Over 36 Lakh Cases Filed by Women Pending in Dist, Lower Courts, 3 Lakh in HCs, Govt Tells LS

New Delhi: Ten years after the brutal Nirbhaya gang-rape case that shook the country on December 16, 2012 and rising crimes against females, the disposal of cases filed by women, including those related to violent crimes, has been dismal, poorly reflecting on the justice delivery system in India.

Since 2014, up to December 15, 2022, there are over 36 lakh pending cases filed by women, including those against violent crimes, that are yet to be disposed of by district and subordinate courts, and over 3 lakh cases are pending in various high courts, according to government data.

In a written reply to questions by 16 MPs in Lok Sabha, seeking a break-up of cases of violent crimes against women that are pending in Supreme Court, High Courts, district and various other courts since 2014, the Minister for Law, Kiran Rijiju, said: “The Supreme Court of India does not maintain the information in the manner as sought for relating to crime against women....” adding that the apex court deals with “Matters relating to harassment, cruelty to women for dowry, dowry death, eve teasing, domestic violence, etc”, under which the total number of pending cases since 2014 stands at 283, “as retrieved from the Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS) as on 12.12.2022.”

Overall, the total number of cases pending in the Supreme Court since 2014 is 69,871, up to October 31, 2022, in the High Courts, this number is 53 lakh, while the number of pending cases in district and subordinate courts is a whopping 4.2 crore, according to Law Ministry data.

Pending Cases Filed By Women

In a break-up of cases of over 3 lakh pending cases filed by women, the three states that had the highest number of pending cases are Rajasthan High Court with 61,849 cases, followed by 57,319 in Madhya Pradesh HC and 51,444 in Bombay High Court.

In the over 36 lakh cases filed by women that are pending in district and subordinate courts across the country since 2014, as on December 15, 2022, the three states with the highest number are Uttar Pradesh with 7,80,578 pending cases, Maharashtra with 3,83,463 pending cases and Bihar with 3,77,885 cases.

The high number of pending cases is despite various fast-track courts set up by the government. As on October 31, 2022, a total of 838 fast track courts were functional for heinous crimes, crimes against women, and children etc, as per the minister’s reply.

The number of pending cases filed by women is a cause of grave concern amid rising crimes against women, which rose 15.3% in 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.