Report No. 14

11. Delays in Civil Proceedings

1. Delays in civil proceedings.-

This part of our Report is concerned with delays in the disposal of civil proceedings in India, the causes which occasion such delays at different stages of the litigation and remedies for reducing the delays. Laws' delays are not peculiar to our country. They have been and continue to be the subject of comment in the United Kingdom and the United States. Nor are these delays a recent development in our country. They have been the subject of previous inquiries by several committees to which we have made a reference earlier. Many of the matters dealt with by us were also examined by those Committees and we shall have occasion to refer to the results of their examination in appropriate places.

2. Volume of litigation; institution and disposals.-

Before considering the nature and the causes of the delays during the progress of a suit, it is necessary to ascertain the extent of the delays by a reference to some figures relating to the institution and disposal of original suits in the various States. We have, for the purpose of this analysis, chosen the year 1954 because it is the latest year for which administration reports were available for all the States. The figures of 1954 which we have given in the following Tables relate to the former Part A and Part B States. We have not been able to obtain relevant figures for Part C States.

3. During 1954, over one million and fifty-five thousand original suits including small cause suits were instituted in the civil courts excluding the village and panchayat courts and the High Courts on the original side. Including the arrears carried forward from the previous year, the total number of suits available for disposal by the courts in that year was over one million six hundred and fifty-nine thousand. During that year, the courts disposed of one million and forty-seven thousand suits leaving undecided more than six hundred thousand or thirty-six per cent. of the total suits available for disposal. The following Table gives an overall picture of these suits before the civil courts in the States mentioned.

Table Showing The Institution, Disposal and Pendency of Original Civil Suits (Excluding Suits Before The Village and Panchayat Courts and High Courts) In 1954.

Name of the State	Instituted during the year	Total No. of suits for disposal	Number of suits disposed of	No of suits pending at the close of the year
1	2	3	4	5
Andhra	74728	1,01,643	72892	28751
Assam	10873	17816	10090	7726
Bihar	153452	215942	154151	61791
Hyderabad	23905	35148	25053	10085
*Kerala (Travancore-Cochin)	23905	35148	25053	10085
Madhya Pradesh	52101	83470	52833	30637
Madras	74219	152093	76900	75193
*Mysore	N.A.	41541	29773	11768
Orissa	16390	28098	15579	12519
Punjab	21883	31711	22261	9450
Rajasthan	47866	70823	48618	22205
Saurashtra	18482	25612	18602
Uttar Pradesh	198738	309262	169353	139909
West Bengal	200439	271459	194998	764661
	1055553	1659865	1047220	612635

*. For the official year 1954-55.

4. These figures which also include a large volume of small litigation decided by courts of small cause are not of material assistance in understanding the precise nature or extent of the delays nor of the difficulties of the courts or of the litigants. The position, however, becomes a little clearer from the following the number of pending cases into those pending for more than one year. The following Table gives these particulars.

Name of the State	Total No. of suits disposed of	No. of suits disposed of without contest	No. of suits disposed of after contest	No. of pending for over a year
Andhra	72892	58660	14232	6509
Assam	10090	8785	1305	2073
Bihar	154151	139076	15075	10983
Bombay	1,11,460	84325	27135	22964
Hyderabad	25053	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
Kerala	44657	23917	20740	22842
Madhya Pradesh	52833	37742	15091	5685
Madras	76900	58320	18580	46649
Mysore	29773	20915	8858	1131
Orissa	15579	12994	2591	4584
Punjab	22261	14082	8179	671
Rajasthan	48618	34780	13838	4869
Saurashtra	18602	10359	8063	1082
Uttar Pradesh	169353	135832	33518	41121
West Bengal	194998	180662	14336	17909
	104720	820452	201541	190703

5. Proportion of delayed cases.-

The uncontested suits include those which were summarily dismissed under Order IX of the Civil Procedure Code or otherwise, suits decided ex parte or on admission of the claim and those compromised after the defendant had entered appearance.It will be seen that out of the total number of suits decided 25.58 pet cent. only were decided after full trial and the rest of the disposals amounting to over 70 per cent. were without contest. The average duration of cases decided without contested is generally less than one year. That would show that two-third of the suits are disposed of in less than one year after their institution and the cry of "law's delays" is, therefore, directed against the balance of One-third of the cases which remain pending fora year or more.

Arrears: What they are (Pendency of old suits).- Before considering the cause of delayed disposals, we must attempt to understand and define what should be regarded as unjustifiably delayed suits or arrears. Every case pending before a court cannot be put in the category of arrears. A case necessarily takes a certain amount of time in passing through its preliminary stages of the completion of pleadings, service of process, discovery and inspection, before it can reach a stage when it can be set down for hearing. We have in an earlier chapter indicated what should be regarded as normal time limits for the disposal of various types of civil proceedings.

We have come to the conclusion that having to the figures of average duration, the standard time for disposal of a suit in a munsif's court should be one year and in a subordinate Judge's court eighteen months. These standards are to some extent arbitrary but in the nature of things that cannot be avoided. the real arrears would, therefore, be those cases in the munsif's courts which have been pending for more than one year after institution and those in the subordinate judges' courts pending for one and a half to two years. Bearing this is mind, we may examine the extent of the delays from the following Table showing the pendency of original suits in the subordinate courts excluding small cause suits(in seven States) according to the year of institutions.

Table Showing The Institution, Disposal and Pendency of Original Civil Suits(Excluding Suits Before The Village and Panchayat Courts and High Courts) in 1954.

Name of the State and class of courts	1941 and earlies	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	Total
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Andhra
District Judge Courts	1	..	1		2	1	1	1	5	2	13	25	56	87	194
Subodinate Judges Courts	..	..	2	1	6	7	15	22	25	66	233	432	852	1374	3036
District Munsifs Courts	2	..	5	5	11	16	24	55	86	173	297	694	3058	11288	15714
Assam<
Munsifs' Courts								*28	42	30	115	290	1142	4503	6150
Subordinate Courts								*3	19	29	101	174	292	690	1308
District Courts	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	4	14	5	1	7	41
Bihar
Supreme Courts				**9	6	9	11	17	47	115	335	812	1454	3846	6661
Munsif's Courts				**3	6	11	14	65	68	726	463	1523	5739	46962	55130
Madras
District Judge Courts						1	1	..	6	2	7	18	51	95	181
Subordinate Judges Courts	4	4	1	12	14	26	31	48	85	184	348	622	1449	1826	4654
District Musifs' Courts	10	10	63	237	935	1721	1153	1684	1894	2800	4059	3244	16909	14317	49036
Orissa
Superior Courts				@7	1	4	7	7	7	31	67	211	405	1332	2079
Munsifs' Courts				@32	4	4	12	18	44	72	292	984	2375	6603	10440
Punjab
District Courts other than Chief
Courts of the District				1	2	1	3	11	12	16	32	34	63	270	446
Chief Courts of the District							1	1	1	..	..	..	2	2	7
West Bengal
District Judges Courts								@5	5	11	15	14	38	147	235
Additional Judges Courts								2	..	..	2	3	8	8	23
Subordinate Judges Courts								191	150	312	553	981	1777	2698	6642
Munsifs' Courts								657	255	388	863	2627	8502	41902	55194

*. Instituted prior to 1949.

**. Instituted prior to 1945.

@. Pending for over ten years.

@@. Instituted prior to 1949.

The above Statement relates only to seven Slates because reports from other States do not give similar particulars.

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