August 2025: Pendency crosses the 88,000 mark

Since May this year, the Supreme Court has seen a steady rise in pendency with institutions exceeding case disposals. 

August matched this trend. The Court recorded a pendency of 88,047 cases—a net increase of 932 cases as compared to July 2025,  when pendency stood at 87,115 cases. 

Pendency from January to July 2025

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

As seen in Figure 1, pendency remained below the 85,000 mark until May 2025, but it saw a noticeable peak in the following months. 

In June 2025, the number of pending cases increased by over 3400 while the Court was operating with fewer Benches on Partial Working Days. This trend continued into July, with an increase of another 1900 cases compared to June. The July data reverses the trend of pendency reduction in the month after a Court break that we noticed in past years. 

The increase in pendency from July to August was not as drastic as in the preceding months. Five judges were occupied for five of the 19 working days with a Constitution Bench hearing on the Presidential Reference concerning the powers of the Governor and the President in granting assent to Bills. 

Highest Pendency in August since 2019

Figure 2 below shows the total pendency of cases in the month of August since 2019. The data up to August 2024 is taken from the Supreme Court’s Annual Reports. The August 2025 figure is taken from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

As seen in Figure 2, pendency has increased by over 28,000 cases from 59,616 cases in 2019 to 88,047 cases in 2025. 

Augusts in 2020 and 2021 saw the highest pendency levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic hindering the Court’s functioning. 

Notably, there is also a jump between August 2022 and 2023 as the Court started including all diarised matters, including Miscellaneous Applications, Unregistered Matters and Defective matters in the pendency count. 

Since 2023, the Court has seen an increase of 3624 cases in August 2024 and over 5000 cases in 2025. This is the highest recorded pendency in August since 2019. 

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 August 2025.

Pendency in the Supreme Court’s larger Constitution Benches of five, seven, and nine judges, increased in August compared to July 2025.

The number of pending cases before five-judge benches increased by eight, while the pendency in seven- and nine-judge matters each increased by one. This rise can be attributed to the Court referring more cases to these larger benches during the month. For instance, the case relating to the Direct Recruitment of Judicial Officers as District Judges was referred to a larger bench. 

7085 cases instituted, 5609 cases disposed of

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

As shown in the Figure, the Supreme Court cleared more cases than it received in January and February. This trend continued until May (see Figure 2). The gap between institutions and disposals started increasing in June. 

May recorded the highest number of cases instituted at 7513. June saw the least number with 843 cases disposed of by the court as it was working partially.

Notably, August 2025 saw fewer cases instituted and higher disposals as compared to July 2025. 

Highest institution in August since 2025

Figure 5 shows that the number of disposals exceeded those instituted from 2022 to 2024. The years 2019, 2020 and 2025 saw higher institutions with fewer disposals. 

2025 had the highest number of cases instituted since 2019, with the lowest number of institutions in 2020. 

Note: For our pendency, institution and disposal article, we primarily rely on the data provided on the NJDG. We would cross-check the institution and disposal numbers with the Justice Clock. On the fifth of each month, the institution and disposal numbers on both portals would match. This time, the NJDG website and the Justice Clock had a marginal difference in institution and disposal numbers. The Justice Clock showed one less case instituted as compared to the NJDG. It displayed two fewer disposals than the NJDG.