More than 71,000 cases are pending with the Supreme Court, out of which more than 10,000 are awaiting disposal for over a decade, Rajya Sabha was informed on August 4.
In a written reply, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said 71,411 cases as on August 2 were pending before the top court, which included over 56,000 civil matters and over 15,000 criminal matters.
He said of the total 71,411 pending cases in the apex court, 10,491 were pending for more than ten years. Over 42,000 cases were pending for less than five years and 18,134 between five and 10 years.
In reply to another question, Mr. Rijiju said while 40,28,591 cases were pending in the various high courts in 2016, their numbers went up to 59,55,907 as on July 29 this year — a rise of 50%.
The district and subordinate courts also saw a 50% hike in cases between 2016 and July 29 this year. In 2016, over 2.82 crore cases were pending, the figure stood at over 4.24 crore this year.
Disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary. Though filing and disposal of cases in different courts is a continuous process, no time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts, the Minister said.
