backlog of pending cases here.