Allahabad High Court has highest pendency, but each judge here decides maximum cases in India: Justice Subhash Vidyarthi

The Allahabad High Court recently observed that while it is known for having the highest pendency of cases, it is seldom mentioned that each of its judges decides the maximum number of cases each year in India [Banwari Lal Kanchhal v. State of UP]..Justice Subhash Vidyarthi made the comment while rejecting a lawyer’s request for passing over a case on the ground that the counsel was busy in some other court."The Allahabad High Court is generally talked about for its highest pendency, which at the start of this day was 10,60,451, out of which, 4,96,876 cases are of criminal nature. It is seldom mentioned that the average number of cases decided per Judge of this Court per year is the maximum in the Country," he observed..Highlighting the ever-increasing workload on judges, he added that not less than 150 matters are listed before a bench on any given day, several of which cannot be taken up due to paucity of time. “The practice of passing over the matters due to engagement of the learned Counsel elsewhere has also played its bit in increasing pendency of the cases as every such request consumes at least a minute or two.".Justice Vidyarthi said that while judges are trying to reduce the pendency by enhancing the speed of dispensation of justice, they cannot do so without the fullest cooperation of the advocates.The Court said that lawyers should decrease the number of requests for adjournments and not object to the submissions being heard in their absence, particularly when there is a counsel present in the courtroom to take notes on the submissions. It also opined that its "precious time" could also be better utilized if counsel refrained from citing multiple case-laws on a single point. “The same old practices will continue to produce the same old results but as the society needs faster disposal of matters, all of us should change our practices to produce better results,” Justice Vidyarthi added..The official data on disposal of cases before High Courts does reveal that the Allahabad High Court decides the most cases each year.Below is the data on High Courts that usually dispose of more than 1 lakh cases each year:.The data was provided by the Ministry of Law & Justice in response to a parliamentary question posed by Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh. However, the Allahabad High Court's annual Case Clearance Rate (CCR) - calculated on the basis of the number of cases disposed of in a year compared to the number of cases filed in that year - is not highest among the High Courts.While some of the High Courts dispose of over 100 per cent (more than number of cases filed a year) cases each year, the Allahabad High Court over the years has fluctuated between 77 per cent and 98 per cent..The case before the Court concerned an application for stay on the conviction of former Rajya Sabha member Banwari Lal Kanchhal, who was recently held guilty of beating up and threatening a Sales Tax Officer in 1991. His sentence of two years of imprisonment was suspended earlier..The Court also took note of the fact that the trial court, while imposing the sentence on the Kanchhal, had turned down his request for granting him the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958. The trial court was of the view that if Kanchhal were given the benefit of probation, the public would feel that the judiciary was aiding such famous persons. By punishing such famous persons, a sense of fear of the criminal justice system will be instilled in the public and the people’s faith in the judiciary will increase, the trial court had opined.However, the High Court called such reasoning “extraneous” and held that a person cannot be denied the benefit of statutory provisions merely with the object of improving the social image of the judiciary.“While deciding any case, the Court has to primarily keep into mind all the relevant facts and circumstances of the case and the relevant provisions of law. The opinion of the public should not influence the decision of a Judge," the Court said..Concluding that Kanchhal had strong chances of success in his appeal against the order of conviction and sentence, the High Court proceeded to stay his conviction..Senior Advocate Jaideep Narain Mathur and Advocates Amit Jaiswal, Nadeem Murtaza and Mohit Singh represented Kanchhal.Government Advocate VK Singh appeared for the State.Advocates Vijay Dixit and Devam Shukla appeared on behalf of certain intervenors..[Read Order]