New Delhi, Jan 19: The Supreme Court, which had 690 pending cases after one year of its inception in 1950, which has risen to 60,938 till last September despite the rise in judges' strength from 8 to 31.

The data, released by the Supreme Court in the Indian Judiciary Annual Report 2015-2016  reflects that filing of cases in the apex court has also risen manifold as in its first year, 1,215 cases were filed compared to 59,386 between January to September 30 last year. The sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court, which came into existence on January 28, 1950,was 8 at the time of its inception, while it is 31 now.

In the year 1989, the pendency of cases reached the one lakh barrier for the first time as it was 1,06,027 at the year end. According to the figures, end of the year 1997, the total pendency came down to 19,032. The figures of last year till September 30 shows that 60,938 matters were pending in the Apex court.

Besides the pendency in Apex court, a number of 40.54 lakh cases are pending across the country in 24 High Courts which 608 judges working out of a total sanctioned strength of 1,079 as per the data compiled till June 30 last year. In district courts across the country, over 2.81 crore matters are pending as nearly 5,000 posts of judicial officers are vacant in the subordinate judiciary as per the data.(Inputs from agencies)