Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Report 'Unclogging the Docket: Tackling Short, Infructuous and Old Cases' has been released by the Centre for Research and Planning, Supreme Court that shares transparently the sum total of the pendency project carried out at the Court between November, 2024- May, 2025.

Previously, older cases and certain case categories (e.g. MACT matters and workmen compensation) have been streamlined for disposal by the Court. However, this is the first time in India that Differentiated Case Management was attempted. Around 10,000 cases pending at the Supreme Court were processed on merit by the team and cases where there was possibility of faster disposal (i.e. short, old and infructuous) were identified and infused back into the system for hearing. Thus, during these six months, the first ten matters on Misc. (After Notice) days- Tuesday and Wednesday and majority of matters on regular days were those assessed and identified by the CRP. These cases were then listed across all the courtrooms (with briefs for each case) where they were argued upon by the lawyers, heard on merit and provided fair judicial resolutions.

The result has been positive with around 2000 identified cases (1525 matters with 490 connected cases) receiving judicial resolution (for list of important judgments emanating from this list, see report). This exercise facilitated an improved institutional disposal rate that is now around 104% for the first half of the year. Around half of disposed matters (770 cases with 173 connected) were from miscellaneous no coram categories where 71.6% of CRP identified cases were resolved within one or two hearings. In miscellaneous coram 255 cases (with 254 connected) were disposed of in one or two hearings. For regular matters, 376 criminal cases (with 63 connected) and 124 civil cases (with 3 connected) were disposed of within 17 regular hearings (from January onwards) which contributed to an increase in the regular disposal rate, as well as criminal disposal rate that stood above 109%. As part of the project, other measures taken include - facilitating disposal of group matters where main matter has already been adjudicated upon, assessment of pending group matters, assisting in 900 odd MACT cases streamlined for disposal, assisting in cases where tax amount is less than 5 crores. This further led to disposal of 600+ cases.

Thus, with this experiment it is suggested that there should be a more planned listing of cases daily in the courtrooms. It should be ensured that certain cases identified for possibility of quick disposal should be listed regularly which can be a sustainable way to reduce pendency in the courts. This was a completely inhouse institutional endeavour with coordination of the team with listing, paper book and tech department. The detailed format to carry this exercise is provided in the report which can possibly be adapted and emulated as pendency is a concern across judicial forums.

This project was implemented under the direction and vision of the previous Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, and successful due to support of the Hon'ble judges of the Supreme Court who adopted innovative mechanisms to resolve these cases (see report). The project was assigned to Kriti Sharma, an academician trained in empirical studies, and her able team Padma Ladol, judicial officer, and consultants Shubham Kumar and Vrishti Shami, along with a team of 25 dedicated clerks.

Click Here To Read Report