Supreme Court Initiative to Clear Decades-Old Pending Cases

Supreme Court Initiative to Clear Decades-Old Pending Cases

#GS-2 #Indian Polity & Constitution #Judiciary #Governance & Social Justice #Good Governance #Current Events #National #Supreme Court Backlog

Why in News

  • 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.

Key Features

  • 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.

Solutions Adopted by the Supreme Court

  • 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.

Relevance to GPSC Exam Syllabus

  • 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.