New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that the over 10 lakh pending execution petitions in district courts, of which eight lakh are more than six months old, is “very appalling and disappointing”. It has asked the High Courts to set up a mechanism for their effective and speedy disposal. This is not enough to get a favorable decision in civil matters, especially property disputes. Most of the time, when the losing party fails to comply, the winning party has to approach the court again for implementation of the order by filing an execution petition. Noting that the crisis for the litigants starts when they get the decree in their favor as they are unable to get the fruits of it for years, a bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mithal is directing to dispose of the execution petitions within six months. After examining the data of pending cases, the bench said, “The situation as on date appears to be very appalling and dismal. We are saying this because till date there are 7,95,981 execution petitions pending across the country which are six months old.” However, the court appreciated the effort put in by the district judiciary in implementing its order as over 4.3 lakh execution petitions were decided in the last six months and around 7.7 lakh cases were disposed of in the last one year after its directions in March 2025. Pointing out that it had asked the high courts to evolve a mechanism for speedy disposal of execution petitions and to guide their district judiciaries, the court said that the high courts have not yet informed about the steps taken by them and directed them to file their response. “We wonder whether the High Courts have evolved some mechanism or provided some procedure as guidance to their respective district judiciaries for effective and speedy disposal of execution petitions. By the next date of hearing, October 7, each High Court will tell us… what kind of directions have been issued to the devolved machinery or to their respective district judicaturees,” the Supreme Court said. The top court initiated the exercise to streamline the hearing of execution petitions after it came to know of a litigant who had got a favorable judgment from the HC and SC in a property dispute in 2006. Although two decades had passed, the execution petition was still pending in the lower court. The Supreme Court had directed the executing court to ensure that vacant and peaceful possession of the suit property is handed over to the appellants as decree holders with the assistance of the police, if necessary.