Appointed as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice Surya Kant will be formally sworn in on November 24, succeeding Chief Justice Bhushan Gavai. File. | Photo credit: ANI
Chief Justice of India-designate Justice Surya Kant said on Saturday (Nov 22, 2025) that one of the biggest challenges in his tenure as the chief justice will be to reduce the Supreme Court’s 90,000 case backlog to a “manageable” number.
Even as he spoke at 7, Krishna Menon Marg to mediators, the tally in the National Judicial Data Grid had climbed to 90,225.
Justice Kant said he did not want to get involved in a blame game over who was responsible for the staggering number of arrears at the high court – the highest in the court’s history.
“I will not pick the blame on who is responsible. That is irrelevant,” he said in an informal interaction ahead of his swearing-in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on November 24.
Judge Kant indicated that he had taken a studied and practical approach to resolving the eternal burden of dependency.
According to him, one of the measures would be to identify crucial cases with important legal issues that have been under discussion in the Supreme Court for years.
Flowing effect
The judge noted that these backlogs have a chilling effect. They delay lower courts or even the Supreme Court from deciding individual cases with related issues.
Untying the knot in these key cases through authoritative declarations of the law by the constitutional courts would allow judges, from the Supreme Court to the district courts, to resolve related cases before them.
“I will set up nine-judge and seven-judge benches for such cases. The priority will be to identify these cases with important legal issues over which thousands of cases are pending,” Justice Kant said.
He said he had already sought information from high courts on long-pending cases.
Asked by The Hindu whether the Supreme Court can itself contribute to the pendency by dealing with various petitions in cases in which binding judgments have already been delivered, Justice Kant said there are instances where the court has re-examined 30-year-old cases in which judgments have been delivered.
Justice Kant said the court has recently seen the addiction phenomenon continue to grow despite judges maintaining a high disposal rate. He said at times the liquidation rate exceeded filings in the high court.
“Approach the High Courts First”
The judge said one of the reasons for the high rate of filings, apart from online access, could be litigants choosing to approach the Supreme Court directly rather than approaching the high courts first.
“The High Courts are equally constitutional bodies,” Justice Kant emphasized.
The CJI has termed mediation as a “game changer” in dispute resolution.
He called mediation an alternative to protracted litigation. He said corporations are increasingly turning to mediation as a better option. This change in attitude would also make a difference for the better in the number of dependencies.
“This (supporting mediation as an alternative) is my first and foremost agenda,” Judge Kant said.
The CJI-designate said judges must not come under the pressure of social media trolling or be swayed by online comments. Judicial independence was paramount, he stressed.
Published – 22 Nov 2025 20:20 IST
