The Supreme Court has an alarming 60,938 cases pending till September last year, nearly 88% more than the 690 it had pending a year after it was established in 1950. While only 1,215 cases were filed in 1950, the top court received 59,386 petitions between January and September alone last year.
Even though the number of Supreme Court judges has also risen from eight at the time of establishment to 31 at present, it has not been able to keep pace with the rate of cases brought to the country’s highest judicial forum. The court released the findings in the Indian Judiciary Annual Report 2015-2016 on Wednesday.
According to the report, the number of unresolved cases crossed 50,000 in 1981, and it touched one lakh in 1989. “The mounting arrears of the cases have been a cause of concern for all courts in the country, including the Supreme Court,” the report said. “A sustained effort to clear the backlog has resulted in reducing the pendency of this court below the 60,000 mark by the end of the year 2015.”
The years 1997 and 2014 saw the highest drops in the number of unsettled cases at the Supreme Court – at the end of 1997, there were 19,032 cases pending at the top court, while in 2015, it disposed of a record number of 92,722 cases.
These startling numbers have been released at a time when unresolved high court cases triggered a duel between the judges and the Centre. Former chief justice of India TS Thakur had criticised the central government for not clearing appointments to high courts. He had highlighted the 500 vacant posts in high courts across the country.
According to data available with the Supreme Court, 442 posts (42%) of the sanctioned strength of 1,041 judges in high courts across India were vacant on March 31.
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