Supreme Court Initiative to Clear Decades-Old Pending Cases

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The Supreme Court has formed four special benches to hear the oldest pending civil and criminal matters as part of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant's strategy to clear long-standing judicial backlog.
This special case management mechanism allows dedicated benches to resolve decades-old cases without taking up daily fresh petitions.

Two division benches will exclusively handle the oldest civil disputes, while two other benches will focus entirely on long-pending criminal cases.
These special benches will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, which are reserved for detailed regular hearings.
High priority will go to legacy disputes, including civil cases pending since 1986 and criminal cases dating back to 1991.
Excluding routine miscellaneous matters gives judges continuous time to hear complex arguments and deliver final judgments.

Chief Justice Surya Kant created four exclusive benches specifically to systematically clear old civil and criminal matters.
Former CJI U.U. Lalit introduced separate time slots for fresh cases and old regular matters so older disputes are not neglected.
Under former CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, the SC-JUDICARE project introduced automated case classification to group similar legal questions together for joint hearings.
The court also organized dedicated Lok Adalat weeks and thematic benches for specialized cases like death penalty references to speed up disposal rates.

Under GS Paper II, this topic relates to the structure, functioning, and dispute-resolution mechanisms of the Indian Judiciary.
It covers key governance issues such as judicial pendency, access to justice, court efficiency, and legal reforms.
For essay writing, it provides practical examples for themes like justice delayed is justice denied and institutional reforms.