Over 19 lakh civil, criminal cases pending in courts

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: As many as 19,18,984 civil and criminal cases are pending in the district courts of Karnataka till July 15, 2023, as per details provided by the Union Law Ministry in the Lok Sabha recently.

The state has 9,35,416 civil cases pending, while the number of criminal cases stands at 9,83,568. The numbers reveal that Karnataka topped the other southern states, followed by Kerala with 18,84,173 cases, Tamil Nadu with 14,75,072, Telangana with 9,07,366, and Andhra Pradesh with 8,49,014 cases.

The pendency of these cases is attributed to the pandemic, when the courts were shut, besides the time taken by police officers to file chargesheet in courts, lack of judges, etc.

To speed up trials, Union Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal said the appointments of judges have been increased and as many as 56 judges have been appointed to the Supreme Court in the last nine years.

In high courts, the appointment of judges stands at 919, while the count for additional judges is 653. As many as 69,766 cases are pending in the Supreme Court as of July 1.

Meanwhile, the total number of civil and criminal cases pending across the country stands at 4.41 crores