Rahul Gandhi slams Ravi Shankar Prasad on pendency of cases: Law minister retaliates, calls it UPA govt's legacy

New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, saying that he was "peddling fake news" while the legal system is collapsing.

File image of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Twitter@MinIT_Telangana

Prasad hit back, saying the pendency of cases was a legacy of the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He also questioned if the notice given to controversial firm Cambridge Analytica bothered him personally.

In a tweet on Saturday, Gandhi said the legal system is "collapsing under pending cases".

He said there were over 55,000 pending cases in the Supreme Court, over 37 lakh in various high courts (HC) and over 2.6 crore in the lower courts.

"Yet, a staggering 400 high court and 6,000 lower court judges not appointed, while Law Minister preoccupied (with) peddling fake news," Gandhi said.

In response, Prasad tweeted calling the pending cases a UPA legacy. "Mr Rahul Gandhi, pendency is the legacy which UPA govt of 10 years had given us where judicial infrastructure development was the lowest priority. "We are improving the situation by creating more infrastructure, more digitization and greater technology application in disposal of cases," he said.

"In 2016 a record 126 High Court Judges were appointed in one year — the highest since independence. Since May 2014 NDA government appointed 17 SC Judges, 326 HC judges and made 304 additional judges permanent & also created 173 new posts of High Court Judges, compared to 20 created in UPA 2," Prasad added.

Prasad also questioned if the notice given to Cambridge Analytica worried the Congress chief. "Mr Rahul Gandhi, the notice given to Cambridge Analytica for data manipulation has naturally worried you. Angry, frustrated and apprehensive, you are now dragging the judiciary. Deeply reprehensible," he said.

Prasad had alleged that the Congress was using the services of the London-based political data analytics firm CA and also claimed that the firm was involved in Gandhi's social media campaign and there had been meetings too in this regard.