Pending Court Cases in India 2026: NJDG Statistics by Court and State

The district court backlog rose every year shown, from 4.11 crore in 2021 to 4.99 crore by 28 July 2026, an increase of 21.6%. Put simply, more cases come in each year than the courts manage to finish.

High Court pendency climbed more slowly but never fell, reaching 64.67 lakh in July 2026. Appeals from the district courts and writ petitions both feed this number.

The Supreme Court is a small share of the total, but its count jumped from 82,496 in 2024 to 92,101 in 2025. Two official snapshots two days apart in July 2026 gave 92,755 and 95,954.

Uttar Pradesh stands apart with 1.20 crore pending cases, about 24% of the national district court total. Maharashtra is a distant second at 61.70 lakh.

Allahabad High Court's 12.28 lakh pending cases put it far ahead of Rajasthan (7.01 lakh) and Bombay (6.43 lakh). If your appeal goes to Allahabad, expect a long wait.

Age matters as much as volume. Uttar Pradesh alone has 23.19 lakh district cases older than 10 years, and Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra hold most of the rest.

Pending cases in Indian courts by tier, 2021 to 28 July 2026

Source: Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3295, "Case Pendency in Judiciary", answered 07.08.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data); Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2362, "Pendency of Cases", answered 13.02.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data as on 31.12.2025). Download as image

Pending cases in each High Court and how old they are, as on 30 July 2026. The reply's "more than 5 years" column is smaller than its "more than 10 years" column for several courts, so it likely counts only cases 5 to 10 years old; it is shown as printed and not added to anything.

Source: Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3371, "Cases Pendency and e-Courts Project", answered 07.08.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data as on 30.07.2026). Download as image

Official NJDG snapshots quoted in Parliament, December 2025 to July 2026

Source: Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2362, "Pendency of Cases", answered 13.02.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data as on 31.12.2025); Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2327, "Justice Delivery System through Digitization", answered 13.02.2026 (NJDG data as on 10.02.2026); Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3295, "Case Pendency in Judiciary", answered 07.08.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data); Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3371, "Cases Pendency and e-Courts Project", answered 07.08.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data as on 30.07.2026). Download as image

Cases pending in district and subordinate courts (30 July 2026) by State

• 11 crore or more
• 425 lakh to 1 crore
• 1010 lakh to 25 lakh
• 81 lakh to 10 lakh
• 13Under 1 lakh

How many cases are pending in Indian courts in 2026?

The short answer is about 5.65 crore, counted across all three tiers on 28 July 2026. The exact sum from the government's reply is 5,64,76,799. District and subordinate courts account for 4.99 crore of that, High Courts for 64.67 lakh and the Supreme Court for 92,755.

Don't be thrown if you see slightly different figures elsewhere. NJDG updates daily, so every quoted number is a snapshot. Two replies tabled in Parliament on the same day used data from 28 July and 30 July 2026, and the Supreme Court count moved from 92,755 to 95,954 between them. Both are official.

The trend is the part worth noticing. Every tier is higher than it was in 2021. The district courts went from 4.11 crore pending cases in 2021 to 4.99 crore, a rise of 21.6%. Whatever the reasons, a dispute filed today joins a longer line than one filed five years ago.

Which states and High Courts have the biggest backlog?

Uttar Pradesh dominates. Its district courts had 1,19,90,328 cases pending on 30 July 2026, roughly a quarter of all district court cases in the country. Maharashtra (61.70 lakh), West Bengal (41.43 lakh) and Bihar (37.76 lakh) follow.

Growth varies a lot. West Bengal's district backlog stood at 23,84,020 in 2021 and 41,42,621 in July 2026. A few states went the other way: Gujarat fell from 19,52,262 to 16,14,861, and Kerala from 20,89,147 to 17,87,816. So the state map is not just a population map.

Among High Courts, Allahabad carries 12.28 lakh pending cases, and 39.9% of them are more than 10 years old. Calcutta is smaller but almost as stale, with 37.7% of its cases past the decade mark. Karnataka High Court sits at 6.7%, which shows how different the experience can be depending on where your appeal lands.

How long do court cases take in India?

The figures quoted in Parliament don't give an average time to judgment, but the age of pending cases tells you plenty. On 30 July 2026, 54.52 lakh district court cases had been pending for more than 10 years. That is 10.9% of everything in those courts.

It gets worse higher up. In the High Courts, 25% of pending cases were older than 10 years. In the Supreme Court, 9,425 cases had crossed that line.

Most district court cases are younger than 10 years, and a well-documented money claim can move faster than a land or family dispute. But if you plan a business on the assumption that a court will enforce your contract within a year or two, these numbers say you should have a backup plan. And a district court win can be appealed, which restarts the clock in a court that may be just as busy.

What does the court backlog mean for freelancers and small businesses?

Picture a graphic designer in Lucknow who is owed for three months of work by a client in the same city. Her contract says nothing about advances, interest or how disputes get settled. Her real options are a legal notice, a long wait and a suit in a district system already holding 1.20 crore cases. Faced with that, writing the money off can start to look sensible.

The lesson is practical. In India, the contract has to do most of the enforcement work before anything goes wrong, because the court route is slow and expensive for small amounts. That means getting paid in stages, keeping the right to pause work, and agreeing in advance on a faster way to settle a fight.

If you were registered on Udyam as a micro or small enterprise when you signed the contract, you may also be able to take a delayed payment claim to the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council in your state, which is often quicker than a regular suit. Check whether your contract's payment terms line up with that law before you sign. A client who knows you can use that route is also more likely to pay on time.

• Ask for an advance or milestone payments so your unpaid exposure stays small.
• Put a clear due date and a late payment interest rate in writing.
• Keep a right to suspend work or withhold handover of files until invoices are paid.
• Agree on mediation or arbitration, with a named city and institution, before a dispute starts.
• Keep a paper trail: signed scope, email approvals and dated invoices make any claim faster.

Is arbitration faster than going to court in India?

Often, yes, if the clause is written well. A vague line like "disputes shall be referred to arbitration" can itself end up in court, with the parties arguing over who appoints the arbitrator and where hearings happen.

A usable clause names the seat (the legal home of the arbitration), the institution or appointment process, a sole arbitrator for smaller claims, the language and how costs are shared. A short mediation step before arbitration can also settle many disputes cheaply.

Keep your expectations honest. Arbitration awards are still enforced through the courts, and a party that wants to delay can challenge an award. The gain is that the main fight happens outside the queue. For a business owner, that can mean months instead of years.

How to check pending cases on NJDG

NJDG is public, and you can look up both the big picture and your own matter.

• Open the National Judicial Data Grid on the eCourts website and pick the tier you want: district courts, High Courts or the Supreme Court.
• Use the dashboard to filter by state, district or court complex, and by civil or criminal cases, to see pendency and case age.
• To track one case, use the eCourts case status search with the CNR number, or search by party name, case number or advocate.
• Check the next hearing date and recent orders, and save copies of orders as you go.
• If you are deciding where to sue, compare the age of pending cases in the courts that could hear your matter. Volume alone can mislead.

Sources and method

Every number on this page comes from the sources below, each opened and read on or before October 17, 2026. A second, independent review checked every figure against its source and corrected anything that did not match. 36 of 36 State entries were confirmed; any that could not be are marked "Not yet confirmed" and left out of every count and chart.

1. Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3295, "Case Pendency in Judiciary", answered 07.08.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data) (7 August 2026 (Lok Sabha Monsoon Session 2026 replies, compiled September 2026))
2. Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3371, "Cases Pendency and e-Courts Project", answered 07.08.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data as on 30.07.2026) (7 August 2026 (Lok Sabha Monsoon Session 2026 replies, compiled September 2026))
3. Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2362, "Pendency of Cases", answered 13.02.2026 (Annexures I and II, NJDG data as on 31.12.2025) (13 February 2026 (Lok Sabha Budget Session 2026, Part 1 replies))
4. Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2327, "Justice Delivery System through Digitization", answered 13.02.2026 (NJDG data as on 10.02.2026) (13 February 2026 (Lok Sabha Budget Session 2026, Part 1 replies))