Taking note of the fact that over 8 lakh execution petitions were pending across the country, the Supreme Court has requested the High Courts to evolve some procedure and guide respective District judiciary for effective and expeditious disposal of such petitions which are pending currently. The Bench found the figures of the pendency of the petitions to be alarming and the statistics highly disappointing.

The Apex Court made such observations while dealing with a consolidated data of the District judiciary of different High Courts regarding the pendency and disposal of various execution petitions.

The Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mithal noted, “The statistics which we have received are highly disappointing. The figures of the pendency of the execution petitions across the country are alarming.”

It further held, “We once again request all the High Courts to evolve some procedure and guide their respective District judiciary for effective and expeditious disposal of the execution petitions which are pending as on date.”

AOR Mrinal Kanwar represented the Petitioner, while AOR Rahul Jain represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

By a judgment dated March 6, 2025 rendered in the case of Periyammal (Dead) through LRs & Ors. vs. V. Rajamani & Anr. Etc. (2025), the Supreme Court had issued directions asking all the High Courts across the country to call for the necessary information from their respective district judiciary as regards pendency of the execution petitions. In pursuance of such directions, the Court had received a consolidated data of the District judiciary of different High Courts.

Reasoning

Referring to the list of Execution Petitions pending in the District Judiciary of different High Courts as well as the number of execution petitions disposed of by the respective District Judiciary, the Bench stated, “As on date, 8,82,578 execution petitions are pending across the country.”

The Bench further noted that in the last six months, 3,38,685 execution petitions were decided and disposed of. Further noticing that the Karnataka High Court had failed to furnish the necessary data, the Bench ordered, “The Registry shall once again give a reminder to the High Court of Karnataka to furnish the necessary data as regards the disposal of the execution petitions in last six months and the pendency of it as on date.” The Bench granted two weeks’ time to the Registrar General of the High Court to offer his explanation in this regard.

“In view of the above, we grant further six months to all the High Courts to follow up with their respective District judiciary as regards the disposal of the execution petitions”, it asserted while also adding, “As observed in our main Judgment, after the decree is passed, if it is going to take years and years to execute the decree, then it makes no sense and would be nothing short of travesty of justice.”

Posting the matter on April 10, 2026, the Bench held, “When this matter is notified once again on 10-4-2026, we want all the High Courts on their original side also to furnish the necessary information as regards the pending execution petitions as well as disposal of the same.”

Cause Title: Periyammal (Dead Thr. Lrs.) v. V. Rajamani (Case No.: Miscellaneous Application Nos.1889-1891/2025)

Appearance

Petitioner: AOR Mrinal Kanwar, Advocates Dinesh Kumar Chouhan, Vaibhav Rajsingh Rathore

Respondent: AOR Rahul Jain, AOR Kunal Chatterji, Advocates Maitrayee Banerjee, Rohit Bansal, Varij Nayan Mishra, AOR Vishnu Shankar Jain, AOR Gopal Jha, Advocates Shireesha Sharma, Sawan Datta, Nand Kishore Sharma, Ankit Agrawal, AOR Arjun Garg, Advocates Sagun Srivastava, Saaransh Shukla, Muskan Bensla, AOR Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Advocates Shashi Pathak, Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Smriti Singh

Click here to read/download Order


Justice JB PardiwlaJustice Pankaj Mithal

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.