Where are the judges: Ranjan Gogoi asks lawyers as cases pile up for hearing

New Delhi, Mar 29: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Friday said that there were not enough judges in the Supreme Court for the number of pending cases and slammed the lawyers for mentioning matters.

"Sorry, we won't hear any mentioning matters," CJI Ranjan Gogoi said. "500 cases are listed. Where are the judges? And you keep on mentioning...," Justice Gogoi told lawyers.

While 2.84 crore cases are pending in the subordinate courts, the backlog clogging the High Courts and Supreme Court (SC) is 43 lakh and 57,987 cases, respectively.

According to National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), the five states which account for the highest pendency are Uttar Pradesh (61.58 lakh), Maharashtra (33.22 lakh), West Bengal (17.59 lakh), Bihar (16.58 lakh) and Gujarat (16.45 lakh).

The matter is of high concern as large number of undertrials languish in jails across the country as they don't get bail and many even spend more than their sentence, had they been convicted.