The Allahabad High Court - one of India's oldest and most prestigious, once graced by figures like India's first premier Jawaharlal Nehru and future Supreme Court judges - is back in the spotlight.
This time, though, for very different reasons.
With more than a million cases pending, it is among the most overburdened courts in the country. Matters ranging from criminal trials to property and family disputes have been pending here for decades, leaving thousands of people in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, trapped in legal limbo.
Consider Babu Ram Rajput, 73, a retired government employee who has been battling a property dispute for over three decades.
He bought land at an auction in 1992, but the previous owner challenged the sale - and the case remains unresolved to this day.
I just hope my case is decided while I'm still alive, Mr Rajput says.
The high court's struggle mirrors a broader crisis in India's judiciary, where too few judges and a constant flood of cases have caused crippling delays.
With a sanctioned strength of 160 that experts say has never been completely filled, the court is severely understaffed. Delays in police investigations, frequent adjournments, and poor infrastructure further add to the backlog, leaving the system stretched beyond capacity.
Each judge faces hundreds of cases a day - sometimes over 1,000. With just five working hours, that's less than a minute per case. In practice, many aren't heard at all.
Lawyers say urgent matters - like bail pleas or eviction stays - are heard first, pushing older cases further down the list.
Senior lawyer Syed Farman Naqvi notes that courts often issue interim or temporary orders in urgent cases, but once the immediate need is met, the matter lingers as new cases pile up.
Retired judge Amar Saran states that the mounting backlog has forced judges into a cut-grass approach - issuing quick, standard orders, from nudging the government to act to directing lower courts to handle the matter.
In April, the court confronted the scale of its delays while ruling on a rape and murder case pending for over 40 years. By the verdict's delivery, four of the five convicted men had died. The court admitted it regretted not ruling sooner.
The backlog has even prompted legal action. Earlier this year, a group of Allahabad High Court lawyers petitioned for more judicial appointments, calling the court paralysed by a shortage of judges that leaves cases lingering for years.
The crisis has caught the attention of India's top court, which labeled it worrisome that case listings at the Allahabad High Court are unpredictable.
Uncertain hearing dates impact individuals significantly, especially in vast Uttar Pradesh. Many must travel considerable distances to Prayagraj for their hearings, often on short notice.
Mr Rajput, for example, is from Kanpur, 200km (125 miles) away. He can spend around four hours traveling to attend hearings, which sometimes don’t occur since other matters consume the full day.
Lawyers have long urged the court to establish another bench - a branch of the high court in a different city to ease access and speed up hearings. An additional bench currently exists only in Lucknow. Recommendations for this have been made since 1985 but remain unfulfilled.
The state government has reportedly encouraged the court to create an additional bench this year, but that letter was later withdrawn for unknown reasons. While new benches could help long-term, experts argue that urgent fixes, such as appointing more judges, are needed.
The process for appointing judges is slow and complex: senior high court judges typically shortlist candidates, the list then undergoes review by state and federal governments, and finally, the Chief Justice of India, followed by forwarding to the federal government.
Picking suitable candidates often poses challenges, especially since chief justices are frequently appointed from outside the state and may not be familiar with local legal practitioners.
Last year, the Supreme Court recommended just one appointment for the Allahabad High Court, even as nearly half of its seats remained vacant. While 15 new judges were added this year, nearly half the positions are still unfilled due to retirements and transfers.
Experts contend that the backlog is so enormous that even if the court operated at full capacity, each judge would still face handling over 7,000 pending cases. Some progress has been made this year with the addition of 40 new judges; however, the backlog continues to persist.
Former Chief Justice Govind Mathur emphasizes that deeper judicial reforms, such as a uniform policy for hearing and disposing of cases, are essential, rather than leaving these processes to the discretion of individual judges.
