New Delhi, July 13 -- Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has unveiled a special roster under which four dedicated benches will exclusively hear the Supreme Court's oldest civil and criminal cases, with around 800 long-pending matters identified for expedited disposal in the apex court's first structured docket-management exercise in recent years aimed at institutionalising the disposal of legacy litigation. The move, which comes as the Supreme Court resumes full functioning after the partial working days during the peak summer months, is expected to accelerate the disposal of some of the court's oldest pending cases. Speaking to Hindustan Times, the Chief Justice said the initiative was intended to reaffirm public confidence in the justice delivery system by ensuring that age-old cases receive sustained judicial attention. "The judiciary's foremost obligation is not merely to decide cases, but to decide them within a timeframe that preserves the faith of citizens in the rule of law. Every old pending matter represents a litigant who has waited years, and sometimes decades, for closure. The age of a case cannot become the reason for its continued neglect. By constituting dedicated benches to exclusively hear the oldest civil and criminal matters, the Supreme Court seeks to institutionalise a culture where long-pending litigation receives sustained and uninterrupted judicial attention," the CJI said on Sunday. Every old case that reaches its logical conclusion, added Justice Kant, reinforces the credibility of the justice delivery system and reaffirms the constitutional promise that justice shall not be defeated by the passage of time. According to a fresh roster notification that comes into effect from July 13, two division benches headed by Justices PK Mishra and SVN Bhatti will exclusively hear the oldest civil matters on non-miscellaneous days - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Two other division benches headed by Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan will similarly hear the oldest criminal cases on those days. The notification states: "Two Division Benches, headed respectively by Hon'ble Mr Justice PK Mishra and Hon'ble Mr Justice SVN Bhatti, shall exclusively deal with the oldest Civil Matters on Non-Miscellaneous days...Two Division Benches, headed respectively by Hon'ble Mr Justice Manoj isra and Hon'ble Mr Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, shall exclusively deal with the oldest Criminal Matters on Non-Miscellaneous days..." People aware of the development told HT that nearly 200 of the oldest matters have been identified for each of the four benches, translating to around 800 old cases in total to begin with that will now receive focussed judicial attention. The initiative represents one of the first major administrative reforms undertaken by CJI Kant and is aligned with his stated objective of tackling pendency through targeted judicial management rather than ad hoc disposal drives. According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), the Supreme Court currently has 95,911 pending cases, comprising 74,145 civil and 21,766 criminal matters. Of these, 37,826 cases, around 39.4% are less than one year old, indicating that a significant segment of the docket consists of older cases awaiting adjudication. The four special benches are expected to devote three working days every week exclusively to these legacy matters, free from the regular burden of miscellaneous hearings. The roster change assumes significance in light of Justice Kant's repeated emphasis on adopting structural reforms to address mounting judicial arrears. Only a day earlier, while inaugurating the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Arbitration and Mediation (IIAM), the CJI observed that India's pendency crisis could not be addressed through adjudication alone. "Indian courts currently carry more than five crore (50 million) cases...No adjudicatory model, however well-resourced, resolves a backlog of that scale on its own. It has to be met partly outside the courtroom, not as a matter of convenience, but as a matter of arithmetic," he had said, stressing that arbitration, mediation and online dispute resolution must function as complementary pillars of the justice delivery system. While that speech emphasised on strengthening alternative dispute resolution to reduce the inflow of litigation, the roster notification demonstrates that the Supreme Court is simultaneously pursuing internal institutional reforms to bring down its own backlog. The designation of dedicated benches for legacy matters is expected to ensure sustained hearings in old cases that often remain pending because of changing rosters and competing urgent matters. More broadly, the initiative reflects the CJI's broader administrative focus on improving judicial efficiency through calibrated docket management rather than relying solely on judicial strength....