June 2025: Supreme Court records highest pendency of the year so far

In June 2025, the Supreme Court recorded the highest pendency of the year so far at 85,204 cases. The month saw an institution of 3852 new cases and a low disposal of 845 cases. 

In this post, we examine the pendency, institution and disposal numbers of all the months of the years so far.

Pendency from January to June 2025

Figure 1 below shows the total number of cases pending before the top court for all the months so far this year.

As shown in Figure 1, the Supreme Court started the year with 82,445 pending cases in January 2025. By the end of May, the pendency was at 81,734 cases, displaying a modest decline by 711 cases. However, June marked a reversal. Pendency increased significantly to 85,204, an uptick of over 3400 cases in a single month. 

This is attributable to the Partial Working Days (PWDs) of the Court. In May, the Court functioned for 16 complete days, with PWDs beginning in its final week from 26 May onwards. In contrast, in June, the Court functioned entirely by the PWDs schedule. The reduction in working days during this period likely curtailed the Court’s capacity to hear and dispose of cases, contributing to the sharp rise in pendency. 

In terms of judicial strength, Justices N.V. Anjaria, Vijay Bishnoi and A.S. Chandurkar were appointed on 30 May, restoring the Bench’s capacity to its sanctioned strength of 34. However, this was short-lived. Justice Bela Trivedi demitted office on 9 June, reducing the strength once again. 

Pendency in June in the last seven years

Figure 2 above shows the total pendency in cases during June since 2019. The data up to June 2023 is taken from the Supreme Court’s Annual Report. The May 2025 figure is taken from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

As seen in the Figure, between June 2019 and June 2025, total pendency has steadily increased, rising from 59,695 to 85,204 cases. The most dramatic spike occurred in 2021, when pendency rose by over 14 percent compared to June 2020. This is  likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Another significant surge took place in 2023, with a 13 percent rise, pointing to either increasing inflow or delays in processing. Notably, during this time, the Court started including all diarised matters including Miscellaneous Applications, Unregistered Matters, Defective matters in the pendency count.

In contrast, the past two years have seen a marked slowdown in the rate of increase. As compared to 2023, pendency in 2024 rose by just 3.4 percent in June, and by 2025, the growth rate dipped further to only 1.1 percent. This deceleration could signal the effect of institutional reforms or better case management systems. 

Constitution Bench Pendency

Figure 3 below shows the total number of cases pending before five, seven and nine-judge Benches of the Supreme Court as of June 2025.

Figure 3 shows the Constitution Bench pendency in June 2025. The data records a reduction in the pendency of five-judge Bench matter by two as compared to May. 

While the main matters in seven and nine-judge Bench cases remain the same, the NJDG records an increase of connected five-judge Bench matters from 193 in May to 208 in June. Data for seven-judge Bench matters remains constant. However, June records an increase in connected nine-judge Bench matters from 53 in May to 70 in June. 

This is interesting because the Court did not hear or dispose of any new Constitution Bench cases during this time. There is a possibility that new cases were instituted whose verdicts depended on the larger constitutional question and were therefore tagged with the main matter. 

3852 cases instituted, 845 disposed

Figure 4 shows the total number of cases instituted (filed) and disposed of  by the Court so far this year.

As seen in Figure 4, in January and February, disposals exceeded institutions, suggesting an encouraging backlog clearance effort. However, this changed from March onward. In March, institutions exceeded disposals by around 600 cases. April saw a further drop in both metrics, with disposals falling below 3500 and institutions at just over 4000.

May marked the highest number of new cases filed with 7513. Disposals in that month increased to 6004. 

June recorded the lowest institution and disposal rates of any month this year. The clearance rate also stood at 21.94 percent—the lowest in the year so far. This is predictably because of the Partial Working Days of the Court where it functioned with limited judges for the whole month. 

Highest institution in June since 2019

Figure 4 shows the total number of cases instituted (filed) and disposed of  by the Court so far this year.

In the last seven-year period, the number of cases instituted in the month of June has steadily increased, rising from 1444 in 2019 to 3852 in 2025. This is an overall increase of nearly 167 percent. In contrast, disposals have increased only marginally from 418 in 2019 to 843 in 2025.

A notable exception in this trend was June 2020, when disposals at 1470, exceeded institutions at 1286, marking the only year in which more cases were resolved than filed.