Indian Railways has highest number of pending cases: Law Ministry
As per the Law Ministry reports, the railways is the biggest litigant among the government departments as it has nearly 66,000 pending cases in courts. Strikingly, out of the total 66,000 cases, 10,464 cases are pending for more than 10 years. The Legal Information Management and Briefing System website, reportedly, states that the government departments have the most number of pending cases.
What comes under the government litigation?
Service matters, disputes with private organizations as well as disputes between two government departments and two PSUs, all of these fall under Government litigation. As of now, the government faces 369 contempt cases across courts, thereby becoming the biggest litigator in the country.
Pending cases against other government departments
The Railways isn't the only one to have pending cases, the finance ministry follows suit with 15,646 cases. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communication has 12,621 cases pending in courts. The Ministry of Home Affairs is the fourth biggest litigant with 11,600 cases. The least number of pending cases is against the Ministry of Panchayati Raj with three pending cases.
Burden of judiciary must be reduced, says Law Minister
Ahead of a national litigation policy which is in the making, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also expressed his concern about the government being a compulsive litigant. Prasad had said that the burden of the judiciary could be reduced if the government takes cognizance and files cases after taking a careful look. Earlier, PM Modi too had stated the same.
