29 Constitution Bench Matters Pending In Supreme Court, Oldest From 1992

There are 29 Constitution Bench matters pending in the Supreme Court. Out of these 29 cases, 18 cases are pending before 5-Judge Bench, 6 cases pending before 7-Judge Bench and 5 cases pending before 9-Judge Bench for adjudication.

This information was given by the Union Law Ministry in response to a query raised by CPI(M) MP AM Arif.

In the list of pending cases, the oldest case is Abhiram Singh v. C.D Commachen (Dead) By Lrs. & Ors which dates back to 1992, relating to election of Santacruz Legislative Assembly Seat held in 1990 for the Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly.

To the MP's question whether the reason for pendency of such cases is the lack of interest in expediting it, the ministry replied, “it cannot be said that the reason for pendency of the Constitution Bench cases is the lack of interest in expediting the same.”

Adding that it is not possible to set out “strict parameters and timelines” regarding adjudication of such cases, it said, the said issues require deep analysis and thorough examination of law.

The Ministry's response can be read here

List Of Pending Constitution Bench Cases

Disposal Of Constitution Bench Matters

It is pertinent to note that in the period of one decade, the Supreme Court has disposed of the lowest number of cases between 2010-2019 i.e only 71 cases and whereas, since inception of the Supreme Court the highest disposal was done during 1960-1969 which is 956 cases. In 2020-2023 only 19 Constitutional Bench matters were disposed of so far.

However, the data on the number of cases filed during these periods were not provided.

In another reply, the Ministry stated that as per information provided by Supreme Court regarding the constitution of Special Benches, since November 2022, six Special Benches have been constituted by the Chief Justice of India; the sitting of such Special Benches is on every Wednesday and Thursday which are designated as “Regular Hearing Days” and these Benches deal with: