NEW DELHI , Feb 2026 : Last week, Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Parliament that there were 92,101 cases pending in the Supreme Court at the end of 2025. This marked an increase of 11.4% from the end of 2023, when the apex court’s pendency figure was 82,674. This number went on to slightly dip to 82,496 at the end of 2024.
After CJI Surya Kant took over towards the end of November, the gap between the number of cases instituted and those disposed further ballooned in December.
A look at data from the National Judicial Data Grid shows that over the last five years, while the Supreme Court has increased its rate of clearing cases, picking up markedly from the pandemic years to record historic disposal figures, the pendency figure has also kept rising – primarily due to the rising number of cases being instituted at the Suprreme Court.
The Case Clearance Rate (CCR) – the percentage of cases disposed of relative to the number of cases filed in a given year – from the last five years offers a clear picture of this productivity paradox.
