The whole country seems divided on what happened to the accused who have raped the Hyderabad veterinary doctor Priyanka Reddy. Some are calling the police encounter as ‘justice’, while others are calling it as a unjustified judicial process. There are many people in the country who are happy with the encounter of the killers of Disha. But why so…?
The saying in English is, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ means delay in justice does not mean justice. If we look at the pending criminal lawsuits in the country, this saying seems to be of considerable importance.
The wait for justice can be gauged from the fact that a total of 3 crore 17 lakh 35 thousand 214 cases are pending in the district and taluka courts of the country. Of these, 2 crore 27 lakh 95 thousand 420 cases are criminal. There is a proposal to set up 1023 fast track courts in the country for speedy verdict in cases of serious crimes like rape and rape of children. Despite this, the path of getting justice is looking very long.
Millions of people have been circling the court and running from pillar to post for years waiting for justice. But they are only getting the dates. The encounter that the Telangana police carried out, the flowers that were rained on the policemen, was probably the frustration of this long wait. This is why people are probably happy and excited about this encounter by the police of the four accused.
Waiting for justice for three decades
According to data from the National Judicial Data Grid, lakhs of people have been waiting for justice for years. Thousands of cases are more than 30 years old, in which justice has not been done so far. 41,682 criminal cases have been pending for three decades.
| Waiting Period | Pending Criminal Cases | Pending Civil Cases | Total Pending Cases |
| 0 to 1 year | 41,42,201 | 99,14,998 | 1,40,57,161 |
| 1 to 3 years | 20,65,835 | 52,39,012 | 73,04,816 |
| 3 to 5 years | 11,42,027 | 26,55,548 | 37,97,566 |
| 5 to 10 years | 10,50,526 | 31,50,402 | 42,00,927 |
| 10 to 20 years | 4,12,842 | 15,21,253 | 19,34,095 |
| 20 to 30 years | 94,780 | 2,69,846 | 3,64,626 |
| Over 30 years | 30,156 | 41,682 | 71,838 |
The case has been pending for 66 years in Maharashtra
The oldest pending case in the lower court is of Satara in Maharashtra, which has been pending for almost 66 years.
This criminal case was filed in the lower court of Satara on 31 March 1953.
This case has been registered under Section 406 of IPC
A case is registered in this section in betrayal
The next hearing of this case will be on December 19, 2019
Pending cases despite fast track court
It is proposed to set up 1023 fast-track courts in the country to deal with serious cases like rape and the Posco Act (rape of a girl under the age of 12). Despite this, 1,66,882 cases of rape and Posco Act are pending in these courts.
Maximum 36,008 rape and POSCO cases pending in UP fast track courts
218 fast track courts have been formed in Uttar Pradesh
The oldest civil suit in the lower court is of 1951, which began in Hooghly, West Bengal.