NEW DELHI: CJI Surya Kant has devised four categories of cases to prioritise listing and hearing of petitions filed by socially, physically, and financially disadvantaged people. The new categories of cases relate to those filed by disabled people and acid attack survivors, by senior citizens above 80 years, persons who are below poverty line and those who have approached the court through legal aid services that provide free advocate assistance to poor litigants. The new categorisation was needed as their cases used to get lost in the crowd of 800-odd cases that get listed on Mondays and Fridays, the two days in a week when 16 benches of SC entertain fresh petitions and determine whether these require longer hearing. A circular by the SC registry said, “Members of the Bar, parties-in-person and all stakeholders are required to invariably mention the relevant head… under which the matter actually falls, in all the fresh petitions to be filed… and submit an appropriate application/letter along with the documentary proof issued by an appropriate govt authority in this regard.”SC handled 75k cases in 2025, unmatched by any top courtFurther, all concerned are also requested to provide the said details in pending matters/cases to enable the registry to appropriately update the matter under the respective head. This will enable the registry to prioritise listing of such cases,” it said. The humongous volume of cases handled by the highest court of the country is unmatched by any country’s Supreme Court, by a huge margin. In 2025, as many as 75,280 cases were filed in SC – 51,357 civil and 23,923 criminal. It decided 65,403 (87% of the total filing), 42,793 civil and 22,610 criminal. In contrast, though thousands of cases are filed every year in US Supreme Court, it accepts only 70-80 cases for arguments. Till Dec 29, UK Supreme Court had received little over 200 cases and gave judgments in around 50 cases. Their Indian counterpart gave 1,400 lengthy judgments and thousands of orders to dispose of cases. SC, which saw three CJIs in 2025 in Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant, will not see a new CJI till Feb 2027, when Justice Kant retires. In 2027, SC will see a record four CJIs – Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath (from Feb to Sep), BV Nagarathna (for 37 days) and PS Narasimha.
