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SC pendency watch: Constitutional cases make up 0.06% of pending cases; Nearly 66% of pending cases incomplete The Supreme Court recently released its pendency figures (as of November 1, 2013) with 65,893 cases pending for adjudication. Out of these, Constitutional matters (cases that are heard by 5 judges or more) number just 39 or 0.06 % of the total pending cases. This minuscule percentage gains significance if one were to examine the original intent behind creating the Supreme Court as well as the kind of matters that were to reach the highest court of the country. Another interesting statistic that can be culled out from the latest figures is the fact that the majority of cases (close to two-thirds) are pending due to procedural non-compliance, ie failure to serve all parties, payment of process fees etc. The Supreme Court defines these cases as incomplete ones where preliminaries (such as payment of process fees) have not been completed. Total Pending Matters versus Constitutional Matters The percentage of pending Constitutional Matters does not cross the 0.1 % mark over the course of the first ten months of the year. If one were to argue that the Supreme Court was initially created to primarily deal only with matters such as those affecting Constitutional jurisprudence, then these figures are indeed worrying. The Apex Court, burdened with a massive pendency, clearly does not have the time or resources to focus on cases of Constitutional importance.
Month Total pending matters 66,692 66,569 66,809 67,320 67,275 Number of Pending Constitutional Bench Matters 44 44 44 44 44 % of Pending Constitutional Bench Matters 0.066 0.066 0.066 0.065 0.065

1st January 2013 1st February 2013 1st March 2013 1st April 2013 1st May 2013

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1st

June 2013

67,787 69,446 67,964 67,243 66,603 65,893

45 45 43 43 71 39

0.066 0.065 0.063 0.064 0.107 0.059

1st July 2013 1st August 2013 1st September 2013 1st October 2013 1st November 2013

Percentage of Referral Matters in Total Pending Matters In percentage terms, the total number of pending Referred Matters make an equally tiny component of the total pending matters, peaking at 0.24% before falling to a low of 0.20% in the middle of the year. This is another, equally worrying trend observable over the last few years. With the 30 judges of the Supreme Court sitting in Division Benches, a Referred Matter must be heard by a Bench consisting of atleast three judges. In many ways, failure to dispose of referred matters will only have a cascading effect on overall pendency. Since the Supreme Court is the final court of the country, the absence of a final, unambiguous decision means that courts below are likely to arrive at conflicting decisions, which in turn leads to further litigation.

Month

Total pending matters

Number of Pending Referred Matters 161 158

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% of Pending Referred Matters

1st January 2013 1st February 2013

66,692 66,569

0.241 0.237
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1st

March 2013

66,809 67,320 67,275 67,787 69,446 67,964 67,243 66,603 65,893

146 144 143 140 142 145 148 150 149

0.219 0.214 0.213 0.207 0.204 0.213 0.22 0.225 0.226

1st April 2013 1st May 2013 1st June 2013 1st July 2013 1st August 2013 1st September 2013 1st October 2013 1st November 2013

Disposal Rates If one were to examine the disposal of cases over the past ten months, it is unsurprising to see the massive increase in pendency during the Summer Vacation. Between the 1st of June and the 1st of July, the number of Admission matters increased by 1,600 matters while the number of pending Regular matters increaed by 59 cases.

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Graph 1: Monthly Disposal Rates over 2013

The disposal rates for the year so far have shown a marked increase in the months immediately following the summer vacation. For instance, between the 1st of July and the 1st of August, the number of pending Admission matters decreased by a massive 1,841 cases. In the months that followed, this number was slowly chipped away at, eventually reaching 36,508 (it was 37,659 at the beginning of the year). Overall the number of pendencies (Regular Matters) has remained almost the same throughout the first nine months, hovering at the 30,000 mark. This may well be the reason why the Supreme Court, in September this year, decided to devote two days a week exclusively for Regular Hearing matters. It should be noted that the table above reflects the net disposal rate, and not the actual number of cases the Supreme Court disposes of in a month. For instance, in September this year, of the 6860 admission matters filed, the Supreme Court disposed of 6,608 of them. When it
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comes to Regular Hearing matters, the Apex Court managed to dispose of 767 out of the 1,042 matters registered that month. Hence the figures given below is symptomatic of the larger issue of judicial backlog if a group of 30 judges can dispose of 6,608 matters a month (roughly 236 matters every working day) and still have an increase in number of pending matters, then clearly much requires to be done.

Monthly pendency changes of Constitutional v Referred Matters

When it comes to Constittutional Matters in the first nine months of the year, only two such matters were disposed of. In fact, the number of such matters has seen an increase of 27 over the course of this time (28 additional matters in September alone), and a total 71 such
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matters pending before the Supreme Court as of October 1, 2013. That month, though, saw 39 matters being disposed of, with the total number dropping to 39 at the beginning of November. Concluding Remarks There are one or two interesting trends that emerge from this brief study. One, and of this there is little argument, the Supreme Court is clearly overburdened and over worked. If things remain the way they are, and there is little indication to believe otherwise, the number of pending cases are only going to increase. This does not, however, mean that the Supreme Court is incapable of resolving this dispute. The sharp drop in pendency following the Summer Vacations does provide some hope. Two, and this is based on the presumption that the Supreme Court was created only to resolve matters of grave importance, the Supreme Court is failing to comply with its intended duty. The number of both Constitutional Matters and Referred Matters is testimony to the fact that a substantial chunk of the Supreme Courts time is spent on matters which may be of a lesser importance, at least from the perspective of evolving jurisprudence. Three, and here the focus shifts from the courts to the lawyers and legal procedure, the number of matters deemed incomplete are simply too high. Pendency due to non-compliance with procedure is a problem that requires immediate attention. Defects such as failure to pay process fee for instance, need to be dealt with in a serious manner. If two-thirds of all cases filed before the Supreme Court are not heard by the court itself, then clearly something needs to be done. Lastly, one hopes that the amount of data released by the Supreme Court increases. It would be interesting, for instance, to have data on how many petitions have been heard by the Supreme Court dealing with, for example, Article 3 of the Indian Constitution. It would also be interesting to see a judge-wise breakup of dismissals, judgments etc over a 3-4 month period.

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Annexure Table 1: Month-wise break of pendency Month 1st January 2013 1st February 2013 1st March 2013 1st April 2013 1st May 2013 1st June 2013 1st July 2013 1st August 2013 1st September 2013 1st October 2013 1st November 2013 Total pending matters 66,692 66,569 66,809 67,320 67,275 67,787 69,446 67,964 67,243 66,603 65,893 Admission Matters 37,659 37,363 37,339 38,005 38,099 38,679 40,279 38,438 37,324 36,508 35,447 Admission (Incomplete) 26,238 26,027 26,075 26,591 26,605 26,998 27,935 29,526 26,211 26,371 26,021 Regular Matters 29,033 29,206 29,470 29,315 29,176 29,108 29,167 29,526 29,919 30,095 9,426 Regular (Incomplete) 15,131 15,080 15,045 14,787 14,634 14,629 16,363 14,658 14,824 14,656 14,990 Total Incomplete 41,369 41,107 41,120 41,373 41,239 41,627 44,298 41,150 41,035 41,027 41,011

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Table 2: % of Constitutional Matters & Referred Matters Dates Total pending matters Number of Pending Constitutional Bench Matters Number of Pending Referred Matters 161 158 146 144 143 140 142 145 148 150 149 Percentage of Constitutional Matters out of Total Pending Matters 0.066 0.066 0.066 0.065 0.065 0.066 0.065 0.063 0.064 0.107 0.059 Percentage of Referred Matters out of Total Pending Matters 0.241 0.237 0.219 0.214 0.213 0.207 0.204 0.213 0.22 0.225 0.226

1st January 2013 1st February 2013 1st March 2013 1st April 2013 1st May 2013 1st June 2013 1st July 2013 1st August 2013 1st September 2013 1st October 2013 1st November 2013

66,692 66,569 66,809 67,320 67,275 67,787 69,446 67,964 67,243 66,603 65,893

44 44 44 44 44 45 45 43 43 71 39

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Table 3: Net Change in Number of Pending Matters Month Change in total pendency Change in Pending Admission Matters Change in Pending Regular Matters Change in Constitutional Matters Change in Pending Referred Matters

January February March April May June July August September October

-123 240 511 -45 512 1,659 -1,482 -721 -640 -710

-296 -24 666 94 540 1600 -1,841 -1,114 -816 -1,061

173 264 -155 -139 -68 59 359 393 176 351

0 0 0 0 1 1 -2 0 28 -32

-3 -12 -2 -1 -3 2 3 3 2 -1

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Month

Total pending matters 66,692 66,569 66,809 67,320 67,275 67,787 69,446 67,964 67,243 66,603 65,893

Number of Pending Constitutional Bench Matters 44 44 44 44 44 45 45 43 43 71 39

% Of Pending Constitutional Bench Matters 0.066 0.066 0.066 0.065 0.065 0.066 0.065 0.063 0.064 0.107 0.059

1st January 2013 1st February 2013 1st March 2013 1st April 2013 1st May 2013 1st June 2013 1st July 2013 1st August 2013 1st September 2013 1st October 2013 1st November 2013

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