SC seeks action plans on disposal of cases from HCs with high pendencies

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought action plans from six high courts, which have a high backlog of cases, on how they propose to dispose of long-pending petitions quickly.

The high courts of Allahabad, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bombay, Odisha and Patna are asked to file affidavits explaining how they plan to dispose of the cases quickly.

The issue had cropped up earlier too, before a bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in a bail matter arising from the Allahabad HC. On Wednesday, another bail issue came up before a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai.


The bench asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta to assist the court in dealing with the issue of backlogs.

The high courts have been asked to submit information under several heads: the number of convicts awaiting hearing of their appeals, steps proposed to hasten hearing of appeals, the number of old cases in which bail has been granted and steps if any taken to trace those out on bail and begin hearing their appeals.

They will also have to submit data on whether they have made any progress in using information technology to speed up hearings and if dedicated benches could be set up to clear long-standing cases.

The bench passed the order after hearing the counsels for the MP and Allahabad high courts. The Allahabad high court counsel said cases dating back to 1980 were pending, while the MP HC counsel said cases were pending for up to 30 years. The Allahabad HC counsel said as many as 27,304 appeals were pending from 1980 to 2020.