Allahabad HC biggest contributor to backlog of decades-old cases

India's judicial system faces a significant backlog of long-pending cases, with the Allahabad High Court identified as the single largest contributor to litigation older than three decades. Data presented to Parliament reveals that out of 80,660 cases pending for over 30 years across all 25 high courts, the Allahabad High Court alone accounts for a staggering 53,787.

This figure represents nearly two-thirds of all such long-pending cases nationwide. The Allahabad High Court also holds the highest overall caseload among all high courts, with 1.22 million pending cases as of July 16, 2026. Within this massive docket, 161,000 cases have been pending for over two decades, and 488,000 for more than ten years.

The data underscores the disproportionate burden on the Allahabad High Court. While it handles approximately one-fifth of the total pendency across all high courts (1.22 million out of 6.47 million), it houses a significantly larger share of the oldest cases. It holds about 67% of cases pending over 30 years, over a third of those pending over 20 years, and around 30% of cases pending over a decade.

While the court is functioning with 108 judges against a sanctioned strength of 160, resulting in a 33% vacancy rate, this alone does not explain the persistent backlog. Several other high courts have higher vacancy rates but manage substantially smaller stocks of old cases. For instance, the Calcutta High Court has a 43% vacancy rate but far fewer long-pending cases than Allahabad. Similarly, the Orissa High Court and the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, despite higher vacancy percentages, have significantly fewer cases pending for over three decades.

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the Allahabad High Court emerging as the single biggest contributor to long-pending cases in the higher judiciary