Supreme Court Disposed Of 52,000 Cases In 2023, Highest In Six Years: Report

The Supreme Court disposed of 33 per cent more cases this year than in 2022. The apex court disposed of 52,191 cases in 2023.

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The Supreme Court of India disposed of 33 per cent more cases this year than last year, according to a report in Bar and Bench.  The apex court disposed of 52,191 cases in 2023 as compared to 39,800 last year, making it the highest disposal rate in six years.

A press release issued by the court stated that a total of 45,642 miscellaneous and 6,549 regular matters were among the cases that were adjudicated this year. The Bar and Bench cited data from the Integrated Case Management System.

Between January 1, 2023, and December 15, 2023, 4,410 service matters, 11,489 criminal matters, and 10,348 civil matters were disposed of.

The press release read, "If the disposal is compared with the total institution i.e. the number of cases diarised during the said period then also despite the huge number of filing of 52,660 cases the disposal matched the same neck to neck with 52,191 disposed cases."

As per the Bar and Bench, the timeframe for verification and listing of cases was streamlined and reduced from 10 days to seven days under the leadership of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud. 

The release further stated, "In certain matters such as Bail, Habeas Corpus, Eviction matters, Demolition, and Anticipatory bail the matters were processed in one day and listed in courts immediately thereafter keeping in view the Right to liberty at the highest pedestal ... Specialized benches were constituted to handle specific categories of cases, leading to a more specialized and efficient adjudication process."

The apex court registry had recently come under intense scrutiny after some senior lawyers raised the allegations of improper listing of cases. 

According to a Bar and Bench report, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, in an open letter to the CJI, claimed that a number of cases that were being heard by certain benches were shifted out and listed before other benches in violation of the Supreme Court rules and the handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court, which govern listing of cases.

Another senior lawyer, advocate Prashant Bhushan had also written to the CJI to raise grievance over the cases against two advocates and a journalist being listed before a bench presided by Justice Trivedi.

The registry of the Supreme Court rebutted all these allegations, as reported by the Bar and Bench.