Hearing a suo motu petition seeking the creation of 9,149 additional courts across Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court expressed serious concern over the pendency of litigation in courts. Calling for a swift solution, the court suggested that the Parliament and state legislatures hold a litigation impact assessment before passing new laws in the legislature.Taking note, a division bench of Justices Alok Mathur and Amitabh Kumar Rai observed in its April 13 order, “…right of speedy trial is a mandate given by the Constitution of India to all its citizens in fulfillment of which the judiciary, executive and legislature are duty-bound to do all that is necessary. It is noticed that there is a steady rate of institution of litigation on one hand, while the rate of pendency has also not decreased.”The bench added, “…it would be in fitness of things if the Parliament of India, as well as the State legislatures, may consider incorporating a clause in all the bills for ‘Litigation Impact Assessment’ whenever a new bill is introduced and passed in the legislature.”The court observed that each new enactment usually either creates rights, defines fresh rights, or modifies or extinguishes existing rights — all of which translate into litigation at some point.“In case with some foresight, the impact of litigation on passing each bill can be assessed, it will be easy to make appropriate financial, infrastructural, and human resource arrangements to cope up with the increase in litigation, instead of tackling the problem after the pendency has galloped for ahead,” the court stated.Citing the example of the amendment in Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, the bench said after the amendment, over half a dozen judicial magistrates in each district are dealing exclusively with matters pertaining to cheque bouncing.It said had an assessment been made at the time of passing the bill, additional courts could have been set up to tackle the new institutions.Suo motu plea filed in April last yearStory continues below this adOn April 21, 2025, a division bench had registered a suo motu petition for the creation of 9,149 new courts in the state, seeking to upgrade the district judicial system on a judge–population ratio basis.The bench had then observed that the judiciary is mounted with a huge pendency of litigation, both civil and criminal, making the upgradation of the court infrastructure necessary.Don’t send queries to buy out time,govt toldIn the last hearing on April 13, the division bench stated that while 9,149 new courts are needed in the state, considering the financial and infrastructural constraints, it was decided that for the financial year 2025-2026, 900 courts would be created. A proposal sent by the Allahabad High Court was accepted by the state government, and it was notified that budgetary allocation was approved on October 15, 2024, the court stated.Story continues below this adThe court said that in a letter dated March 13, 2026, the state government raised four queries — answers to three of which were already available on the websites of the high court and the National Informatics Centre, and that the fourth query was already responded to by the court.The court observed that once the state agreed to increase the number of the courts, then only queries with material bearing on the issues should be raised, and not any frivolous queries which may indicate that the same are being sent only to buy time.The court stated in the order, “We hope that the reply sent by the High Court on 8th April, 2026 shall be duly considered and a final decision will be taken by the State Government with expedition preferably within one month, as requested by learned Additional Advocate General.”Listing the case on May 19, the division bench directed that the Legal Remembrancer, representing the state government, shall appear in the court again if the final decision is not taken by this date.