Introduction
India's High Courts are the principal courts of appeal and constitutional guardians at the state level. They hear civil and criminal appeals, writ petitions, and a wide range of other matters. Case pendency—the number of cases pending disposal—is a key indicator of judicial workload and access to justice. Understanding how many cases are pending, how long they have been pending, and how they break down by type (civil vs criminal) and by court helps policymakers and the public assess the state of the higher judiciary.
This article uses official statistics published through the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) to present a snapshot of High Court case statistics in India. The data covers:
- Total pending cases at each High Court (across all benches)
- Backlog by age—how many cases are pending for less than one year, 1–3 years, 3–5 years, 5–10 years, and over 10 years
- Civil vs criminal pendency at the court level
- Case-type mix—writ petitions, appeals, petitions, suits, and other categories
- Current-year flow—cases instituted and disposed in the reference period (Calendar Year 2026)
Data scope: Snapshot as of 2026-03-13 for Calendar Year (Jan–Dec) 2026. All figures are case counts (number of cases). The dataset covers 25 High Courts and their benches; we aggregate by court where needed.
Methodology and Data Source
The statistics in this post are derived from the High Court case statistics dataset available on the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP). NDAP is a government of India initiative to make public data discoverable and usable in standard formats.
Key details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Department of Justice / NDAP (data as published by the platform) |
| Source | NDAP – High Court case statistics (Dataset 7149) |
| Dataset | High Court case statistics (institution, disposal, pendency by age and type) |
| Granularity | High Court, bench, case type (Civil / Criminal / Total) |
| Reference period | Calendar Year 2026 (Jan–Dec); snapshot date 2026-03-13 |
| Units | Case counts (number of cases) |
| Coverage | 25 High Courts; multiple benches per court where applicable |
Citation: Data from the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), NITI Aayog — High Court case statistics, Dataset ID 7149.
How we use it: Each row in the source CSV is a court–bench–case type combination (Civil, Criminal, or Total) with counts for pending cases by age bucket, case-type counts (e.g. writ petitions, appeals), and cases instituted/disposed in the current year. We aggregate across benches to get court-level totals and across all courts to get national totals for the charts and tables below. Only Total rows are used for court-level pendency and case-type breakdowns; Civil and Criminal rows are used for the civil vs criminal comparison.
National Snapshot
Across all High Courts in the dataset, total pending cases amount to approximately 64 lakh (6.4 million) cases. This is the sum of pending cases in the five age buckets (under 1 year through over 10 years) across all courts and benches.
National pending cases by age of pendency (all High Courts)
| Age of pendency | Pending cases |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 year | 13,83,938 |
| 1–3 years | 12,98,689 |
| 3–5 years | 7,60,122 |
| 5–10 years | 14,02,395 |
| Above 10 years | 15,55,748 |
| Total | 64,00,892 |
A large share of the backlog is in the over-5-years and over-10-years categories—together they account for roughly 46% of all pending cases. This highlights the challenge of clearing long-pending matters while managing fresh institution.
Pending Cases by High Court
Pendency is concentrated in a few High Courts that serve large populations and multiple states or have historically large dockets. The following table shows the top 15 High Courts by total pending cases (all benches combined).
Top 15 High Courts by total pending cases
| Rank | High Court | Pending cases |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allahabad High Court | 12,26,147 |
| 2 | Rajasthan | 6,73,553 |
| 3 | Bombay High Court | 6,65,758 |
| 4 | Madras High Court | 5,53,854 |
| 5 | Madhya Pradesh | 4,78,434 |
| 6 | Punjab and Haryana | 4,20,452 |
| 7 | Karnataka | 3,31,680 |
| 8 | Andhra Pradesh | 2,48,934 |
| 9 | Kerala | 2,47,671 |
| 10 | Telangana | 2,36,591 |
| 11 | Patna High Court | 2,18,181 |
| 12 | Calcutta High Court | 2,04,445 |
| 13 | Gujarat | 1,74,091 |
| 14 | Orissa | 1,63,591 |
| 15 | Delhi | 1,26,290 |
Allahabad High Court has the highest pendency (over 12.2 lakh), followed by Rajasthan, Bombay, Madras, and Madhya Pradesh. Together, the top five courts account for over 35 lakh pending cases—more than half of the national High Court pendency in this snapshot.
Top 15 High Courts by pending cases
Backlog by Age of Pendency
How long cases have been pending is a critical measure of delay. The data splits pendency into five buckets: <1 yr, 1–3 yr, 3–5 yr, 5–10 yr, and >10 yr. At the national level, the distribution is as below.
- Under 1 year: About 21.6% of pending cases
- 1–3 years: About 20.3%
- 3–5 years: About 11.9%
- 5–10 years: About 21.9%
- Over 10 years: About 24.3%
So nearly half of all pending cases have been in the system for more than 5 years. The chart below shows the national totals by age bucket.
National pending cases by age of pendency
Civil vs Criminal Pendency
High Courts hear both civil and criminal matters. Civil cases include disputes between parties (property, contracts, writs, etc.); criminal cases include appeals and matters arising from the criminal justice system. At many High Courts, civil and criminal pendency are of similar magnitude—reflecting a balanced mix of work.
The table below gives Civil and Criminal pending counts for the top 12 courts by total pendency.
Civil vs criminal pending (top 12 High Courts)
| High Court | Civil pending | Criminal pending | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allahabad High Court | 6,26,724 | 5,99,423 | 12,26,147 |
| Rajasthan | 4,80,436 | 1,93,117 | 6,73,553 |
| Bombay High Court | 5,49,340 | 1,16,418 | 6,65,758 |
| Madras High Court | 4,77,923 | 75,931 | 5,53,854 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 2,84,042 | 1,94,392 | 4,78,434 |
| Punjab and Haryana | 2,55,339 | 1,65,113 | 4,20,452 |
| Karnataka | 2,74,510 | 57,170 | 3,31,680 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2,06,462 | 42,472 | 2,48,934 |
| Kerala | 2,00,579 | 47,092 | 2,47,671 |
| Telangana | 2,04,111 | 32,480 | 2,36,591 |
| Patna High Court | 1,14,918 | 1,03,263 | 2,18,181 |
| Calcutta High Court | 1,72,260 | 32,185 | 2,04,445 |
At Allahabad, Patna, and Madhya Pradesh, civil and criminal pendency are relatively balanced. At Rajasthan, Bombay, Madras, Karnataka, and Kerala, civil pendency is notably higher than criminal.
Civil vs criminal pending (top 12 High Courts)
Case Type Breakdown
Pending cases are classified by type—for example writ petitions, first appeal, second appeal, petition, revision, suit, review, and application. At the national level (summing across all High Courts’ Total rows), the mix is as follows.
National pending cases by type (all High Courts)
| Case type | Pending cases |
|---|---|
| Writ Petition | 19,11,354 |
| Appeal | 11,74,768 |
| Application | 8,95,618 |
| First Appeal | 5,14,772 |
| Petition | 4,72,212 |
| Revision | 3,59,356 |
| Second Appeal | 3,09,277 |
| Suit | 34,934 |
| Review | 22,343 |
| Reference | 2,775 |
Writ petitions, appeals, and applications account for the largest share of the pending caseload, followed by first appeal, petition, and revision. The chart below visualises this breakdown.
National pending cases by case type
Instituted vs Disposed (Current Year)
To gauge whether courts are keeping pace with new filings, we look at cases instituted and cases disposed in the current year (Calendar Year 2026, as of the snapshot date). The following chart compares instituted and disposed counts for the top 15 High Courts by pendency.
Courts where instituted exceeds disposed in the reference period are adding to their backlog; where disposed exceeds instituted, they are reducing it in that period. Snapshot timing (e.g. early in the year) can affect these comparisons.
Cases instituted vs disposed in current year (top 15 courts)
Key Takeaways
- National pendency across High Courts is approximately 64 lakh (6.4 million) cases in this snapshot (2026-03-13).
- Allahabad High Court has the highest pendency (over 12.2 lakh), followed by Rajasthan, Bombay, Madras, and Madhya Pradesh; the top five courts account for more than half of national High Court pendency.
- Backlog by age: About 46% of pending cases are over 5 years old; 24% are over 10 years old, underlining the challenge of long-delayed disposal.
- Civil vs criminal: At several courts (e.g. Allahabad, Patna, Madhya Pradesh) civil and criminal pendency are similar; at others (e.g. Rajasthan, Bombay, Madras) civil pendency is higher.
- Case-type mix: Writ petitions, appeals, and applications account for the largest share of pending cases nationally, followed by first appeal, petition, and revision.
- Data source: All figures are from the NDAP High Court case statistics dataset; they are a single snapshot for Calendar Year 2026 and do not show multi-year trends.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this data?
This data is an official snapshot of case statistics for India’s High Courts—pending cases, cases instituted, and cases disposed—published through the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP). The dataset is available at ndap.niti.gov.in/dataset/7149. It is broken down by court, bench, case type (Civil/Criminal/Total), age of pendency, and type of case (writ, appeal, petition, etc.).
Which High Courts have the most pendency?
In this snapshot, Allahabad High Court has the highest total pendency (over 12.2 lakh cases), followed by Rajasthan, Bombay, Madras, and Madhya Pradesh High Courts. The top five together account for more than half of all High Court pendency in the dataset.
What are the “age of pendency” buckets?
Cases are grouped by how long they have been pending: less than 1 year, 1–3 years, 3–5 years, 5–10 years, and above 10 years. These buckets help assess how much of the backlog is long-delayed.
What is NDAP?
The National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) is a government of India initiative to make public datasets from various ministries and agencies available in standard, machine-readable formats so that researchers, journalists, and citizens can analyse them more easily.
How often is this data updated?
The dataset used here is a snapshot as of 2026-03-13 for Calendar Year 2026. Update frequency depends on NDAP and the data provider; check the NDAP portal for the latest releases.
Why do some courts show more civil than criminal pendency?
High Courts handle both civil and criminal appeals and writs. The mix depends on the state’s litigation profile, appeal rates from lower courts, and the volume of writ petitions and other civil matters. Courts in states with higher civil litigation or more writ activity tend to show higher civil pendency.
Can I use this data for research or reporting?
Yes. The data is in the public domain via NDAP. When using it, cite the source: High Court case statistics, NDAP Dataset 7149, and the snapshot date as in the Methodology section above.