India’s higher judiciary is struggling under an enormous caseload , and the numbers illustrate the scale of the challenge. At the Supreme Court, more than 96,000 cases are being handled by 38 judges, or about 2,500 cases per judge as of the latest available data in the National Judicial Data Grid.

In May this year, the central government increased the top court’s sanctioned strength from 34 to 38 judges to help the court respond to mounting backlogs. But does adding judges address the problem?

Since increasing the number of judges implies more cases can be heard and adjudicated, it is natural to assume that this will reduce pendent cases. However, we find that cases accepted by the Supreme Court are also rising over time. The Supreme Court of India hears different types of cases, of these the Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) are the most prevalent.…