Pending Cases: Indian Judiciary's Biggest Challenge

- As of July 2009, 53,000 cases were pending with the Supreme Court, 40 lakhs with High Courts and 2.7 crores with Lower Courts.
- This is an increase of 139% for the Supreme Court, 46% for High Courts and 32% for Lower Courts from their pendency numbers in January 2000.
- 25% of pending cases with High Courts remain unresolved for more than 10 years.
- 70% of all prisoners in Indian Jails are undertrials.
- Maximum pending cases are 9,11,858 in Allahabad High Court and 51,60,174 in Uttar Pradesh's District and Subordinate Courts.

Fresh cases outnumber those being resolved.
- In 2008, Lower Courts settled 1.54 crore cases as compared to 1.24 crore in 1999, an increase of 30 lakh. However, 1.64 fresh cases were filed in 2008, 37 lakh higher than the 1.27 crore figure for 1999.
- Overtime equivalent to nine months would be needed to clear the backlog in Supreme Court.
- On average, High Courts would need about 2 years and 7 months and Lower Courts about 1 year and 9 months.

Strenght of Judges.
- High Courts: Sanctioned 886, Working 606, Vacancy 280
- Subordinate Courts: Sanctioned 16,685, Working 13,556, Vacancy 3,129
- Average disposal per judge: High Courts 2,504 cases in 2008 and Subordinate Courts 1,138 cases in 2008
- 1,547 High Court Judges and 23,207 Subordinate Court Judges are required to clear the backlog in one year.