Prayagraj: The Covid-19 pandemic has created a ruckus in the country for the last 16 months. The functioning of the courts has also been badly affected during this period. Due to Covid-19, the number of pending cases in the Allahabad High Court, called the world's biggest high court, has now crossed 1 million.
And these are the numbers when the hearing of urgent matters was going on continuously through e-filing and video conferencing. Due to the second wave, the High Court is yet to start work properly, but the expected third wave has already started to spark fear.
The Covid-19 virus has already taken the lives of about 150 lawyers, including the sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court. While the severe impact on trials of the cases has created an economic crisis for thousands of lawyers and their munshis, the wait for litigants in the hope of justice continues to stretch.
The number of judges in the Allahabad High Court is anyway 40% less than the sanctioned posts. It may take years to settle more than 1 million pending cases, even if the situation gets completely normal.
Court Remained Closed For Months After March 15, 2020
The functioning of the Allahabad High Court started getting affected in the first week of March 2020. After March 15, the court was completely closed for months. During this period, even important matters like bail hearings could not take place. This has happened for the first time that legal work has been stalled in this 150 years old High Court.
However, after few weeks, the hearing of very important cases was started virtually. In the first few cases, the applications were decided directly. After that, the lawyers associated with the case were also allowed to present their side through video conferencing. However, the problem of internet connection, poor connectivity, and a lack of high-quality electronic devices also came in the way of legal decision-making.
After a few months, physical hearings started in the courts with strict rules and Covid-19 protocol, but then the lawyers here went on strike on the issue of the Education Service Tribunal. When the strike ended after about a month, the outbreak of the second wave of Covid-19 started.
The High Court once again had to be completely closed. Meanwhile, some special benches conducted virtual hearings on very important matters. E-filing as well as physical filing has been allowed in the High Court from today, but hearing in the open court is still not allowed.
98 Judges In Allahabad High Court
The High Court was already burdened with cases due to the low number of judges, but Covid-19 has now helped crossed this number beyond 1 million. Several decades ago 160 posts were sanctioned for judges in the Allahabad High Court but the full capacity was never reached. These days there are less than 100 judges here.
At present, there are only 98 judges in the High Court. Chief Justice Sanjay Yadav is retiring this week. If other judges also retire soon, this number will come down even further.
Before Covid-19, on average, 5 to 7 thousand cases were heard daily in the Allahabad High Court. In this Court, new cases along with listing i.e. old cases were also included.
At present, barely 1000 cases are being heard. More than 8 lakh cases are pending in Allahabad High Court alone due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In pending cases, about 1.25 lakh cases of civil appeal, 33,000 of civil miscellaneous, about 3 lakh civil writ, more than 1.5 lakh of criminal appeal, more than 2 lakh of criminal miscellaneous, and about 17,000 criminal writs are pending. In the last 16 months, the number of pending cases is increasing continuously.
Senior Advocate Vijay Gautam and High Court Bar General Secretary Prabha Shankar Mishra said that the Allahabad High Court has done a lot of work even in difficult and adverse circumstances. Keeping in mind the interests of the litigants, the Bar, and the Bench together will try to settle the pending cases at the earliest. Bar officer Manju Pandey says that Covid-19 has badly affected the employment of new lawyers. The situation is normal now, so hearing in open court should be considered now. According to former Bar Officer Abhishek Chauhan, due to Covid-19, in the last 16 months, the High Court has lost Justice VK Srivastava and about 150 lawyers and many employees. However, he says that the work can only be done by balancing both livelihood and life.
Litigants Have To Bear Brunt
The litigants are bearing the biggest brunt of the work being affected due to Covid-19. While all litigants are getting a new date, hundreds of people have to return disappointed every day. The litigants are now somehow waiting for the end of Covid-19.