ITEM NO.302 COURT NO.1 SECTION PIL-W S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1236/2019 LOK PRAHARI THROUGH ITS GENERAL SECRETARY S.N.SHUKLA I.A.S. (RETD) Petitioner(s)

VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)

IA No. 58504/2021 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS IA No. 25096/2023 - FORMAL DISPOSAL IA No. 72386/2021 - GRANT OF FURTHER RELIEF IA No. 72382/2021 - MODIFICATION OF COURT ORDER WITH W.P.(C) No. 689/2021 (X)

IA No. 48113/2023 - APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION Date : 30-01-2025 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE B.R. GAVAI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT For Petitioner(s) Mr. Sudhir Mendiratta, AOR Petitioner-in-person For Respondent(s) Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv.

Mr. B.K. Satija, Adv.

Mr. Adit Khorana, Adv.

Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv.

Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv.

Mr. Abhishek Kumar Pandey, Adv.

Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv.

Mr. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv.

Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Signa ture No t Ve rifi ed Digita lly s ign ed b y Mr. Atmaram N S Nadkarni, Sr. Adv.

babita pandey Date: 2025.01.31

17:27: 29 IST Mr. D. L. Chidananda, AOR Reason:

Ms. Preetika Dwivedi, AOR Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv. Mr. Divyakant Lahoti, AOR Ms. Praveena Bisht, Adv.

Ms. Vindhya Mehra, Adv. Mr. Kartik Lahoti, Adv.

Mr. Kumar Vinayakam Gupta, Adv.

Mr. Adith Menon, Adv.

Ms. Samridhi Bhatt, Adv.

Ms. Shreya Gokel, Adv.

Ms. Anushka Awasthi, Adv.

Mr. Siddharth Tripathi, Adv.

Ms. Akanksha Soni, Adv.

Mr. Sachin Patil, AOR Mr. Geo Joseph, Adv.

Mr. Risvi Muhammed, Adv.

Mr. Rishabh Agarwal, Adv.

Mr. Kunal Chatterji, AOR Ms. Maitrayee Banerjee, Adv.

Mr. Rohit Bansal, Adv.

Ms. Mrinalini Mukherjee, Adv.

Mr. Kanhaiya Singhal, AOR Mr. Prasanna, Adv.

Mrs. Vani Singhal, Adv.

Mr. Ajay Kumar, Adv.

Mr. Malak Manish Bhatt, AOR Mr. Sahil Tagotra, AOR Mr. Sujay Jain, Adv. Mr. Zubin Dash, Adv.

Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Ms. Mythili S, Adv. Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR Ms. Kriti Gupta, Adv.

Ms. Sagun Srivastava, Adv.

Mr. Saaransh Shukla, Adv.

Mr. Niranjan Sahu, AOR Ms. Shivangi Gupta, Adv.

Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR Mr. Mukul Kumar, AOR Ms. Sindoora Vnl, AOR Mr. Apoorv Kurup, AOR Mr. P. I. Jose, AOR Ms. Radhika Gautam, AOR Mr. Ashwarya Sinha, AOR Ms. Surbhi Kumari, Adv.

Mr. T. G. Narayanan Nair, AOR M/s. KSN & Co., AOR Mr. V Balachandran, Adv.

Mr. Siddharth Naidu, Adv.

Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, AOR Mrs. Shashi Pathak, Adv.

Mr. Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Adv.

Mr. Mahesh Thakur, AOR Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv.

Ms. Enakshi Mukhopadhyay Siddhanta, AOR Mr. Ravi Kumar S., Adv.

Mr. P. S. Sridhar Raj, Adv.

Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, AOR Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv.

Ms. Ankeeta Appanna, Adv.

Mr. Amit Sharma, AOR Mr. Dipesh Sinha, aDv.

Ms. Pallavi Barua, Adv.

Ms. Aparna Singh, Adv.

Mr. Shakul R. Ghatole, Adv.

Mr. Shyam Dewni, Adv.

Mr. Saahil Dewani, Adv. Mr. Vatsalya Vigya, AOR Mr. Sumit Khanna, Adv.

Ms. Samiksha Pareskh, Adv.

Mr. K. Parameshwar, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Ravi Raghunath, AOR Mr. Aaditya A. Pande, AOR Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Dv.

Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv.

Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv.

UPON hearing the counsel, the Court made the following

O R D E R

In the judgment and order dated 20.04.2021, this Court refers to the unprecedented situation arising from the backlog of cases pending before the High Courts, and that any Constitution has to be dynamic as to sub-serve and endeavour to serve an existing problem. Secondly, the judgment and order dated 20.04.2021 states that it would not be appropriate to close the proceedings, but a concept of continuing mandamus would be appropriate to work out the recourse to Article 224A of the Constitution of India.

As per the National Judicial Data Grid, recent data indicates that there has been an increase in pendency levels in almost all the High Courts. Around 62,00,000 (Sixty Two Lakhs) cases are pending before the High Courts in India as on 25.01.2025, of which more than 18,20,000 (Eighteen Lakhs Twenty Thousands) cases are criminal cases and m