New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS): A total of 193 cases are pending before the Constitution Benches of the Supreme Court, the Parliament was informed on Friday.

A maximum of 167 cases are pending before Three-Judge Bench, followed by 19 cases pending before Five-Judge Bench, 5 cases before Seven-Judge Bench and two before Nine-Judge Bench.

These 193 cases are in addition to the others pending before Division Benches, Chamber-Judge and Registrar Court, estimated to be over 80,000.

Minister of State (Independent Charge), for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal, in a written reply in Lok Sabha, said the disposal of cases is within the exclusive domain of the judiciary. However, as per information provided by the Supreme Court, numerous IT initiatives to streamline the day-to-day operations have been carried out by the top court to handle the increasing pendency of cases.

Responding to a question by Kuldeep Indora of the Congress on reasons behind the accumulation of these cases, MoS Meghwal said, “There is no single conspicuous reason for pendency of cases. It is a multi-faceted situation. The increase in the population of the country, ease of access, and awareness amongst the public have contributed to the filing of fresh cases that are continuously increasing year after year. The pandemic, which set in around 2020, has also contributed significantly in increasing the pendency in the last four years.”

Highlighting the Centre’s efforts to augment judicial infrastructure, the MoS said, “As on date, Rs 11571.57 crore have been released since the inception of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for the Judiciary in 1993-94.”

“The number of court halls has increased from 15,818 as on June 30, 2014 to 23,590 as on October 31, 2024, and the number of residential units has increased from 10,211 as on June 30, 2014 to 21,076 as on October 31, 2024, under this scheme,” MoS Meghwal said.

Highlighting efforts to speed up court proceedings, he said under Phase I and II of the e-Courts Mission Mode Project, information and communication technology (ICT) had been leveraged for IT enablement of District and Subordinate Courts. As many as 18,735 District and Subordinate Courts were computerised till 2023. Wide-area network (WAN) connectivity has been provided to 99.5 per cent of court complexes. Video conferencing facilities have been enabled between 3,240 court complexes and 1,272 corresponding jails, the MoS said.