Backlog burden on lower courts

India's lower courts, burdened by about 25 million pending cases, need at least 12 years to clear the backlog. The disposal rate varies from state to state, with a monthly average of 43 cases.

Take Gujarat. At the current rate of clearance, it will take the state's lower courts 287 years to decide pending cases, although Gujarat has more judges than all but four Indian states. Former Supreme Court Judge Santosh Hegde said there appeared to be "something wrong" with Gujarat's lower judiciary. "Either the state high court is not paying attention or everybody has gotten used to the way the system works," he said.

The lower courts in Hegde's home state, Karnataka, appear to be working more efficiently. At last month's rate, the courts would be able to dispose all pending cases within three years.

Maharashtra and West Bengal have more cases filed than disposed on any given day. These continue to add to the backlog.

A single judge in Karnataka's lower courts clears 113 cases a month. Gujarat's judges, on the other hand, don't match up, with 19 cases cleared every month.

Mizoram and Tripura have the lowest disposal rates in the country: less than 13 cases are cleared by a judge in a month.