The backlog of cases in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh continues to grow, with data showing a steady increase in pending matters across both the High Court and Appellate Division — raising concerns about the pace and impact of ongoing judicial reforms.
Even though fewer new cases came in, the High Court’s ability to clear cases dropped significantly, adding more pressure to an already overloaded system.
The Appellate Division’s backlog rose by 33 per cent in one year – between 2023 and 2024.
While fewer cases were filed with both divisions in 2024 than in the previous year, the fall in disposal rates — especially in the High Court — led to a worsening situation. Without measures to improve the situation, legal delays may continue to grow, affecting access to justice across the country.
This broader picture highlights a higher judiciary under a continued strain, where rising caseloads outpace case disposal rates despite initiatives to improve the system efficiency.
In 2023, the Appellate Division received 11,938 new cases and 5,349 cases were disposed of. The disposal rate was 44.8 per cent of new filings. 19,928 cases remained pending.
In 2024, new filings dropped by 17 per cent to 9,915 cases. 5,312 cases were disposed of — a small 0.7 per cent drop. The disposal rate rose to 53.6 per cent of new filings. Despite fewer new cases, the number of pending cases jumped to 26,517, an increase by 33 per cent compared to 2023.
Although fewer cases were filed in 2024, the backlog still grew sharply because previous cases remained unresolved.
The High Court Division’s disposal rate became nearly half. In 2023, the High Court received 1,01,398 new cases while it disposed of 74,278 cases, with a disposal rate of 73.2 per cent. 5,16,674 cases were pending at the start of the year.
In 2024, new filings dropped by 17 per cent to 84,082 cases. Disposals fell sharply to 32,297 cases — a 56.5 per cent decrease. The disposal rate dropped to just 38.4 per cent. Pending cases rose to 5,43,847 — an increase of 5.3 per cent or 27,173 more cases.
Between January 1 and March 31, 2025, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court received 4,689 new cases, but managed to dispose of only 828 cases during the same period — reflecting a modest disposal rate of 17.7 per cent. As of March 31, the total number of pending cases in the Appellate Division stood at 34,981.
The High Court Division witnessed comparatively higher activities. A total of 28,111 cases were filed in the first quarter of 2025, of which 18,644 were disposed of, yielding a disposal rate of 66.3 per cent. Despite this improved rate of clearance, the High Court is still burdened with 5,99,126 pending cases at the end of March.
At the lower-level judiciary, the year began with a staggering backlog of 38,96,430 cases. Over the first three months of the year, 3,80,060 new cases were filed and 1,80,874 cases were restored, bringing the total caseload to over 44.57 lakh.
During the same period, the lower judiciary disposed of 3,04,333 cases, amounting to a disposal rate of 6.8 per cent against the total caseload. However, as compared only to the newly filed cases, the disposal rate was significantly higher at 80.1 per cent.
As of March 31, 2025, the number of pending cases in the lower courts stood at 36,98,961.
As of December 31, 2024, the total number of pending cases in the Supreme Court reached 5,89,651, up from 5,43,847 in 2023—a year-on-year increase of over 45,000 cases.
The distribution of pending cases in 2024 remains heavily skewed toward criminal and writ matters.
Among the 2024 pending cases, 3,54,981 (60 per cent), is criminal cases, 1,15,212 (20 per cent) is writ petitions, 98,619 (17 per cent) is civil cases and 20,839 (3 per cent) is original cases (company matters).
Among the 2023 pending cases, there were Criminal cases: 3,32,564 (59.3 per cent), writ petitions is 1,06,896 (19.6 per cent), civil cases is 95,053 (17.5 per cent), and original cases (company matters) is 19,334 (3.6 per cent),
The data reflect a growing dominance of criminal and writ petitions in the court’s docket.
While overall case volumes have risen, the proportional increase in writs suggests rising public reliance on the judiciary for constitutional and administrative redress.
Backlogs have also increased in the Appellate Division, with 31,120 cases pending at the end of 2024, compared to 26,517 in 2023.
Of the cases, 20,901 (67 per cent) were leave to appeal petitions, 6,833 (22 per cent) provisional petitions for leave to appeal meaning miscellaneous petitions and 3,386 (11 per cent appeal petitions.
In comparison, 2023 saw 26,517 pending matters. Of them, leave to appeal petitions accounted for 18,213 (68.8 per cent), miscellaneous petitions for 4,988 (18.8 per cent) and appeals for 3,316 (12.5 per cent).
The dominance of leave to appeal petitions in the Appellate Division — over two-thirds of all pending matters — points to bottlenecks in the filtering of cases before full appeal hearings.
The year-on-year increase suggests that procedural reforms may not yet be translating into workload reduction at the top court.
According to the Supreme Court Annual Report, as of March 31, 2022, a total of 40,21,783 cases were pending across the judiciary.
Supreme Court Bar Association president AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon blamed the political unrest in 2024 for the drop in case disposals. He said that justice seekers are suffering as their cases face long delays due to a shortage of judges, which has increased the backlog.
He called for the appointment of more SC judges immediately.
Mahbub told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed was trying his best to ensure the independence of the judiciary.
‘Whether the judiciary is truly independent — people will decide,’ he added.
High Court Registrar Habibur Rahman Siddiquee acknowledged a drop in the disposal rate of cases.
He blamed the disruption on the political unrest in 2024, following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s 16-year rule after the student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024.
‘A number of High Court judges were sent on leave pending misconduct investigations, and six Appellate Division judges resigned during that period,’ the registrar said.
He noted that implementing the judicial reforms — initiated by the government and the chief justice based on the recommendations of the Judicial Reform Commission — would take time.
Asked about the growing backlog, additional attorney general Aneek R Haque said he had not yet reviewed the latest case statistics.
However, he pointed to the mismatch between the number of judges and the volume of cases as the key reason for the rising backlog.
While the Supreme Court has launched multiple reform initiatives — such as digitisation, improving case management, and fresh judicial staffing — the persistent rise in pending cases, especially criminal and writ petitions, highlights structural challenges that go beyond administrative tweaks.
Until issues like judicial vacancies, procedural delays, and systemic inefficiencies are addressed in a coordinated manner, experts warn that the backlog may continue to undermine public confidence in timely access to justice.
