Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir today said that pendency of cases, in various courts, is "bound" to increase as the strength of judicial officers remains static.

He also stressed the need to effectively tap mediation as one of the methods of alternate dispute resolution, lamenting that the mechanism was not given due importance to bring down pendency of cases in courts.

"Mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism can help in reducing the pendency of cases in the courts...Without this (alternate dispute mechanism) the entire legal system--the legal infrastructure--that we have is going to have problems," Justice Kabir said after inaugurating the Hyderabad Mediation Centre at Nyaya Seva Sadan here.

"...Unfortunately mediation as one of the methods of alternate dispute resolution was not given very much importance," he said.

The chief justice said the inadequate number of judicial officers will further compound the problem of pending litigations.

"With increase in population, there has been a large number of cases piled up in the courts. Litigation is bound to increase, however, at the same time the number of judicial officers remains static," he said, adding the number of judge in India is amongst the lowest in the world.

"We have about 15 judges approximately for one million of our citizens. This problem is not something new and confined to India alone, but being faced by all the major democracies in the world," Justice Kabir said.

The Hyderabad Mediation Centre will take up pre-litigation and post-litigation cases covering all types of civil and compoundable criminal cases.

Addressing the gathering, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said the state government had recently sanctioned 120 permanent courts.

Minister for Law and Justice E Prathap Reddy and Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court Pinaki Chandra Ghose and other dignitaries also spoke on the occasion.