Over 52,000 cases disposed of by Supreme Court in 2023, highest in 6 years

The Supreme Court of India in 2023 disposed of 52,191 cases, up from 39,800 cases last year..A total of 45,642 miscellaneous matters and around 6,549 regular matters were among the cases adjudicated, a press release issued by the top court said. The disposal rate is the highest in 6 years as per data from the Integrated Case Management System."If the disposal is compared with the total institution i.e. number of cases diarised during the said period then also despite the huge number of filing of 52,660 cases the disposal matched the same neck to neck with 52,191 disposed cases," the press release said..Under the leadership of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, the timeframe for verification and listing of cases was streamlined and reduced from 10 days to seven days."In certain matters such as Bail, Habeas Corpus, Eviction matters, Demolition, and Anticipatory bail the matters were processed in one day and listed in courts immediately thereafter keeping in view the Right to liberty at the highest pedestal ... Specialized benches were constituted to handle specific categories of cases, leading to a more specialized and efficient adjudication process," the press release added..4,410 service matters, 11,489 criminal matters, and 10,348 civil matters were disposed of between January 1, 2023 to December 15, 2023. .The Supreme Court Registry has recently come under intense scrutiny after allegations of improper listing of cases were raised by certain senior lawyers.In an open letter addressed to the CJI, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave had claimed that many cases which were being heard by certain benches were shifted out and listed before other benches in violation of the Supreme Court Rules and the Handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court, which govern listing of cases.Advocate Prashant Bhushan had also written to the CJI raising grievance over cases against two advocates and a journalist being listed before a bench presided by Justice Trivedi.The registry of the top court had, however, rebutted these allegations. .[Read Press Release]