December 2025: Pendency increases by 1600 cases

2025 drew to an end with a pendency of 92,318 cases (as on 3 January 2026). This was an increase of 1624 cases compared to November, when pendency stood at 90,694 cases.

Figure 1 displays case pendency from January to December 2025. The year started with 82,445 cases at the top court. Pendency reduced in February by 1463 cases. The figure climbed in March (81,394) and April (81,801), with a fall of 67 cases in May 2025. 

The first quarter had no alarming developments until pendency increased in June (85,204 cases). An increase in June is not abnormal as the Supreme Court takes a partial break during this period.

Generally the figure falls when the Court reopens in July—as seen in 2023 and 2024. However, July 2025 did not conform to this trend as the docket increased by 1911 cases. Numbers continued to climb in August (88,047), September (88,625), October (90,250) and November (90,694). 

December did not depart from this trend. While pendency tends to climb in December as the Court takes a two week long break, it cannot be said that the vacation was the sole contributing factor. In December 2025, the Court had set up vacation benches in the winter break for the first time—this has made no noticeable impact. To summarise, the Court saw a net increase of 9872 cases in 2025. 

Chief Justice Surya Kant had stated that one of his priorities was tackling the alarming pendency numbers when he took over in November 2025. In his first major public interaction, he batted for a unified national policy for disposal of pending matters. In our assessment of pendency during the tenure of his predecessor CJI B.R. Gavai, we noted that there was a lack of a focused strategy to tackle pendency.

Constitution Bench pendency 

Figure 2 shows two donut charts tracking pendency in main and tagged Constitution Bench matters. Main matters are lead petitions in which the Court has identified a substantial question of law. Tagged matters are cases whose disposal depends on the outcome of the main matter. Pendency in five-judge bench matters increased by two from November. There was no change in pendency for seven and nine-judge bench matters. 

6641 cases instituted, 4705 disposed of 

Figure 3 shows the number of cases instituted and disposed of in 2025. Institutions are the number of cases filed in the Court and disposals are the number of cases that the Court has decided, dismissed or disposed of. If institutions are more than disposals, pendency will increase and vice versa.

January and February had more disposals than institutions—6235 and 6304 respectively. This did not continue for the rest of the year as institutions remained above disposals. 

May saw the highest number of institutions (7513), while June saw the least number of disposed cases (843). 

In December, the Court saw 4705 disposals and 6641 institutions. 

Note: For our pendency, institution and disposal articles, we primarily rely on the data provided on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). We cross-check institution and disposal numbers with the Justice Clock. Typically, on the fifth of each month, the institution and disposal numbers on both portals match. This time, the Justice Clock showed one more disposal than the NJDG. Meanwhile, institution figures matched on the Justice Clock and the NJDG.