Supreme Court Expresses Concern Over Case Adjudication Delays

The Supreme Court (SC) has voiced its apprehension that protracted delays in resolving cases at all levels of the judicial system erode the public’s trust, undermine the principles of justice, and disproportionately affect vulnerable individuals who cannot bear the burden of lengthy legal battles.

A two-judge panel, consisting of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha Malik, articulated these concerns in a four-page judgment. The ruling dismissed a petition filed by Abdul Salam Khan against a Peshawar High Court decision related to a property auction case.

The court highlighted that the case had been pending for 14 years, with a decade spent in the High Court, before it was presented to the Supreme Court in 2022 and subsequently addressed in 2025.

In the judgment, Justice Shah emphasized that the Supreme Court cannot overlook the widespread issue of delays in case resolutions, particularly noting the 10-year duration the case spent before the Peshawar High Court.

Justice Shah stressed that delays in court judgments at any level diminish public confidence in the legal system, compromise the rule of law, and disproportionately impact those who lack the resources to endure prolonged litigation.

He further cautioned that extended delays in adjudication have significant macroeconomic and societal consequences, discouraging investment, rendering contracts unreliable, and weakening the judiciary’s institutional credibility.

Pointing out that over 2.2 million cases are backlogged in courts throughout Pakistan, including roughly 55,941 at the Supreme Court, Justice Shah stated that delayed justice is not only denied justice but often represents justice that has been effectively nullified.

Justice Shah described the matter as an issue of institutional policy and constitutional duty, advocating for the SC to adopt a modern, responsive, and efficient case management system urgently.

The judge outlined that such a system should, as a baseline, ensure the prompt scheduling of cases impartially, eliminate preferential scheduling, prioritize cases of constitutional, economic, or national significance without sacrificing the timely resolution of individual claims, implement age-tracking mechanisms to identify inactive cases automatically, and utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to aid in scheduling and triage while upholding the sanctity of judicial discretion.