Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court has suspended its practice of preparing a list of 100 oldest cases for hearings on Wednesdays, 16 months after initiating it.A notification issued by HC on Nov 5 reads, “As per direction of the acting chief justice and all the judges of the high court of Gujarat, all advocates, litigants, party-in-person and stakeholders are hereby informed that the practice of publishing a separate ‘Wednesday Weekly List’ on Wednesdays under the Weekly Wednesday (WWL) notified vide Notice No. RJ/13/2025 dated 21-06-2025 is hereby suspended till further orders.”To expedite the disposal of long-pending cases, the HC dedicated Wednesdays exclusively to hearing the oldest pending matters from July 2, 2025. Its two committees decided that each HC bench should take up the 100 oldest cases once a week. To implement this plan, the HC prepared a new list of cases titled the Wednesday Weekly List, which it published a week in advance. This list featured the 100 oldest pending cases roster-wise, arranged strictly by registration date in the High Court, irrespective of case type or current stage. Such old pending cases were also termed as ‘Targeted Matters’. All fresh matters, except bail and quashing petitions, were automatically shifted to the next working day if hearings were scheduled for a Wednesday.National Judicial Data Grid details show that this exercise, which began in July 2025 and lasted 16 months, reduced pendency of cases older than 10 years by 2%.
