March 2026: Pendency increases to over 93,000 cases

March 2026 closed with 93,143 cases pending in the Supreme Court. This is an increase of 1141 cases compared to February 2026 when the Court saw a drop in pending cases for the first time in a year.

The 93,000-mark breach sets a new record for the highest pendency the Court has seen in three decades.

Pendency in March from 2020 to 2026 

Figure 2 displays the pendency of cases each year in March between 2020 and 2026. 

Pendency has grown gradually over the years, standing at 61,142 cases in March 2020. The sharp increase in March 2021 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the increase by 8000-odd cases in 2024 was due to a change in counting methodology introduced by then Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

The highest jump was between March 2025 and 2026, where over 12,000 cases were added within a year. There has been no communication on change in counting methodology or approach to the docket count from the Court. 

Constitution Bench Pendency 

Figure 3 illustrates the number of Constitution Benches pending before the Supreme Court. Main pending matters are shown on the left, and connected matters (which are cleared once the main matter is decided) are shown on the right. 

In March 2026, the Supreme Court reserved judgement in the industry case and is scheduled to hear the Sabarimala review this week. Both are nine-judge matters pending before the Court. Once hearings conclude and judgements are delivered, the nine-judge pendency metric is likely to disappear for a while. 

A similar enthusiasm was shown by CJI Surya Kant who stated that the next plan is to list seven and five-judge matters. 

6148 institutions, 4464 disposals 

Figure 4 shows the Institution and Disposal numbers up to March 2026. The data was sourced from the National Judicial Data Grid, which provides institution and disposal numbers of the previous month. 

As per the chart, February saw the highest institution and disposal numbers in 2026. It also saw more cases disposed of than filed. This was short-lived as the Court received more or less the same amount of cases in March, as it did in January and February. However, disposal figures have dipped.

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 NJDG recorded one more disposal and institution than the Justice Clock.