The Madras High Court Bench here began functioning on July 24, 2004 with 25,432 cases transferred from the Principal Seat of the High Court in Chennai. Twelve years down the line, the number of cases pending in the Bench is set to touch two lakh, as a whopping number of 1,88,936 cases were found pending as on June 30 this year.
According to court sources, the Bench was an instant hit among litigants in southern districts, since 24,350 fresh cases were filed between July 24 and December 31, 2004, apart from those that were transferred from Chennai. Then, only five judges were posted on the Bench and they managed to dispose of 15,177 cases by the end of the year carrying over around 34,000 to the next year.
Around 61,000 fresh cases each were filed in 2005 and 2006, though the disposal was only 42,144 and 49,250 respectively, leading to a steady increase in pendency.
In 2007, the judges’ strength was increased and it reflected on the disposal. It turned out to be the only year when the disposal (64,891 cases) was more than the fresh filing of cases (64,291) in any given year.
However, the euphoria was short lived as the Bench disposed of only 57,517 cases against 69,753 cases filed in 2008 and 59,294 cases against 72,221 cases filed in 2009. In 2010 also, only 71,675 cases were disposed of though the number of fresh cases filed that year turned out to be 80,659. Consequently, in June 2011, the pendency touched one lakh cases.
Providing recent statistics, court officials said the Bench began the year 2015 with 1,65,987 cases, but ended up disposing of only 87,803 cases.
Over 1,83,826 cases were carried over to the beginning of this year, and as per the statistics available as on June 30, the court had disposed only 44,115 cases, leaving behind a pendency of over 1.88 lakh cases.
Judges’ strength
“The disposal might increase if more judges are deputed here, but there is no chance for it till new judges are appointed. As of now, only 38 judges are there, against the sanctioned strength of 75 and seven of them — M. Jaichandren, R. Mala, B. Rajendran, S. Palanivelu, P. Devadass, T. Mathivanan and S. Nagamuthu — are due to retire from service by May 2017,” a court official pointed out.
With seven judges set to retire by May 2017, the backlog of cases is set to rise in the coming months
