New Delhi: The filing of fresh cases in the Supreme Court surpassed its disposal rate in August, bringing pendency to an all-time high, data from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) showed. There are currently 88,417 cases pending in the Supreme Court. Of these, 69,553 are civil cases while 18,864 pertain to criminal matters, the Hindu reported. The cases have continued piling up even as the court functions with its full sanctioned strength of 34 judges.Over 7,000 cases were filed in the apex court last month, with the court clearing 5,667 of them in August at a disposal rate of 80.04%.The pendency comes even as successive Chief Justices have ensured minimum to no vacancies in the Supreme Court, the report said.In May, Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai had increased the number of benches working during the court’s summer holidays – re-named as partial working days by the CJI – to decrease the backlog of cases. The Supreme Court benches sat in batches from May 23 to July, when the court reopened. The first batch of cases was heard by The CJI and five senior-most judges of the court. A total of 21 benches worked through the ‘partial working days’ in this period.Pending cases had peaked around the same time last year, according to the report, with over 82,000 cases awaiting a hearing.Pending cases have risen steadily since the pandemic years, with the problem becoming particularly acute in 2023, the report said.Collegium resolutions have raised the issue of the increasing workload. A November 2023 Collegium resolution had underlined that the top court could not afford even once vacancy in light of the “ever mounting pendency of cases”.“The workload of judges has increased considerably. Bearing in mind the above, it has become necessary to ensure that the court has full working judge-strength leaving no vacancy at any point of time,” the Collegium had said.