Judicial delays hampering finalisation of corruption cases have been flagged by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in its latest annual report. As many as 6,841 FIRs probed by the CBI are pending for trials in different courts across the country as on December 31, 2022.
Among those, cases pending for trial was the most (2,039) for a period of more than a decade and up to two decades; 2,324 are pending for over five years and up to 10 years; 842 for more than three years and up to five years; and 1,323 for less than three years, said the CVC.
“The commission took note of the large number of cases pending trial in different courts. It was observed that as on 31.12.2022, 6,841 number of cases were pending trial, of which, 313 number of cases were pending [trial] for more than 20 years,” the report observed.
appeals pending
Another facet of judicial delays is that a total of 12,408 appeals and revisions in the corruption cases are pending in different High Courts and the Supreme Court. Of those, 417 petitions are stuck for more than 20 years.
As many as 688 such appeals and revisions were pending for “more than 15 years but less than 20 years”, 2,314 for “more than 10 but less than 15 years”, 4,005 for “more than five but less than 10 years”, 2,881 for “more than two but but less than five years”, and 2,103 for “less than two years”, pointed out the report.
Though CBI officials are supposed to wind up probe in an year, the CVC analysed that the agency, too, has not been able to complete investigation in 692 cases and of that, 42 are for more than five years, as on December 31, 2022.
The break-up of statistics lead to the fact that 60 cases were pending for probe for “more than three years but less than five years”, 79 for “more than two years but less than three years”, 138 for “more than one year but less than two years” and 373 for “less than one year”, the report stated. Reasons attributed for the sluggish disposal of cases include “delay in investigation due to excessive work”, “inadequacy of manpower”, “delay in obtaining responses to Letters Rogatory (LRs)“ and “time taken in locating and examining witnesses living in distant places”.
“Completion of investigation would imply filing of charge sheets in courts, wherever warranted, after receipt of sanction from the competent authority. The Commission has observed that there have been some delays in completing investigations in certain cases,” it said.