SC Pendency Watch: 64919 cases pending in apex court; Stats show decrease in number of pending cases since July 2014

According to the latest statistics released by the Supreme Court of India, there are 64,919 cases pending as of 1st December 2014. In the previous edition of this series, a total of 65970 pending cases were recorded as of 1st July 2014. This means that the number of pending cases has dropped by 1051..Out of these, 29 are Constitution matters, a mere 0.044% of the total number. Another interesting statistic is the drop in the percentage of matters which are classified as ‘incomplete’ or ‘not ready for hearing’. While it was an alarming 53.68% in July, it has dropped to 28.1% as of December..Constitution Matters as against Total Pending Matters.As of July, there were a whopping 148 pending Constitution Bench matters, more than twice the amount recorded for the months of September, November and December put together. That number has significantly decreased, with just 29 being recorded as of December..Referred Matters as against Total Pending Matters.While a large number of Constitution matters were recorded in July, a mere 33 referred matters were pending. That number, has however significantly increased in the later months. As of December 1st, the number of pending referred matters is 134, 0.206% of the total pending matters..Monthly Disposal Rate.Given the fact that this data was unavailable for the months of June and August, the disposal rate for only three months could be calculated..In the month of September, the Supreme Court was especially productive, bringing the number of pending matters down by a tremendous 802. During this month, the apex court disposed of 6725 cases and there were 2033 cases that were disposed of in previous months, but updated only in September. A total of 7956 matters were registered during the month..In the months of October and November, this trend ceased, as the total number of pending matters increased by 130 and 177 respectively..Pendency of matters Incomplete/Not ready for hearing .In a way, the drop in the number of pending matters can be attributed to the fact that the number of pending matters which are incomplete or not ready for hearing has decreased. Incomplete admission matters are those wherein the process fee has not been paid, the notice hasn’t been served, the pleadings are not completed, etc. Regular matters are classified as ‘not ready’ for hearing because the notice for lodgement of appeal hasn’t been served, statement of case hasn’t been filed, etc..From 35413 matters classified as incomplete/not ready in July, the number has dropped to 18245 in December, 28.1% of the total number of pending matters. This means that lawyers can go a long way in helping to decrease pendency by filing documents on time and avoiding delay tactics..This analysis goes to show that it takes a concerted effort on the part of both the Bar and the Bench to deal with the issue of pendency that plagues the highest rung of the Indian judiciary. The numbers indicate that the problem is slowly but surely getting sorted out.