New Delhi, July 23: The Supreme Court on Monday asked State Governments and concerned authorities to consider "exploring issue of plea bargaining to accused and other respective persons to ensure that pendency of cases is reduced." The Supreme Court's order is a step in the direction of reducing lakhs of cases which are pending in the courts for years.

According to a report published in English daily, The Times of India, more than 10 lakh cases are pending in the 24 high courts across India. The report also puts light on the fact that many cases have been pending for over 20 years, and the wait for justice just keeps getting longer.

The TOI report, citing government documents and record, mentioned that if cases pending from five to 10 years were to be taken into account, it would make up for almost 50% of the total cases pending. The total number of cases pending with the 24 High Courts in the country are 42.69 lakhs, according to the report.

The Allahabad High Court ranks first among the worst performing High Courts, as far as the number of cases pending are concerned. According to the TOI report, Allahabad High Court, which is also the largest high court in the country, has more than 2.5 lakh cases pending for last 10 years or more.

The Allahabad High Court is followed by the Bombay High Court (1.5 lakh cases pending), Punjab & Haryana HC (more than 1  lakh cases pending), Calcutta HC (Around 1 lakh cases pending), and Rajasthan HC (70,000 cases pending). The other High Courts on the list are Madhya Pradesh HC, Telangana & Andhra HC, Madras HC, Orissa HC and Patna HC, respectively.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2018 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).