NEW DELHI: As many as 70,000 cases are pending in the Supreme Court as the proceedings dragged on for nearly 2 years due to the Covid crisis. The court had switched to online mode during the Covid period. Although things are slowly coming back to normal, the retirement of eight senior judges, including Chief Justice NV Ramana, this year will affect the cases again. The progress of cases will depend on the replacement of new judges.

The Chief Justice has been trying to restore normalcy and settle cases expeditiously since April. Judges are transferred to different benches to hear various cases. The Chief Justice will lose his cool if the advocates ask for the cases to be adjourned for personal reasons.

Justices retiring this year

• Chief Justice NV Ramana - August 26
• UU Lalit - November 8
• Vineet Saran - May 10
• L Nageswara Rao - June 7
• AM Khanwilkar - July 29
• Indira Banerjee - September 23
• Hemant Gupta - October 16
• Sanjay Kishan Kaul - December 25

Justices retiring in 2023

• A. Nazir - January 4
• MR Shah - May 15