Report No. 14

20. In Subordinate Judges Courts.-

Turning to the position in the subordinate judges' courts the accompanying Table (No. 5) will show the institution, disposal and pendency of proceedings of different categories during the three years 1954-56.

Table No. 5

Region	Nature of the Proceeding	Instituted			Disposed of			Pending			Pending	Over a	year
		1954	1955	1956	1954	1955	1956	1954	1955	1956	1954	1955	1956
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Andhra	Civil suits	2140	1488	1409	3222	1784	1704	3026	2730	2525	1634	1610	1463
	Small causes suits	4527	4179	4779	4345	4111	4414	1520	1588	3953	62	142	213
	Misc.Civil cases and petitions	51500	50789	51361	50979	50570	50484	7817	8036	8913	1252	1552	1520
	Civil appeals	2184	1966	1970	2165	2019	1892	6209	2154	2252	431	613	526
	Civil Misc. appeals	N.A.	753	659	669	701	685	289	351	325	16	16	36
	Sessions cases	294	196	184	273	231	180	60	26	31	2	1	..
	Criminal appeals	..	..	1541	..	..	1491	..	..	50	..	..	..
	Criminal Revn.	..	..	20	..	..	20	..	..	..	..	..	..
	Case under I.P.C.	..	..	2	..	..	2	..	..	..	..	..	..
	Cases under other Acts	8	4	7	13	4	4	1	1	4	..	..	..
Telangana	Civil suits	794	724	878	870	761	787	535	498	663	85	95	177
	Small cause suits	433	503	555	493	466	517	99	136	176	..	10	4
	Misc. Civil cases and petitions	1206	1031	1125	1172	1226	1051	484	289	431	56	34	71
	Criminal appeals	336	220	109	330	221	133	44	43	19	..	..	..
	Criminal revn.	566	598	568	450	550	464	116	48	104	..	..	3
	Cases under I.P.C.	2035	1503	1291	2106	1495	1394	218	226	130	5	3	1
	Other cases	1661	1216	1582	1718	1408	1551	234	142	173	17	3	4

Note.- 1. 10 officers in 1954 and 1955 and 11 in 1956 worked as subordinate judges and district magistrate in the Telengana Region.

2. 30 officers in 1954, 25 in 1955 and 22 in 1956 worked as subordinate judges out of whom 26, 21 and 19 were vested powers of assistant sessions judges in Andhra Region.

21. The annual average disposal of work by a subordinate judge based on the institutions and disposals during the same period is as under:

Table No. 6

Region	Nature of proceeding	Instituted	Disposed of	Pending
1	2	3	4	5
Andhra	Civil Suits	65.4	87.13	107.53
	Small Cause Suits	175.1	167.65	65.5
	Civil Appeals	79.4	78.9	86
	Civil Misc. Appeals	24.73	26.7	12.5
	Civil Misc. Petns. and Cases	1995.4	1974.3	321.63
	Sessions cases	10.2	10.3	1.8
Telangana	Civil Suits	77.4	78	54.7
	Small Cause Suits	48.1	47.6	13.2
	Civil Appeals
	Civil Misc. Petns. and Cases	108.4	111.2	39
	Cases under IPC	156	161	18.5
	Cases under other Acts	147	151	17.4
	Criminal Appeals	21.4	22	3.4
	Criminal Revision Petitions.	56	47.2	8.7

22. Notwithstanding a substantial increase in disposals and a progressive fall in the number of year-old suits one cannot overlook the fact that some suits have remained pending over a decade. The following table shows the number of original suits pending on 1st January, 1956 arranged according to the years of institution in the sub-courts in the Andhra region.

Table No. 7

Region				Year
	1942	19433	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948
1	1	2	1	5	8	10	16
1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956
20	46	119	186	433	762	1103	2713

23. The file of the subordinate judges is loaded with all kinds of proceedings. In the Andhra districts these judges entertain proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act, the Indian Succession Act, and the like. They are constituted Employees' Insurance Courts under section 74 of the Employees' Insurance Act, 1948 and are appellate courts under the Rent Control Act. They have also been invested with powers of Assistant Sessions Judges and considerable criminal work is being done by them. Suits filed in these courts are of a complicated nature. It will be seen from the following table that quite a large number-approximately fifty per cent.-out of the total institutions are suits requiring adjudication of claims to immovable property.

Table No. 8

Year	Total number of suits of suits instituted	Title and other suits	Suits for money or movable properties
1	2	3	4
1953	2334	1125	1109
1954	2007	990	1017
1955	1372	662	710

24. Fifty per cent. of the suits brought to trial before the sub-courts are disposed of after contest as will be seen from the table set down below:-

Table No. 9

Name of the district and Head Quarter of the court	Pending at the beginning of the year	Instituted	Total for disposal	Total Disposed of	Disposed of after contest	Average duration
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Anantpur
Anantpur	130	60	190	108	54	741
Cuddapah
Cuddapah	28	11	39	22	10	129
East Godavari
Kakinada	168	108	276	126	67	539
West Godavari
Eluru	155	81	236	192	123	522
Guntur
Bapatla	188	63	251	77	44	819
Krishna
Gudivada	89	36	125	50	31	691
Kurnool
Kurnool	109	853	194	80	353	459

25. In 1921 the number of a year-old suits in the subordinate judges' courts in the composite State of Madras which comprised of about twenty-six districts was 1793 whereas in 1956 the number in the ten Andhra districts was nearly the same-1463. The Civil Justice Committee considered the pendency in the subordinate judges' courts as "a state of affairs not capable of being easily set right without some scheme for at once getting rid of the incubus of arrears."1 This observation applied with greater force to the Andhra districts in its present state of affairs. It has to be noted that work is heavy in some courts and light in others and a redistribution of territorial jurisdiction should be effected wherever necessary.

It is a matter for consideration whether in the Telangana region where the nature of litigation is simple and institutions are comparatively small, the territorial jurisdiction of courts can be increased. If the subordinate judges are relieved of their civil appellate work and of some of their sessions work, it will enable them to devote their time mainly to their original civil work and to dispose of the arrears within a reasonable time while disposing of a few sessions cases also. We are of the view that after the arrears are cleared it will be necessary to re-examine and re-determine the strength of the subordinate judges.

1. Report, p. 553.

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