Nearly 50,000 cases of crime against women pending in Mumbai courts
16 Jul, 2013An application was filed with the Bombay High Court under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details about the number of cases pending in the subordinate judiciary across Maharashtra since 2008 concerning oppression of minorities, crimes against women, corruption cases, motor accident cases and those pertaining to land acquisition. The application also sought information about fast-track courts in the state.
The reply to the application states that around 50,000 cases of crime against women are pending in the courts as of May 2013. This indicates a rise of 40% over 2008 figures when the pendency of women related cases was around 35,000.
The PIO of the High Court stated in the reply that the pendency was highest in cases related to Motor Accident Claims. Nearly 90,000 such cases are pending with the courts, which anyway, is 6% less than 2008 figures. The reply shows that pendency of cases related to Prevention of Corruption Act is 3,008 which is an increase of 12% over 2008. Similarly number of pending cases related to Land Acquisition Act increased from 58,000 in 2008 to 75,000 in 2013. However, as per the RTI reply the highest increase in terms of percentage was witnessed in the pending cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The court has proposed to the government regarding the permanency of its scheme for 100 fast track courts whose current deadline is 2016.