Although the number of cases disposed of in a year has increased, more than 30 lakh cases were pending with courts across the country causing litigants to endure long waits for justice.

The number of cases settled by the Supreme Court's Appellate Division and lower courts had risen over the years. But it was quite the opposite at the High Court, even though new judges had recently been appointed to it.

Hartals and blockades were to blame for this.

An SC study showed that 30,07,860 cases were pending as of December 31 last year. Of the cases, 15,346 were at the Appellate Division, 3,61,038 at the HC, and 26,31,476 at the lower courts.

Assistant Registrar of the SC Abu Sayed on March 19 told The Daily Star that the HC cleared fewer cases in the last two years than it had done in the previous years as some HC judges could not sit in courts amid hartals and blockades called by the 20-party alliance.

But the judges of the Appellate Division sat in their benches regularly amid the programmes, he said.

Sayed said Chief Justice SK Sinha, after being appointed in January, had taken several measures, including maintaining fair case management and close monitoring, to increase the number of disposal of cases.

He said the chief justice had also taken initiatives to encourage the HC judges to sit in courts regularly, ignoring hartals and blockades.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Khandker Mahbub Hossain told The Daily Star that the backlog of cases was increasing for various reasons.

He said the HC, for example, extends its bail and stay orders in cases several times, and therefore, stay and bail petitions are not disposed of quickly.

The government was not appointing judges to the Appellate Division even though four posts were vacant for a long time, the SCBA president said.

Mahbub also said disposal of cases by the apex court would further increase, if more benches were formed through the appointment of new judges.