The Supreme Court administration yesterday sought the statistics of the backlog of civil and criminal cases pending with all the lower courts across the country till December 31 last year.

All the district and sessions judges have been requested to send the statistic of pending cases to the concerned office of the High Court Division by 2pm today.

The statistics have been called upon for the Law Minister Anisul Huq to deliver a statement in this regard during the question-answer session in the parliament.

Sanjia Sarwar, assistant registrar (bench officer) of the High Court Division issued a notice to this effect under the instruction from the SC authorities.

According to the notice, all district and sessions judges have to provide with the total numbers of pending civil and criminal cases for five years and more than five years.

More than 27.5 lakh cases were pending with the lower courts across the country till June last year, SC sources said.