How Cases Are Mounting Before The Supreme Court?

The judiciary is one of the three estates that are important in a democracy. Whenever there is an issue people knock on the doors of the courts. There is a hierarchy in the system and there are courts at various levels. However, the courts are facing a big burden of pending cases.

The Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, has the most pending cases as per the data. It is said that there are around 82,989 pending cases which are said to be the all-time highest.

The data gathered by the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) shed light on the pending cases at the top court. What’s even more concerning is that even the fresh cases which are one year old are also pending in big numbers.

Out of the pending cases, 27,729 cases are less than one year old. However, despite this, the disposable rate of cases this year is quite high. Data says that 39,254 cases were filed this year and 37,259 were disposed of and the rate is over 94 percent.

The cases were pending before various judges like Five-judge, seven-judge, and nine-judges. Over the years the cases have been increasing and the Covid-19 outbreak played a key role in the cases mounting before the top court.

When the Covid outbreak hit us the Courts did not function as usual due to the restrictions. Since the past few years, the cases have been increasing post-Covid and every year the cases have been mounting up.

In just one decade the cases increased by tenfold as per the information. The Supreme Court took some steps to speed up the hearings. However, it looks like a lot of work has to be done here.