Judicial efficiency: Case clearance outstrips backlog for the first time

Lightened heft

- Manas Pimpalkhare

In a first across Indian courts, the number of cases disposed of in a year is higher than the number of cases pending, according to data from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

In 2024, district courts disposed of over 13.4 million cases, leaving about 10.5 million cases pending. This indicated a massive shift in gears by these courts, which had disposed of 3.14 million cases in 2023, and left about 7.59 million cases pending.

High courts disposed of over 1.2 million cases in 2024 with more than 1.1 million pending, compared with the 0.34 million cases cleared in 2023 and 0.73 million pending.

The Supreme Court cleared 36,969 cases in 2024, leaving 21,753 to be tackled, compared with figures of 6,114, and 9,447 a year ago.