Peaking over 88,000 cases, pendency continues to plague Supreme Court

The pendency in the Supreme Court has reached an all-time high in recent years of 88,417 cases, that too when the court is currently functioning with its full sanctioned judicial strength of 34 judges.

The court has 69,553 civil cases and 18,864 criminal matters pending currently, the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) showed. The filing of fresh cases in August surpassed the disposal rate. A total of 7,080 cases were instituted in the apex court in August alone. The court has managed a disposal rate of 5,667 cases in August, that is, 80.04% of the cases filed.

Also read | Converting court case backlogs into treasure troves

The escalation in pendency is despite Chief Justice B.R. Gavai’s decision to have more Benches working through the long summer recess of the court in a bid to decrease the caselog.

The CJI had re-named the summer holidays from May 23 to July this year as ‘partial working days’. The CJI and five senior most judges of the court had presided over the first batch of Benches hearing cases during the summer recess. A total of 21 Benches sat in batches throughout the ‘partial working days’, hearing and disposing of cases, till the court re-opened in July.

In 2025, 52,630 cases were filed while 46,309, nearly 88%, were disposed of during a year which has already seen two Chief Justices of India with a third, Justice Surya Kant, expected to be sworn in in late November 2025.

The same time last year, 2024, had seen a similar climb in pendency to a then peak of over 82,000 cases. The increase in pendency in the court persists despite successive Chief Justices, from Justice D.Y. Chandrachud to Justice Gavai taking care to maintain judicial vacancy in the top court to the minimum, if not zero.

The unceasing increase in backlog has become a perennial phenomenon since the pandemic years, and especially since 2023. The pendency had continued to rise steadily despite Justice Chandrachud, when he was CJI, acting swiftly to fill up vacancies in the top court. His successors to the top judge post, Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Gavai, have also spearheaded their own Collegium to promptly recommend names of apex court judges to the government.

Past Chief Justices and even Collegium resolutions have raised the issue of “huge workload”. A November 2023 Collegium resolution had mentioned the bare truth that the court cannot afford even one vacancy taking into account the “ever mounting pendency of cases”.

“The workload of judges has increased considerably. Bearing in mind the above, it has become necessary to ensure that the court has full working judge-strength leaving no vacancy at any point of time,” the Collegium had underscored.

The recent months have seen the government approve Collegium recommendations to the Supreme Court without delay, often within 48 hours. Yet, the mound of backlog continues to rise steadily.