34,957 cases involving Centre & state govt pending in SC, says Kiren Rijiju

|HT|

As many as 34,974 cases involving the Centre and state governments have been pending in the Supreme Court since 2017, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju told Parliament on Thursday. In response to Communist Party of India member Binoy Viswam’s question in the Rajya Sabha, Rijiju said the cases against Central and state governments in various courts have on an average increased but not manifold. Rijiju cited data from the Integrated Case Management Information System and added the Centre’s 1,807 cases are pending in the top court. He said the Centre is the respondent in 6,104 pending cases.

State governments are petitioners in 6,426 cases pending in the top court since 2017. They are respondents in 20,637 pending cases. Rijiju said 823 lawyers were representing the government in the pending cases.

Rijiju said the disposal of pending cases is within the domain of the judiciary. “No time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts. The government has no role in the disposal of cases in courts.” He said the availability of an adequate number of judges, judicial officers, the complexity of facts involved, and the nature of the evidence delay the process of timely disposal.

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