Supreme Court creates 4 special benches to tackle decades-old pending cases
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has constituted four special benches in the Supreme Court to exclusively hear the oldest pending civil and criminal matters, in a move aimed at reducing the mounting backlog of cases.
According to a new roster notification, two division benches headed by Justices P K Mishra and S V N Bhatti will focus solely on the oldest civil cases, while two other division benches led by Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan will hear the oldest criminal matters. These benches will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, which are designated as 'non-miscellaneous days' reserved for regular hearings requiring detailed arguments.
The Supreme Court currently has 96,045 pending cases, with civil matters constituting 74,244 cases and criminal matters accounting for 21,801 cases. Of these, 24 civil cases and two criminal cases have been pending for over 30 years. The oldest civil case dates back to 1986, while the oldest criminal case was registered in 1991. Another 525 civil cases and seven criminal cases have been pending since 1996–2005, and the largest share of the backlog lies in the 10- to 20-year bracket, with 7,993 civil and 1,585 criminal cases.
Despite an increased rate of case disposal in recent years, the overall pendency continues to rise because new filings outpace disposals. In 2025 alone, a record 75,402 cases were filed, driven by enhanced accessibility through e-filing and virtual hearings.
This is not the first time the court has attempted to address the backlog. Former Chief Justice U U Lalit introduced a rigorous listing mechanism in 2022 to prioritise old cases. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud leveraged technology through the SC-JUDICARE project to automate case classification and group similar matters. Former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna focused on clearing fresh admission cases by temporarily halting the listing of older regular matters on certain days.
The creation of these four special benches represents the latest structured effort to ensure that decades-old disputes are resolved without further delay.
