In India, many times not only property or assets but also legal cases are inherited.

Currently, more than 5.2 crore cases are pending in all courts across the country. Out of these, more than 60 lakh cases are pending for more than 10 years. These figures are from the ' National Judicial Data Grid ' operated by the court and the government.

The problem of pending cases is particularly serious in Uttar Pradesh. More than 1.2 crore cases are pending in all the courts here. Recently, the issue of cases pending for a long time in Allahabad High Court has been much discussed.

In a decision in February this year, the Supreme Court said that many such cases of Allahabad High Court are coming before it which are pending for three decades. At the same time, another bench of the Supreme Court had commented in January this year that the process of filing and listing of cases in the High Court has collapsed.

To understand why cases remain pending for a long time, BBC Hindi visited Allahabad High Court. To understand the condition of the High Court, we also spoke to lawyers, former judges and litigants there.

High Court statistics

First let us move towards the statistics.

Statistics also show the increasing problem of pendency in Allahabad High Court. Currently, more than 11 lakh cases are pending in Allahabad High Court.

The recently published ' India Justice Report 2025 ' found that an average of 15,000 cases are pending before each judge of the Allahabad High Court. The 'India Justice Report' is a study on the status of pending cases and the issue of access to justice in India.

According to the India Justice Report 2022 , the average time pending cases in Allahabad High Court were more than 11 years. For this report, courts of 25 states were studied. In this, the average time of pending cases in the High Court of Uttar Pradesh was the highest.

Impact on litigants

What impact does such a large number of cases have on the people who are involved in them, i.e. the plaintiffs? Pending cases are not just a statistic. Pending cases mean someone staying in jail, property matters not getting resolved for decades and above all, not getting justice.

In the conversation, many lawyers told that many plaintiffs, i.e. those whose cases are going on, are very upset. Senior advocate Syed Farman Naqvi tells about one of his clients, "Whenever I talk to him, he says, 'Walker sahab, will the case end after my death?'"

There are some people who talk of the case ending not in years but in a lifetime.

Babu Ram Rajput is a resident of Kanpur. In 1992, he bought a piece of land in an auction. He has not got the possession of this land till now. Why? Because a court case is going on regarding this land for the last 33 years. He says, "I just want this case to end in my lifetime. I am fed up."

He told us that he had changed lawyers five times in the High Court. We saw his court file. It was clear from it that the case had been going on for a long time. At the beginning of the file, there were white pages with papers printed out from the computer. As we moved further in the file, the pages became older. At the end, we found yellow papers in a bad condition and half torn. Letters were typed on these papers using a typewriter.

Not only this, many lawyers have such cases which are going on for generations. Swapnil Kumar, a High Court lawyer, says, "I am currently handling a case in which my father was a lawyer before me."

When the High Court apologized

The situation can be gauged from the fact that in its two recent decisions the High Court apologized for the delay.

The High Court gave its verdict in a 1979 rape and murder case this April, 46 years later. In the meantime, four of the five accused had died. Only one accused is alive. He is now 74 years old. The court expressed regret to the people involved in this case and the entire society for this delay.

Recently, another case came before the court. In this, they had to decide whether an adoption was valid or not. It took the High Court 41 years to decide this. In its decision given in December 2024, the court said, "It took four decades for this decision to come, so the court apologizes to the litigants."

This is just the time taken by Allahabad High Court. Before the High Court, the case is also heard in the trial court. Not only this, even after the case goes on for decades, an appeal can be made in the Supreme Court against the decision of the High Court. In such a situation, the case can go on for longer.

What the lawyers think

Many lawyers fear that if cases are not resolved quickly in the courts, frustrated people will begin taking the law into their own hands.

Allahabad Bar Association President and senior advocate Anil Tiwari says, "People's trust is breaking."

Many lawyers said that because cases are not resolved quickly in court, people try to resolve disputes through 'illegal' means.

The race to the High Court is not easy

People also told about the difficulties in travelling to and from Allahabad High Court. Babu Ram Rajput says that fighting a case in the High Court is not an easy task. Apart from the expenses of lawyers and the rest of the case, travelling to and from Allahabad is also difficult.

Uttar Pradesh is the fourth largest state in India in terms of area. Allahabad High Court also has a bench in Lucknow. 16 districts come under the jurisdiction of Lucknow High Court Bench. The remaining 59 districts come under Allahabad High Court.

Babu Ram Rajput says, "I am over 70 years old now. If my case is heard in court, I get the news a day or two in advance. So it is not easy to go to Allahabad in such a short time. It takes time. It takes money. On top of that, I am old too, so it is difficult to travel."

It is worth noting that Lucknow is closer to Kanpur. Even then, Kanpur cases come under Allahabad High Court in Prayagraj. For years, lawyers in the state have been demanding that more districts be given under the jurisdiction of Lucknow. Along with this, a new bench of the High Court should also be created.

A few years ago, lawyers from western Uttar Pradesh had protested for a new bench of the High Court. During that time, the lawyers said that Lahore High Court was closer to them than Allahabad High Court.

What are the reasons for pending cases?

Experts believe that there are many reasons for the increasing pendency of cases.

In March 2025, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, while answering a question in the Rajya Sabha about the pendency of cases in the Allahabad High Court, said that the pendency is not only due to the lack of judges. He said that lack of adequate infrastructure, lawyers, investigation agencies, cooperation of litigants, lawyers asking for time - all these are also reasons for the long duration of cases.

Senior lawyer in Allahabad High Court, Amarendra Nath Singh says that if the executive does its work properly, many cases will not even reach the court. Also, having better lawyers and judges will also enable the High Court to work better.

He said, "Sometimes it also happens that the decision has come in your favour but it is not being followed. In such a situation, you have to go to the court again."

Some lawyers also say that after the Covid pandemic, case filing has started happening online in some High Courts. People also argue online. On the other hand, these facilities are less in Allahabad right now.

There are so many cases before the court and because of this every day is precious here. Many times lawyers also go on strike for various reasons. For example, in March this year, the High Court Bar Association had announced an indefinite strike on the issue of transfer of Justice Yashwant Verma.

This strike lasted for five days. Earlier in February this year, the lawyers had also gone on a one-day strike over the non-appointment of judges.

However, whenever the issue of pending cases arises in Allahabad High Court, the discussion mostly revolves around the number of judges.

Valya Singh is the co-founder of India Justice Report. He says that there are many reasons for pendency. Valya says, "But we should start with the appointment of more judges and then look into the other problems."

There are a total of 160 posts of judges in the Allahabad High Court. This includes the Lucknow Bench as well. However, according to government data, currently only 88 posts have been filled. That means 72 posts of judges are vacant.

Senior lawyer Satish Trivedi filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court in February this year. The petition demanded that the vacant posts of judges in the High Court be filled soon. The petition said that according to the rules, the process of filling the post of any judge should start six months before his retirement. However, this is not always followed.

work pressure on judges

If you look at the 'cause list' of any day of Allahabad High Court, it is thousands of pages long. The 'cause list' contains information about which case will be heard on which day.

Hundreds of cases are pending before each judge every day. In his petition, Satish Trivedi has written that there were many days when 400 to 800 new cases were pending before a judge. Not only this, many old cases are also listed along with it.

The judge in the High Court has about five hours or 300 minutes every day to hear cases. In such a situation, if a judge hears a case for even five minutes, then only 60 cases will be heard. In such a situation, some lawyers also complain that some judges do not sit on time. A lawyer, on the condition of anonymity, said, "There are many judges who start working at 10 o'clock. But there are some who do not sit before 11-12 o'clock."

Many lawyers said that since there is a shortage of judges and there are many cases, more attention is paid to new cases. In this way too, old cases remain pending.

Syed Farman Naqvi said that there is usually urgency in new cases. Such as, demand for bail, order to stop demolition, etc. He points out, "... but after giving interim orders on these, the case remains pending because new cases keep coming before the court."

What retired judges say

Retired judge of Allahabad High Court, Amar Saran, said that due to the large number of cases, the judge has to take similar decisions in many cases. According to him, "Instead of hearing the cases completely, the judge orders the lower court or the government what to do in that case."

He admitted that this might not be the best decision for the plaintiffs, but due to lack of time the judge had no other option.

Retired Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Govind Mathur says, "Not only in Allahabad, but in the High Courts of many states of India, the pendency is so much that the final hearing of the case is not taking place. Appeals are also being heard less."

He told that different cases take different time to be heard. According to him, "Some cases like bail can be decided a little quickly. But if there is a final hearing of an appeal, then it can take from one or two hours to three to four days. It will depend on how complicated the case is or how many witnesses there are… etc. Sometimes the judge pronounces his decision in the court itself. That also takes time."

He said, "We will have to make a policy to manage the case-flow because right now all the judges are hearing the cases as per their convenience."

Why are judges not being appointed?

There is a long process of appointing a judge in the High Court. The High Court Collegium, i.e. the three most senior judges, sends the names to the state government. Then the state government sends those names to the central government with its comments. Then the central government sends it to the Supreme Court Collegium. It consists of the Chief Justice of India and two more senior judges of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court Collegium decides the names and then sends them to the Central Government. After this, the government appoints the judges.

There is a constant tussle between the judges of the court and the government over the appointment of judges. Currently, a case is going on in the Supreme Court on the issue that the government is not appointing the names sent by the Supreme Court as judges.

There are many places in this entire process where the names can get stuck. It is possible that the High Court itself may not send the names to the state government. It is also possible that the central government or the state government may object to any name. It is also possible that the Supreme Court Collegium may not take forward any of the names sent.

Not a single new judge was appointed in the Allahabad High Court in the year 2024. So far, seven judges have been appointed in the year 2025.

President of Allahabad High Court Bar Association, Anil Tiwari says, "Since 2007, 160 posts of judges have been sanctioned in the High Court. But till date, these posts have never been fully filled. Even if all these posts are filled, there will still not be enough judges in the state."

Amidst all this, there is also a controversy over the appointment of judges in the Allahabad High Court. Bar President Anil Tiwari says, "There is no transparency in how judges are appointed."

The Bar Association has also recently passed a resolution. In this, they have alleged that such judges are being appointed who belong to the family of a judge or are associated with an influential family.

Meanwhile, in April this year, the Allahabad High Court, while hearing a petition filed in the matter of appointment of judges, has sought a reply from the state government and the High Court administration. Their reply is likely to make it clear why so many posts are lying vacant.