Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi (TOI file photo)

NEW DELHI: Exasperated by the daily long queue of lawyers seeking early listing of cases, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday said despite many steps taken by him to streamline listing of cases so that advocates don't have to stand in queue to mention, the system just refused to change.

"Every day, a sea of lawyers stands in queue to seek listing of their cases. Something is fundamentally wrong, I have not been able to change the system despite best efforts," he admitted. He said every day 600 fresh cases were filed in Punjab & Haryana high court and these got listed for hearing the very next day. "In the SC, nearly 1,000 fresh cases are filed daily but these do not get listed for a week or so," he said.

The judges' strength in Supreme Court is 31, including the CJI, and it has a pendency of 59,000 cases, of which 40,000 are after-notice cases which roughly amount to 1,300 per judge. When they sit in two-judge benches - the normal practice - the pendency for benches increases to 2,600 cases. The Punjab & Haryana HC is functioning with a strength of 50 and has a pendency of over 3 lakh cases.

