New Delhi: As many as 69,766 cases are pending in the Supreme Court, while 60,63,499 cases are lying in High Courts and another 4,42,92,136 cases are awaiting outcomes in the District and subordinate courts, the government said in Lok Sabha on Friday.
This information came in as a written reply from Union Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal who was replying to a couple of questions from several MP's enquiring about the pendency of cases in the SC. HC and the lower courts in the country.
The Allahabad High Court (as on 26 July 2023) has the maximum number of pending cases with 10,39,879 of them pending followed by 7,00,214 in Bombay HC, 6,52,093 in Rajasthan HC, 5,51,953 in Madras HC, 4,45,498 in Madhya Pradesh HC and several others. Northeastern states such as Manipur have 5,034 cases, Tripura 1,174, Meghalaya 1,148 and 157 cases are pending in Sikkim.
In district and subordinate courts, as many as 4,42,92,136 cases (as on 24 July 2023) are pending. Uttar Pradesh accounts for 1,16,35,286 cases, which is followed by 51,21,209 cases in Maharashtra, 35,08,123 in Bihar and 29,08,921 in West Bengal. Out of the 34 sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court, two seats are vacant while out of 1,114 sanctioned strength of judges in the High Courts, 773 are filled with posts. As many as 341 seats for judges are vacant (as on 24 July 2023), as per the data provided by the Minister.
According to the statistics, Allahabad HC has the highest number of vacant seats for judges. The total number of pending cases in the court is 10,39,879. The sanctioned strength is 160 while the working strength is 95. The court has 65 vacancies. The sanctioned strength of Bombay HC is 94 while 66 is the working strength. In Punjab and Haryana HC, 25 seats are vacant out of the total strength of 85. In previous years (as on January 17, 2022), out of the total strength of 1,098 judges in the HC, 687 of them are working while 411 seats are lying vacant. As on January 1, 2021, out of the total strength of 1,079 judges in the HC, 411 were vacant while 668 posts are filled up.
