Justice should be timely
We are living in that part of the world where people irrespective of their economic and other constraints get involved in legal battles. Petitions of all types are being filed in lower, high and even the Supreme Court.
The situation is such that approximately 5 Crore cases are still pending in various courts, which are yet to announce a final verdict on these petitions. Across the country District and subordinate courts account for the largest share of pending cases, with over 4.5 crore (45 million) cases still pending for disposal.
Moreover, around 60 lakh (6 million) cases are pending in the 25 High Courts and approximately 84,600 cases are pending in the Supreme Court of India.
Though the number of pending cases is huge but the harsh reality is that there are only 15 judges per million population in the country, a far cry from the Law Commission’s recommendation of 50 judges per million population.
For 1.4 billion people, India has 21,285 judges, or approximately 15 judges per million population. This continues to be significantly below the 1987 law commission’s recommendation of 50 judges per million population.
The shortfall in the number of Judges has even been mentioned in the 2025 India Justice Report, which ranks states on the delivery of justice in the country.
While the vacancies in high courts stood at 33 per cent of the total sanctioned strength, the report claimed 21 per cent vacancies in 2025, indicating a high workload for the existing judges.
Nationally, in the district courts, the average workload is 2,200 cases per judge. In the Allahabad and Madhya Pradesh High Courts, the caseload per judge amounts to 15,000 which is quite alarming.
Notably, the overall share of women judges in the district judiciary increased from 30 per cent in 2017 to 38.3 per cent, and it increased from 11.4 per cent to 14 per cent in the high courts in 2025.
What is noteworthy is that barring Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura, one in every two cases have been pending for more than three years in all high courts. At the district courts in Andaman and Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, over 40 per cent of all cases have been pending for over three years.
Though lot is being done to increase the number of hearings and resolution of pending cases, there still remains the need for immediate and foundational corrections while flagging the urgent filling of vacancies in the courts which includes the number of vacant posts of judges.
In addition implementing digital technologies, such as e-filing systems, video conferencing, and digital case management, can improve efficiency and accessibility in the courts.
There is also the need to upgrade court buildings, facilities and equipment which can enhance the overall functioning of the judiciary. And above all an alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, such as mediation and arbitration needs to be made available to the people so that cases of small magnitude can be addressed timely.
