Justice Surya Kant, appointed as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI), will formally take oath on November 24, succeeding Chief Justice Bhushan Gavai. File.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Chief Justice of India-designate Justice Surya Kant on Saturday (November 22, 2025) said one of the biggest challenges in his tenure as top judge would be to bring 90,000 pending cases in the Supreme Court down to a “manageable” number.
Even as he spoke at 7, Krishna Menon Marg to mediapersons, the number in the National Judicial Data Grid climbed to 90,225.
Justice Kant said he did not want to engage in a blame-game on who was responsible for the staggering number of arrears in the top court — the highest in the court’s history.
“I will not pick fault on who is responsible. That is irrelevant,” he said in an informal interaction ahead of taking oath as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on November 24.
Justice Kant indicated at taking a studied and practical approach to resolve the perennial burden of pendency.
One of the measures, he said, would be to identify crucial cases with important questions of law which have been pending for years in the apex court.
Trickle-down effect
These pending cases, the judge noted, have a trickle-down effect. They stall lower courts, or even the Supreme Court, from deciding individual cases with connected issues.
Untying the knot in these core cases through authoritative declarations of law by Constitution Benches would allow judges, from the Supreme Court to the district courts, to dispose of the connected cases pending with them.
“I will constitute nine-judge and seven-judge Benches for such cases. The identification of these cases with important questions of law, because of which thousands of cases are pending, will be prioritised,” Justice Kant said.
He said he has already sought information from High Courts on long-pending cases.
To a question by The Hindu if the Supreme Court may itself be contributing to the pendency by entertaining miscellaneous applications on cases in which binding judgments have already been delivered, Justice Kant said there have been instances of the court relooking 30-year-old cases in which judgments were pronounced.
Justice Kant said the court had recently been witness to the phenomenon of pendency continuing to rise despite judges maintaining a high disposal rate. He said, at times, disposal rates outmatched filings in the apex court.
‘Approach High Courts first’
The judge indicated that one of the reasons for the high rate of filing, besides online access, may be litigants opting to move the Supreme Court directly rather than approaching High Courts first.
“High Courts are equally constitutional bodies,” Justice Kant emphasised.
The CJI-designate termed mediation as a “game-changer” in dispute resolution.
He termed mediation as an alternative to prolonged litigation. He said corporates were increasingly turning to mediation as a better option. This change in attitude would also make a difference for the better in the pendency count.
“This [encouraging mediation as an alternative] is my first and foremost agenda,” Justice Kant said.
The CJI-designate said judges must not come under pressure from social media trolling or be influenced by online commentary. Judicial independence was paramount, he stressed.
Published – November 22, 2025 08:20 pm IST
