September 2025: Pendency nears 89,000 mark

The Supreme Court’s pendency rose marginally in September 2025, reaching 88,625 cases. This was a net increase of 578 cases as compared to August. 

Pendency from January to September 2025

Since the start of 2025, the Supreme Court has seen a gradual but sustained increase in pendency as case filings have outpaced disposals. It had stayed below the 85,000 mark until May 2025. However, the docket saw a rise in June, when the Court was on its partial break. The increase persisted in July, breaking past trends where post-summer months typically saw a decline.

The increase in September 2025 marks the fourth consecutive month of rising pendency. June saw the sharpest increase of over 3400 cases as the Court functioned with fewer benches.

While pendency rose sharply through June and July, the rate of increase has slowed in August and September.

Figure 1 below shows total pendency for each month of 2025.

Highest Pendency in September since 2019

Figure 2 shows total pendency in the month of September from 2019 to 2025. Data up to 2024 is sourced from the Supreme Court’s Annual Reports and September 2025 figures are from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

Between 2019 and 2025, pendency in September increased from 59,795 to 88,625 cases.

The first major increase came during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 when limited court functioning led to a build-up of pending matters that crossed 69,000 cases. Although the numbers steadied slightly in 2022, there was a sharp rise in 2023 when the Court began including all matters awaiting registration or correction in its pendency count.

By September 2024, pendency had reached 83,100 cases. The upward trend continued in 2025, with the figure touching 88,625 cases, the highest September pendency recorded since 2019.

Constitution Bench Pendency

Figure 3 shows the number of cases pending before five, seven and nine judge benches of the Supreme Court as of September 2025.

In September 2025, the total Constitution Bench pendency included 36 regular matters and 273 connected matters. The number of pending cases before five judge benches remained the highest, followed by nine and seven judge benches. The figures show a small increase compared to August 2025, when a few new references were made to larger benches

7234 cases instituted, 5596 disposed

Figure 4 shows the number of cases instituted and disposed of by the Supreme Court in each month of 2025 so far. Institutions outpaced disposals in most months this year contributing to the overall increase in pendency. September saw 7234 new filings and 5596 disposals. May recorded the highest number of cases instituted at 7513. June saw the least number of disposals with only 843 cases cleared as the Court was working partially.

Highest Institution in September since 2020

Figure 5 below compares the number of cases instituted and disposed in the month of September across the last six years.

As shown in Figure 5, the number of cases instituted in September has increased sharply since 2020, more than tripling in five years from 2324 to 7234. The 2025 figure marks the highest September institution since 2019. While September 2022 was the only recent year where disposals outnumbered institutions, this balance has reversed since 2023.

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 no discrepancy in institutions as compared to the NJDG. It displayed two fewer disposals than the NJDG.