Report
Supreme Court’s Caseload During COVID-19 (April 2020): A Look at the Numbers
Report content
Introduction One of the most significant measures taken by the Supreme Court of India (SC) to tackle COVID-19 induced challenges was to operationalise video conferencing facilities in all three tiers of the judiciary to conduct virtual hearings. The SC directed the hearing of “urgent matters” through video conferencing from 26th March 2020 . In this backdrop, the JALDI (Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in India) Initiative at Vidhi, has undertaken an empirical study of all cases that were listed before the SC during the month of April 2020, when the nation-wide lockdown was imposed. During this period, there were no physical hearings and the SC conducted only virtual hearings of urgent matters. This paper looks at how these two unique developments – embedding of virtual hearings as part of judicial process and listing of only ‘urgent’ matters –have impacted the workload of the SC. Objective Understandably, the SC’s caseload in April 2020 drastically reduced in comparison to the same month last year. However, this paper attempts to move beyond the obvious to understand the nature of cases that came to be listed as ‘urgent’ and gives an overview of the ‘urgent litigation landscape’ of the SC. One of the key purposes of this paper is to incrementally publish all relevant datasets to encourage further research into understanding the changing role of the SC and the impact of technology in shaping such a change. Since COVID-19 and its effects are clearly here to stay for some time, this exercise is meant to inform external stakeholders on what they should expect, as well as hold a mirror to the judiciary to ensure it corrects its course where required. Methodology Vidhi undertook a manual study of the cause list of April 2020, while for April 2019, data was scraped from the SC website. The collected data has been further segregated and analysed under the following heads: Date of listing Case type Stage at which the case is listed Bench dealing with the case No. of cases and connected matters Overview of the April 2020 Dataset Number of working days : 14 Number of cases listed : 357 Number of fresh (for admission) cases : 218 Number of judgements : 57 Number of civil cases : 208 Number of criminal cases : 140 Findings April 2020 saw a rise in the proportion of criminal cases filed before the SC. Thirty-nine percent of the cases listed were criminal cases as compared to 27% in April 2019. As compared to April 2019, there was a 12% rise in the total number of criminal cases. On the other hand, there was a 13% fall in civil cases filed before the SC. There was a significant increase in the number of Civil Writ Petitions (WP (C)) filed before the SC in April 2020. It constituted 60% of all diary cases. The SC also appears to have been more proactive in taking suo moto cognizance of cases during April 2020, as 1.4% of cases listed are suo moto cases as compared to 0.03% in April 2019. Absolute numbersPercentage out of total casesApril 201950.03%April 202051.4% Total number of Suo Moto Contempt Petitions and Suo Moto Writ Petitions April 2020 also saw an increase in the number of cases listed at the judgement stage. Sixteen percent of cases listed in the Miscellaneous list (of April 2020) are at the judgement stage as compared to only 0.4% of the April 2019 Miscellaneous list. A similar trend is seen in Fresh Applications: from 37% of listings in April 2019 to 61% in April 2020.
Report document
20200716_Supreme-Courts-caseload-during-COVID-19-April-2020_-Final-2.pdf
Authors
Shreya Tripathy
Senior Resident Fellow
Since 2018, I have worked in JALDI on topics such as judicial diversity, infrastructure and efficient budgeting for the judiciary. I have also undertaken several data-driven projects intending to understand the systemic problems of the judiciary at all levels and provide targeted solutions. I have publications in the Economic and Political Weekly and other law & policy review journals. I have also published in the Outlook and platforms such as Hindustan Times and The Print. My areas of interest include Human Rights & Judicial Reforms. I graduated with B.B.A.LL.B. from National Law University, Odisha in 2018. Before joining Vidhi, I interned in organizations like Nyaaya, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre and Partners for Law in Development. My dream for the Indian judiciary is that it becomes more inclusive and accessible for all. The general narrative when it comes to accessibility and the judiciary tends to shift towards litigants who may be Persons with Disabilities. It is high time that the judiciary starts changing this narrative and starts considering accessibility for all and at all levels including judicial officers and staff. I am an enthusiastic collector of cookbooks and love trying out recipes from around the world.
Tarika Jain
Former Senior Resident Fellow
Tarika was a Senior Resident Fellow with the Health Team at Vidhi. She has also previously worked with the JALDI initiative and the Climate & Ecosystems Team, where she researched on efficiency, accountability and transparency in the judiciary with an empirical lens. She has written for leading journals and newspapers like Economic and Political Weekly, the Economic Times and the Indian Express. Tarika graduated from Gujarat National Law University with B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) in 2017 and has completed her postgraduate studies in Public Policy from University College London in 2021. She enjoys anime and rock music.