August 2024: Disposal drops by over 1100 cases despite top court working at full strength

August 2024 saw a drop in both institution and disposal figures at the Supreme Court. The reduced disposal numbers were recorded despite the Court functioning at its full strength of 34 judges. 

Institution refers to the number of cases filed at the Court during a particular period and disposal refers to the number of cases cleared by the Court either by dismissing them or by passing a final decree or judgement in the case. 

5530 cases instituted, 5063 disposed

Figure 1 shows a month-wise breakdown of the number of cases instituted and disposed of by the Supreme Court in 2024.

Note: The data for August was collected from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) on 5 September 2024 at 11.05am.

As seen in Figure 1, in August, both institution and disposal saw a slight decrease compared to July. The Court received 5530 cases (419 less than July) and disposed of 5063 cases (1135 less than July). 

During its 18 working days in August (one day more than July), the Court disposed of 281 cases per day (84 less than July). The rate of disposal stood at 91.56 percent (about 13 percent less than July). This dip, though not drastic, is unexpected considering the Court functioned at full sanctioned strength for the whole of August with the appointments of Justices N.K. Singh and R. Mahadevan in July.

For some context, here’s how the Court has fared in the preceding months of this calendar year: 

In January, freshly returned from the winter break, the Court received 4964 cases and disposed of 5453. That month, a seven-judge Constitution Bench heard arguments for seven days out of the 20 working days.

 February saw a slight decrease in case numbers, with 4821 institutions and 5409 disposals. However, the Court functioned at full strength for 21 days and disposals still exceeded institutions. February also saw Constitution Bench activity in three cases spread over seven days.

In March, institution surpassed disposal for the first time this year with 4656 cases filed and 3926 disposed. This can be attributed to the week-long Holi break, as a result of which the month had only 15 working days. Nine judges were engaged in Constitution Bench hearings for five days in March.

April saw an increase on both fronts with 5613 institutions and 4813 disposals. Nine judges were occupied in two Constitution Bench hearings for 10 days out of 19 working days.

In May, in the 13 working days before summer vacation, the Court received 5418 cases and disposed of 3610.

The Court was on vacation for all of June. As a result, there was a significant drop in institution and disposal. 2643 cases were filed and Vacation Benches cleared 613 matters during this period. It was also the month where pendency reached its all-time high. 

In July, a well-rested Court disposed of 6198 cases—the highest this year. The Court also received the highest number of case files in July—5949. 

Highest institution in the last five Augusts

As seen in Figure 2, there were more cases instituted in August this year than any other year since 2020. This August, the Court disposed of 414 less cases than the same month last year. 

Note: In our monthly posts tracking the institution and disposal of cases at the Supreme Court, we have been tracking the data consistency between two key judicial data platforms: the NJDG and the Supreme Court's Justice Clock. 

While the Justice Clock is hosted on the Supreme Court's webpage, the NJDG is managed by the Department of Justice and compiles data from various courts, including the Supreme Court, High Courts, and lower courts. 

In some months, we have noticed a delay in data transfer from the Supreme Court to the NJDG. Data on both platforms aligned for February, March and August. However, discrepancies were seen in January, April, May, June and July. 

We also noticed that on 31 August 2024, the Court recorded an institution of 5948 cases and a disposal of 6710 cases. However, five days later, on 5 September, the institution  for August was recorded as 5530 and disposal at 5063 cases.