160 Criminal Appeals Being Listed Daily : Allahabad High Court To Supreme Court On Steps To Reduce Backlog

The Supreme Court was recently informed that the Allahabad High Court is listing a substantial number of pending criminal appeals each day in an effort to address its backlog. At the High Court's Prayagraj bench, at least 100 criminal appeals are being listed daily from a pending stock of 2,036 cases. At the Lucknow bench, a minimum of 60 criminal appeals are being taken up every day from the 261 cases awaiting hearing.This information was placed before the Court by Mayur Jain, Registrar (Judicial), Listing, and Hitendra Hari, Registrar (Judicial), Listing, of the Allahabad High Court, during a hearing before a bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra.The officers were personally present before the Court pursuant to the recent order in which the bench noted with concern that there are criminal appeals as old as 10 to 15 years pending adjudication before the High Court.The Court was hearing a special leave petition preferred by a convict stating that his appeal for suspension of sentence has been pending in the Allahabad High Court since 2010. On September 8, the Court issued notice to the Registrar (General) of the High Court and directed him to submit a report as to 1) why the appeal preferred in the year 2010 has not yet been listed for hearing, and 2) what steps are being taken for the disposal of the appeal pending consideration, where the accused are suffering incarceration for a long period of time.Further, the Court directed the Registrar (General) to furnish information in a tabular chart as to how many such appeals are pending consideration, where the accused are suffering incarceration for a period of at least ten years.The Court received the report on September 27, 2025, in which it was stated that 2,297 appeals are pending in the High Court, which involve accused persons who have been incarcerated for over ten years, and 52 appeals, the period of incarceration exceeds fifteen years. However, no roadmap, procedure, or difficulty faced in listing was stated in the report.Therefore, it directed Registrar Judicial (Listing) of the Allahabad High Court to be impleaded as a party and appear before the Court to explain the procedure for listing/hearing criminal appeals.On November 26, the officers submitted that pending matters more than 15 years old would be listed within 3 weeks. The bench has now asked them to file affidavits indicating the progress in these cases, and also the number of cases in which the decisions have also been rendered in matters more than 15 years old."The concerned officers need not remain present. However, they shall file their affidavit(s), indicating the progress made in the hearing of the appeal(s) as also the number of cases in which decision stand(s) rendered by the different Benches in all the cases falling in the category of being pending for more than fifteen years. The affidavit(s) be filed before the next date of listing."The matter will be heard on January 21, 2026 at 2 pm.Case Details: CHATRA PAL v. STATE OF U.P. & ANR.|Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 13955/2025Click Here To Read OrderAppearances: For Petitioner(s) :Dr. Sofia Begum, Sr. Adv. Mr. Tabrez Ahmad, Adv. Mr. Syed Mehdi Imam, AOR Ms. Komal Jadaon, Adv. Ms. Pushpa Kishore, Adv. Mr. S. U. Abbas, Adv.For Respondent(s) :Mr. Shaurya Sahay, AOR Mr. Aman Jaiswal, Adv. Ms. Palak Mathur, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Sahay, AOR Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, AOR Mr. Wrick Chatterjee, Adv. Mrs. Aditi Agarwal, Adv.

160 Criminal Appeals Being Listed Daily : Allahabad High Court To Supreme Court On Steps To Reduce Backlog

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

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