In Bombay High Court, 4.64 lakh cases pending

On the Original side, where cases pertaining to civil suits, commercial suits, labour laws, company petitions and applications, contempt petitions, Income-Tax references and applications, election petitions and applications, petitions under the Guardian & Wards Act, Public Interest Litigations (PIL) and many others are heard, there are 44,111 cases pending in the Bombay High Court as of March 2018.

On the Appellate Side Criminal, the data shows that there are 55,054 cases pending as of March 2018. These cases pertain to investigation of criminal cases, Habeas Corpus petitions, criminal contempt cases, cases seeking quashing of FIRs, criminal PILs, criminal appeals, confirmation of death sentences, criminal revisions, bail applications and anticipatory bail applications, among others.

On the Appellate Side Civil, there are 1.77 lakh cases pending, of which 38,246 cases have been pending for over 10 years. The Appellate Side Civil cases arise out of city civil court appeals, special tribunal appeals, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) appeals, labour laws, revision petitions, contempt of court (civil) petitions, civil PILs, contempt appeals, family court appeals among others.

According to High Court Prothonotary, the approved strength of High Court judges in Maharashtra and Goa is 95. At present, there are 68 judges, which means the courts fall short of 27 judges. The Prothonotary also said that this year, two judges from the Bombay bench and one from the Aurangabad bench are expected to retire. The Prothonotary added that four judges’ names were approved recently as High Court judges. The Bombay High Court is also still awaiting appointment of its Chief Justice.

The previous Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Justice Manjula Chellur, retired in December 2017. Justice V K Tahilramani took over as Acting Chief Justice. After Justice Tahilramani was appointed as Chief Justice of Madras High Court, Justice Naresh H Patil took over and is currently Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

Regarding the pendency of cases, retired Justice V M Kanade told The Indian Express that perhaps the number of cases being filed has increased. “Ideally they should fill up the judges’ posts, also the Chief Justice should take a decision to distribute the pending petitions. There are directions from the Supreme Court to dispose of old matters quickly. As far as I know, there is also one day allotted to High Court judges to conduct final hearings of the matters, I don’t know if they are able to manage that in one day,” he said.

Agreeing that the problem of shortage of judges is faced by several high courts, retired Bombay High Court Judge Abhay M Thipsay said, “The other reasons are lack of expertise on the part of advocates, who delay the matters and sometimes deliberately mislead the courts. Reluctant to say, but not all the judges have expertise in all types of assignments allotted to them. The judges should be given assignments according to their expertise, for quick disposal of the matters.”