Pendency of court cases in India
Pendency of court cases in India is the delay in the disposal of cases (lawsuits), to provide justice to an aggrieved person or organisation, by judicial courts at all levels. In legal contexts, pendency is the state of a case that is pending; that is, it has been opened but not concluded.
The judiciary in India works in hierarchy at three levels: federal or supreme court, state or high courts, and district courts. The court cases are categorised into two types: civil and criminal. In March 2026, the total number of pending cases at all levels went above 55.8 million, including over 180,000 court cases pending for more than 30 years in district and high courts. 49 million out of 55 million cases (i.e., more than 85% of cases) are pending in district courts alone. Government itself is the biggest litigant having 50% of the pending cases being sponsored by the state. Land and property disputes account for the largest set of pending cases. About 20% of all pending cases are related to land and property disputes, which is also 66% of all pending civil cases in India; and 25% of all cases decided by the Supreme Court involve land disputes.
India has one of the largest number of pending court cases in the world. Many judges and government officials have said that the pendency of cases is the biggest challenge before Indian judiciary. According to a 2018 Niti Aayog strategy paper, at the then-prevailing rate of disposal of cases in the courts, it would take more than 324 years to clear the backlog. At that time in 2018, the pending cases stood at 29 million. With the cases taking time in courts, it leads to delays in the delivery of justice for both victim and accused. In April 2022, a court in Bihar state acquitted a man of murder for lack of evidence after he spent 28 years in jail.
Pendency of cases cost India more than 2% of GDP. Rule of Law Index 2025, a country ranking published by the World Justice Project, ranked India at 114 out of 143 countries in the civil justice, and 89 out of 143 countries in the criminal justice. U.S News & World Report ranked India at 54 out of 89 countries with "Well-developed legal frameworks" in 2024.
A quasi-judicial system also exists in parallel to the judiciary which adjudicates specialized matters. They operate independently of the courts and they have huge pendency too. Some examples of the quasi-judicial bodies include Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal.