Today, the Law Minister, Arjun Ram Meghwal tells Lok Sabha that the country's courts are grappling with an overwhelming backlog of over five crore cases, with 80,000 of them pending in the Supreme Court alone.

Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, in a written reply, highlighted that as of December 1, out of the staggering 5,08,85,856 pending cases, more than 61 lakh were lodged at the level of the 25 high courts across the nation. Further, he mentioned that the bulk of pending cases, totaling over 4.46 crore, were distributed among the district and subordinate courts.

The minister highlighted that the total sanctioned strength of the Indian judiciary stands at 26,568 judges. Among these, the Supreme Court has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, while the high courts have a sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges.

The district and subordinate courts have a sanctioned strength of 25,420 judges.