There is a massive backlog of over 200,000 cases in courts in Sindh as of November 30, 2021. November 30 traditionally marks the end of a judicial year with the start of winter vacations in the court throughout the country.

On November 30, 2021, as many as 96,252 cases were pending in the Sindh High Court (SHC), with its principal seat Karachi having a backlog of 60,666 cases. A total of 24,467, 5,933 and 5,186 cases were pending respectively at the SHC circuit benches in Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana.

Category-wise, the data available until September 30, shows Karachi had 4,247 criminal appeals, 6,529 civil appeals, 3,772 civil writs, 19,934 writ petitions, 16,315 suits and references and 1,643 miscellaneous applications pending.

The district judiciary had a backlog of 114,853 cases on November 30, 2021 with 53,472 criminal cases, 43,663 civil cases and 17,718 family cases pending decision.

During the judicial year, the district judiciary in Sindh disposed of 321,732 cases while 314,316 new cases were instituted during the judicial year.

The new cases included 231,248 criminal cases, 40,005 civil cases and 43,063 family cases. It disposed of 236,125 criminal cases, 39,852 civil cases and 45,755 family cases.

The highest number of cases (18, 413) were pending at Karachi’s District East while only 455 cases were pending at district Kashmore.

During the last month of the judicial year, 4,816 cases were disposed of by acquittal; 1,043 by conviction; 21 by mediation and 703 by compromise.

During November 2021, both the greatest number of convictions (131) and the highest number of acquittals (414) were recorded at Karachi’s district south court.

District court at Matiari recorded the least number of convictions (2) and the district court of Tharparkar recorded the least number of acquittals (55).