Judges' strength inadequate to deal with rising cases: Supreme Court

Filing of cases before the Supreme Court has risen so sharply over the past decades that the strength of judges was proving inadequate to deal with the backlog, the apex court said.

The Supreme Court, while referring to the constitution bench a plea seeking setting up of National Court of Appeal with regional benches in major cities, on Wednesday said there was a need to examine the issue of pendency of cases through a larger bench of five judges.

“Would it not be part of the responsibility and duty of the Supreme Court of India to examine through a Constitution Bench, the issue of divesting the the court of about 80% of the pendency of cases of a routine nature, to recommend to the government, its opinion on the proposal for



establishing four Courts of Appeal... may regain its true status as a Constitutional Court,” a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.

The apex court, which framed various questions for the constitution bench to ponder over, said statistics showed that over three-fourth of the total cases filed were dismissed at the admission stage.

“Keeping in view the importance of the questions and the need for reforms which have been long felt, we deem it proper to refer the same to a Constitutional Bench for an authoritative pronouncement,” the court said while leaving it for the constitution bench to decide whether the Supreme Court sitting in benches in different parts of India would be an answer to the problem or not.