Cases pile up in courts

Although the rate of case disposal has increased in recent years, a huge backlog of around 42 lakh cases is pending with the courts across the country, including the Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court, causing immeasurable suffering to the litigants.

The number of such backlogs is growing higher since the number of filing of cases is increasing day by day due to the huge population in the country, said SC sources.

An SC study report said a total of 41,96,603 cases were pending with all the courts in the country after 15,71,617 were filed and 14,71,402 were disposed of till December 31 last year.

Of those, 19,928 cases were pending with the Appellate Division, 5,16,674 with the High Court Division and 36,50,001 with the lower courts till that day.

The numbers of civil cases, criminal cases, contempt petitions, and cases under inquiry and investigations were 16,88,195; 23,88,610; 1,19,798 and 1,51,978 respectively at that time.

The Appellate Division; High Court Division and subordinate courts have disposed of a total of 5,406; 87,474 and 13,78,522 cases respectively from January 1 to December 31 last year.

According to the SC report, a total of 7,89,179 cases (4,63,235 civil and 3,25,943 criminal cases) have been pending for more than five years with the courts in the districts.

The number of pending cases increased last year as those which were pending with the Anti-Terrorism Tribunal, Anti-Human Trafficking Offence Tribunal, and Cyber Tribunal in 2021 have been added to last year's, the SC study report said.

Legal experts have been saying the appointment of competent, experienced and honest judges at the courts and continuous monitoring of their activities can help reduce the backlog.

Sources said there are now eight judges for the Appellate Division, 90 judges for the High Court Division and around 1,800 judges for the lower courts across the country for dealing with and disposing of the cases.

Contacted, Appellate Division's Registrar Mohammad Saifur Rahman told The Daily Star that following a monitoring system initiated by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, the rate of case disposal has increased.

Around 100 percent disposal is taking place in 35 districts in proportionate to the filing of the cases, he said. If this trend continues, the backlog of cases will come to a tolerable level in the next few years.

Saifur Rahman also said the backlog of cases at the Appellate Division will come down as three benches of this division are now hearing and disposing of cases.