The Supreme Court has more than 96,000 pending cases, with over 10,000 awaiting disposal for more than a decade, the Rajya Sabha was told on Thursday.
Collectively, 5.64 crore cases are pending across courts, including the top court, the 25 high courts and district and subordinate courts.
Citing data available on the National Judicial Data Grid, Law Minister Arjun Meghwal said in a written reply that as many as 80,660 cases are pending for more than 30 years across high courts.
In the top court, while 26 cases are pending for more than 30 years, 558 are awaiting disposal for over 20 years, he said.
The disposal of cases, the minister said, is within the exclusive domain of the judiciary.
Pendency of cases in courts arises due to several factors, including complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, and cooperation of stakeholders – bar, investigating agencies, witnesses and litigants.