Centre spent Rs 561.08 crore in court cases in last 11 years

New Delhi: The union government has spent Rs 561.08 crore in litigation between 2014-15 and 2024-25 till December even as 7.18 lakh cases involving various ministries and departments are pending in various courts with the Ministry of Finance topping the list with 1.93 lakh cases.

This data was made available to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice earlier this year while the multi-party panel was examining the Demands for Grants (2025-26) of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Within two weeks of the panel tabling its report in Parliament, the Ministry on April 4 issued the ‘Directive for the efficient and effective management of litigation by the Government of India’ to prevent “unwanted: litigation, minimise “unwarranted” appeals and address “inconsistencies” in notifications and orders to reduce caseload.

The Parliamentary committee report showed that litigation expenses have been rising year after year though some years witnessed a decline.

In 2014-15, the government spent Rs 26.64 crore for litigation while it rose to Rs 37.43 crore, Rs 48.12 crore and Rs 65.83 crore in the next three fiscals only to see a dip to R 51.85 crore in 2018-19.

It further rose to Rs 61.08 crore in 2019-20 and saw decline in 2020-21 and 2021-22, when Covid-19 struck, to Rs 58.43 crore and Rs 48.56 crore respectively.

In 2022-23, it rose to Rs 57.45 crore while it saw an increase to Rs 66.57 crore, the highest for a year in the past ten fiscals, in 2023-24.

According to official data, Rs 39.06 crore has been spent in 2024-25 till December 31.

Of the 7.18 lakh cases pending in Supreme Court, High Courts, District and Sessions Courts and Tribunals, Indian Railways comes second in pending cases after the Ministry of Finance with 1.15 lakh. The Ministry of Defence is third with 96,526 cases.

With one case, the Ministry of Cooperation has the least number of cases followed by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (3), Panchayati Raj (13) and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (17).