MHC feat: 1 bench, 2 judges, 6,500 cases cleared in 57 days

NEW DELHI: Amid concerns over pendency, a division bench of the Madras High Court in Madurai has disposed of over 6,500 cases in a record 57 days, people aware of the judicial proceedings said on Wednesday.

Apparently, no other High Court has disposed of such a large number of cases in a short span of nearly two months. The division bench comprising Justices R Mahadevan and J Sathyanaryana Prasad disposed of 6,512 cases. The bench had been hearing cases since 2018.

The bench used to come prepared for the hearings and an average of 180 cases were listed before it on a daily basis. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had recently expressed concern that the total number of pending cases in courts is inching towards the five-crore mark.

The Supreme Court had disposed of 29,109 cases till October 31 this year and the 25 high courts had disposed of 14,94,201 cases till September 30, the government had told Parliament last week.

The lower courts, which have the maximum pending cases, had settled 1,76,24,307 cases till September 30, it had said.