New Delhi, Sept. 30 -- The Supreme Court has ordered a comprehensive performance audit on the pendency of cheque bounce cases across the country. It has told all states, union territories and high courts to provide data on the pendency and disposal rate of cheque bounce cases along with measures taken to fill up vacancies in district judiciary. The top court directed the chief secretaries of all states and union territories and registrar generals of the 25 high courts to provide contemporaneous data on vacancies in district judiciary posts and the pendency and disposal rate of cheque bounce cases within six weeks. The order was passed on September 23 in a suo motu proceedings titled "Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act 1881". A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order issuing notice on an application moved by senior advocates Sidharth Luthra and K Parameshwar assisting the court as amici curiae, requisitioning these details to enable passing effective orders. This is the second order passed in a row by the top court for strengthening the mechanism for quick disposal of cheque bounce cases. The total pendency of cheque bounce cases in the country till December 2024, as per Government's reply in Parliament, is 4.3 million, of which more than 2 million cases is accounted for by five states Rajasthan (641,898), Maharashtra (589,836), Gujarat (473,236), Delhi (454,653) and Uttar Pradesh (376,298). The note presented to the court showed that these states also have a serious number of vacancies in district judiciary. As on December 31, 2024, Maharashtra has a vacancy of 250 posts against sanctioned strength of 2190 officers, Delhi has 94 (out of 897), Gujarat has 535 (out of 1720), Uttar Pradesh has 996 (out of 3700), and Rajasthan has 328 (out of 1641). The top court had in 2021 formed a 10-member committee to identify steps to facilitate early disposal of such cases. The committee recommended setting up of special courts to tackle the pendency. The amici curiae suggested a pilot study to be undertaken in the above five states having the highest pendency by setting up 5 courts in five districts of every state. This suggestion was materialised in a direction issued by the top court on May 19, 2022....