Orissa High Court disposes of 133% cases in 2022

Bhubaneswar, Dec 31: Over 1.02 lakh cases were instituted in the Odisha High Court in 2022 while a whopping 1.36 lakh cases were disposed of at a case clearance rate of 133 per cent, a court statement said on Friday.

From January 1 to December 23 (till winter holidays), 1,02,247 cases were instituted and 1,36,599 cases were disposed of, the statement said.

There were 1,96,662 cases pending in the high court in the beginning of the year and now, the pendency was reduced to 1,62,310 cases. In the current year, 8,769 cases pending for more than 10 years were also disposed of, it said.

Similarly, 4,47,733 cases were disposed of in the district courts of Odisha in 2022 compared to 2,38,588 cases in 2021, registering 53.28 per cent rise.

While 5,00,404 cases were instituted in the district courts till November 30, the corresponding figure for the whole on 2021 was 4,34,810.

As on November 30, the district courts have delivered judgments in 1,41,920 (civil 29,209 and criminal 1,12,711) cases while 72,806 judgments (civil 17,370 and criminal 55,436) were given in 2021. The delivery of judgments in 2022 is 51 per cent more than in 2021.

While the average working strength of judicial officers was 767 against the sanctioned strength of 962 in 2021, the corresponding figure in 2022 is 776 and 977, respectively.

The per capita disposal in 2021 is 311 cases whereas it was 577 cases in 2022. The case clearance rate in 2021 ranges from 36.84 per cent to 76.86 per cent and in 2022, it is between 45.76 per cent to 177.32 per cent.

The total pendency of the rape and POCSO cases in the district courts is 18,882 as on November 30.

A total of 1,042 rape cases were disposed of from January 1 to December 26, out of which 125 cases were disposed of within one year from the date of taking cognisance.

Similarly, 3,309 cases were disposed of in the district judiciary for the corresponding period, out of which 660 cases were disposed of within the statutory period of one year from the date of taking cognisance of offence as delineated under Section 35 (2) of the POCSO Act.

In total, 4,351 cases were disposed of during the above period relating to rape and POCSO cases, of which 785 were disposed of within one year from the date of taking cognisance.