While over 100,000 cases are pending in the lower courts of India for more than 30 years, there are nearly 500,000 cases pending for 20 to 30 years and another 28,70,000 cases that are pending for 10-20 years. That takes the total number of cases pending for over a decade to 34,60,000, an analysis of data compiled from the National Judicial Data Grid.
The analysis shows that in Sikkim more than 99.6% of pending cases are less than five years old and among larger states, more than 90% of pending cases in Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are less than five years old. This proportion is between 80% and 90% for Delhi, Telangana, Assam, MP, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, J&K and Gujarat. The share of less than five-year-old cases is between 60% and 70% in UP, Odisha and Bihar and slightly below 60% for West Bengal.
