In an achievement of sorts, the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court dipped by 2,174 in two months since August 28 – the day Justice Dipak Misra became the Chief Justice of India.
The pendency of cases on August 28 – the day Justice Misra was sworn in a Chief Justice of India – stood at 57,774 but by October 27, had come down to 55,600.
During these two months, the number of new cases instituted before the top court was 7,021, while the number of cases that were disposed of was 9,195.
The reduction comes even as in these two months, the top court did not function for 27 days on account of weekends, Dussehra, and Diwali holidays.
This is also the period which saw the court number one – presided over by the Chief Justice – dealing with more than 100 cases in a day on several occasions and sitting beyond 4 p.m., the time for the court to rise for the day.
During these two months, the different benches of the top court pronounced 200 judgments.
While the top court under CJI Misra has shown the direction on reducing the pendency of cases with existing strength of judges, the situation remain dismal lower down.
There are more than 2.8 crore cases pending in the subordinate judiciary which has about 5,000 positions of judicial officers awaiting to be filled.
