More than 5.39 crore cases are pending across the Supreme Court, high courts (HCs) and district courts in the country as of 31 December 2025, the Union ministry of law and justice informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Responding to an unstarred question, Arjun Ram Meghwal, minister of state (independent charge) for law and justice placed detailed data before the House based on the national judicial data grid (NJDG). He says the Supreme Court had 92,101 cases pending as of 31 December 2025. This marks an increase of 11.40% compared to 82,674 cases pending on 31 December 2023. In 2024, the figure stood at 82,496 before rising sharply in 2025.
The question was raised by members of Parliament (MPs) Deepender Singh Hooda, Karti P Chidambaram, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and Laxmikant Pappu Nishad.
According to the government, across 25 HC, total pendency stood at 63.66 lakh cases as of 31 December 2025, reflecting a 4.75% rise over three years.
The Allahabad High Court continues to have the highest pendency in the country, with 12.07 lakh cases pending as of December 2025, up from 10.66 lakh in 2023. The Rajasthan High Court had 687,595 pending cases, while the Bombay High Court reported 664,979 cases.
The Karnataka High Court recorded 328,153 pending cases, the Madras High Court 546,387, and the Madhya Pradesh High Court 471,183.
Some high courts reported a decline in pendency over three years. The High Court of Chhattisgarh saw a reduction of 15.56% and the Jharkhand High Court recorded a decline of 15.82%. However, smaller High Courts such as Meghalaya and Sikkim witnessed sharp percentage increases due to their lower base numbers.
According to government data, the bulk of the backlog lies in district and subordinate courts, where 4.76 crore cases were pending as of 31 December 2025, a 5.84% increase over three years.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of pending cases at 1.13 crore though it registered a marginal decline of 0.87% over three years. Maharashtra follows with 59.26 lakh pending cases, while West Bengal recorded 38.35 lakh cases, reflecting a steep 27.99% increase.
Delhi reported 15.87 lakh pending cases, showing a significant 29.08% rise. Tamil Nadu had 17.35 lakh cases pending, Karnataka 22.37 lakh and Bihar 37 lakh.
States such as Mizoram and Tripura recorded high percentage increases, though their absolute numbers remain comparatively small.
The minister informed the House that 774 fast-track special courts (FTSCs), including 398 exclusive e-POCSO courts, are operational as of 31 December 2025. These courts handle cases relating to rape and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The disposal rate in these courts between January 2025 and December 2025 stood at 46.20%.
As of 11 February 2026, the Supreme Court has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, with 33 working and one vacancy.
In high courts, the total sanctioned strength is 1,122 judges. Of these, 813 posts are filled and 309 remain vacant. The sanctioned strength has increased from 906 in 2014 to 1,122 as of February 6, 2026.
The Allahabad High Court has a sanctioned strength of 160 judges but is functioning with 109, leaving 51 vacancies. The Bombay High Court has 94 sanctioned posts, with 80 working and 14 vacant. The Delhi High Court has 60 sanctioned posts, with 44 judges in position.
In district and subordinate courts across the country, there are 25,895 sanctioned posts. Of these, 21,028 are filled, leaving 4,867 vacancies.
Allahabad has 3,700 sanctioned district judge posts, of which 2,631 are filled, leaving 1,069 vacant. Gujarat has 1,720 sanctioned posts with 535 vacancies, while Madhya Pradesh has 389 vacancies out of 2,028 sanctioned posts.
The government stated that district-wise vacancy data is not centrally maintained.
The minister reiterated that disposal of cases lies within the exclusive domain of the judiciary but outlined several measures taken by the Centre to support faster case resolution.
These include the national mission for justice delivery and legal reforms launched in 2011, constitution of arrears committees in all 25 high courts, and amendments to laws such as the Negotiable Instruments Act, Commercial Courts Act, Specific Relief Act and Arbitration and Conciliation Act to expedite proceedings.
The Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (LADCS) scheme is currently operational in 680 districts. Between FY23–24 and December 2025, 12.62 lakh criminal cases were assigned to legal aid defence counsels, of which 871,581 were disposed of, reflecting a 69% overall disposal rate.
Under the centrally sponsored scheme for the development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary, Uttar Pradesh has received ₹1,756.41 crore since its inception. During FY24–25 alone, ₹174.12 crore was released to the state.
The phase-III of the eCourts project, approved with an outlay of ₹7,210 crore for FY23–27, aims to strengthen digital justice delivery. In Uttar Pradesh, 226.44 crore pages have been digitised, and over 69.22 lakh cases have been heard through video conferencing facilities. There are 113 eSewa Kendras operational in the state, the government says.
