Taking these steps will definitely help in bringing down the pendency in the courts,' said a worried bench.

The bench also questioned why the FSL report was not given along with the chargesheet and asked the government to file a detailed reply by Sep 16.

Besides, the court asked the government to place on record the number of NCB cases pending in different courts.

The court was hearing a public interest petition on the insufficient facilities at FSLs all over the country. About 4,000 cases are pending in the FSL in northwest Delhi's Rohini, set up in 1995.

Of the three other laboratories, Chandigarh has a pendency of 48, Calcutta 350 and Hyderabad 627.

In 2007, the court had pulled up the government for not filling up the vacancies but despite that no step has been taken so far.