Eight judges' posts lie vacant, 60,938 cases pile up in SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, which is eight short of the sanctioned strength of 31 judges, is reeling under the pendency of 60,938 cases, even as several steps are being taken to deal with the backlog of matters.

The “Indian Judiciary Annual Report 2015-2016” issued by the Supreme Court shows that as on September 30, 2016, a total of 60,938 cases, including 50,205 civil and 10,733 criminal, are pending.

In the period between January 1 and September 30, 2016, 45,415 civil and 13,973 criminal cases were filed in the apex court which disposed of a total of 57,722 cases in nine months.

The data said that as on January 1, 2016, a total of 59,272 cases were pending in the Supreme Court, of which there were 48,181 civil matters and 11,091 criminal cases.

Thus, there has been a rise of little less than three per cent in pendency in the 2016 compared to 2015.

The report said that, for the first time, two five-judge Constitution benches were constituted to hear matters on Mondays and Fridays after lunch every week.

Two special benches were set up to hear bail matters.