A total of 46,39,476 cases remain pending across all levels of Bangladesh's judiciary as of March 31, 2026, Law Minister Md Asaduzzaman said today.
A total of 38,713 cases are pending with the Appellate Division, 522,331 pending with High Court Division, and 40,78,432 are pending with lower courts, the minister said while responding to a question of Golam Rasul MP in the parliament.
At the Appellate Division, there are 21,652 pending civil cases while 17,061 are criminal cases; at the High Court Division, 101,168 civil cases and 421,163 criminal cases are pending; at the lower courts 16,90,443 are civil cases and 23,87,989 are criminal cases, he added.
The law minister also said in 2025, 7,553 cases were disposed of in the Appellate Division and 55,756 cases were disposed of in the High Court Division.
A total of 2,75,084 cases have been disposed in 2025, of which 49,073 are civil cases and 2,26,011 are criminal cases.
Asaduzzaman said that to increase the capacity of the judicial system, 536 judge posts have already been created. In addition, the process of recruiting court support staff through the Judicial Service Commission, including the appointment of 150 new civil judges, is underway.
The government has recently established 650 civil judges and senior civil judges' courts, 406 joint sessions judges' courts, 204 additional sessions judges' courts and is currently actively considering the creation of judges' posts in the newly established courts, which, if completed, will ensure speedy disposal of cases.
'3.77 lakh civil cases pending for over 5 years'
While responding to a query of Shahjahan Chowdhury MP, Asaduzzman said that in addition, there are currently 16,90,443 civil cases pending in the country's subordinate courts; the government does not have separate statistics for cases that are more than 10 years old and 20 years old, but the number of cases that are more than five years old is 3,77,414.
The government has established 1,012 Civil Judge and Senior Civil Judge Courts to dispose of land dispute cases, against which 362 judges are currently working. A total of 161 joint district judges, 204 additional district judges and 64 district judges are working against 364 Joint District Judge Courts across the country for the purpose of disposal of land dispute cases and hearing appeals.
