The Supreme Court has expressed it’s disinclination to entertain a PIL seeking a three-year outer limit for all courts to clear their cumulative backlog of more than five crore cases.
The Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud told the petitioner that what he was seeking to achieve was very desirable but practically impossible, given the flood of litigation faced by each tier of the justice delivery system.
The Apex Court took up more cases every day than what Western countries heard in a year. This was because the Indian justice system was people-oriented and focused on every citizen getting easy access to courts.
If the Supreme Court of India adopted the approach of top courts in Western countries, the backlog can be cleared in a year and there would be no pendency, observed the Bench on Friday.
As on October 18, 2024, 82,397 cases were pending in the Supreme Court, of which 27,675 were less than a year old. Till date, 48,000 cases have been filed this year and the Apex Court had disposed of 46,659 cases in the same period.
The US Supreme Court accepted 100-150 of the more than 7,000 cases it was asked to review every year. According to its rules, four of the nine judges must vote to accept a case. Five of the nine judges must vote to grant a stay, for example, on execution in a death penalty case.
The UK Supreme Court received around 230 applications for permission to appeal and heard around 90 cases per year. On the other hand, the Supreme Court of India, on Mondays and Fridays, operated 17 Benches with each taking up an average 60 cases, which meant on these days, it heard over 1,000 cases per day.
The 25 High Courts in India have a backlog of over 60 lakh cases, of which 4.5 lakh cases were less than a year old.
This year, 13.4 lakh new cases have been filed in High Courts, while 10.7 lakh cases were disposed of during the same period. In trial courts across the country, 4.5 crore cases were pending as on October 18. As many as 24.7 lakh cases were instituted in trial courts in September, 2024. The trial courts disposed of 31.8 lakh cases in the same month.