NEW DELHI: Increasing pendency of cases in SC has always been an insurmountable task for all CJIs because of a quantum jump each year in number of case litigants approaching the court but Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has in his almost two years tenure as Chief Justice managed to bring pendency down by 10,000 in comparison to 2022.
While interacting with TOI, the CJI said he tried to infuse transparency by putting all details about pending cases in public domain and the definition of “pending of cases” in SC underwent a substantive change after Nov 2022 and a conscious decision was taken to include all cases (registered + defective cases on diary number) in the list of pending cases.
“As on Jan 1, 2020, 79,528 cases including defective cases were pending. As on Jan 1, 2022, 93,011 cases, including defective cases, were pending. As on Nov 1, 2024, pendency of cases, including defective cases, is 82,885. This reflects a reduction of over 10,000 cases,” CJI said, countering charge that backlog has increased in last two years.
As per data, number of cases disposed of from Nov 9, 2022 to Nov 1, 2024 is 1,07,403 while registration of cases during the period is 95,244. As per present system, a diary number is automatically generated and is assigned on the filing of a case and it is counted towards the pending cases even if it is defective and is not ready for being placed before a court.
During same period, 1,11,498 cases have been filed. This includes defective cases which are not ready for hearing but are assigned diary numbers. During this period, 5,33,142 cases have been listed for hearing and 1,07,403 have been disposed of. Justice Chandrachud said he prioritised listing of bail cases in SC as it involved personal liberty and he directed listing of upto 10 bail cases in each court on all five working days to ensure quick disposal.