Record 83,000 cases pending in Supreme Court despite higher judge count

Despite an increase in judges, the Supreme Court's case backlog has grown eightfold in the past decade, reaching a record high of nearly 83,000 cases

The increase in the number of judges in the Supreme Court has had a limited impact on reducing the backlog of cases. It’s no surprise that the backlog has increased eightfold over the past decade, while decreasing only twice. The current backlog in the Supreme Court stands at nearly 83,000 cases, the highest ever recorded.

When the sanctioned number of judges in the Supreme Court was raised from 26 to 31 in 2009, the backlog gradually went up from 50,000 cases to 66,000 by 2013. During the tenure of Chief Justices P Sathasivam and RM Lodha in 2014, the number of pending cases dropped slightly to 63,000. Justice H L Dattu further reduced it to 59,000 in 2015, according to a report by The Times of India.

However, the following year saw an increase to 63,000 cases under Chief Justice TS Thakur. Chief Justice JS Khehar, who initiated the idea of paperless courts through the integration of information technology in case management, significantly lowered the backlog to 56,000. In 2018, during Chief Justice Dipak Misra’s tenure, the number of pending cases rose again to 57,000.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi managed to persuade the government to raise the sanctioned number of judges from 31 to 34 in 2019 through a Parliamentary enactment. Despite this increase, the backlog grew to 60,000 cases. Under Chief Justice SA Bobde, the Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted the justice delivery system, temporarily halting proceedings before resuming virtually, causing the backlog to surge to 65,000, the report said.

During the 2021-22 period, the pandemic continued to impact case resolution even under Chief Justice NV Ramana. The backlog reached 70,000 cases in 2021 and climbed to 79,000 by the end of 2022, coinciding with the retirements of Chief Justices Ramana and UU Lalit and the appointment of Justice DY Chandrachud as Chief Justice of India.

Over the past two years, the backlog has grown by nearly 4,000 cases, approaching 83,000 cases — the highest ever — despite various technology-driven measures implemented by Chief Justice Chandrachud to improve the categorisation and grouping of cases.

Out of the 82,831 cases currently pending, 27,604 (33 per cent), are less than a year old. This year, the Supreme Court saw 38,995 new cases filed while disposing of 37,158, with the rate of disposal nearly matching the rate of new case filings, the report stated.

In high courts, the total backlog of cases was 4.1 million in 2014. This figure consistently rose over the past decade, except for one instance, reaching 6.1 million in 2023 before slightly decreasing to 5.9 million this year. Meanwhile, the trial courts’ backlog in India grew from 26 million cases in 2014 to 45 million cases today.