India’s justice delivery system has continued to make big strides in pronouncing progressive judgments which have revolutionised our body polity. However, the justice system is afflicted with the most glaring malaise – judicial pendency – whose elimination is imperative for economic and social progress.
The justice system rests on many essential attributes, amongst which the most seminal pillar is speedy justice. Litigation in India is an expensive affair and is excessively protracted which renders the judicial system inaccessible to the disadvantaged and poorer sections of the society.
The Pendency Problem
Whether it is a contractual dispute, a suit for partition or a criminal case, the delay in the justice delivery virtually leads to denial of justice. In many cases which are being fought for decades together, the original litigants expire much before the judgment sees the light of the day.
As per the latest figures provided by the Union law ministry to Parliament, more than 4 crore cases are pending in the trial courts. As for the High Courts, there are more than 60 lakh cases pending and the Supreme Court has 69,000 cases pending before it.
The astronomical number of cases might appear proportionate with regards to the population growth of our country. However, the ever increasing number of cases leads to docket explosion and further slows down the disposal rate. This is because the infrastructure and ancillary services are not expanding at the same pace.
Too Few Judges
The rising pendency is symptomatic of the lacunas at the institutional level. Absence of proportional increase in the number of judges, no significant increase in the number of Courts, lack of proper infrastructure, absence of adequate court staff and non deployment of technologies like artificial intelligence in a widespread manner are essentially responsible for the judicial pendency.
To eliminate judicial pendency, a two-fold approach needs to be employed at the institutional level. Firstly, the number of judges needs to be increased manifold. Most Indian judges, right from the district level up till the Supreme Court are heavily overburdened and have to deal with more than 50 cases per day.
This is excruciatingly difficult for the judges, who require a certain level of calm, composure and equanimity to take just decisions based on sound legal principles. The Law Commission in 1987 and Supreme Court in 2002 envisaged that there should be 50 judges per million population. That would require roughly 70,000 judges but the sanctioned strength presently is only around 25,000 judicial officers, of which nearly a quarter could by lying vacant presently. NCRB data indicates that pendency is as high as 90 percent in several categories of serious offences across most states.
Further, no Court can function in absence of its limbs – stenographer, readers, bailiffs, clerks and other administrative officers – without whom no effective order can be passed and no court proceeding can be undertaken. The Government must give impetus to increase the overall strength of the court staff.
Judicial Infrastructure Matters
Secondly, the infrastructure at the level of district judiciary, and downwards to the villages, needs an overhaul. Without a decent level of infrastructure, courts are incapacitated as most of the court procedures cannot take place without prerequisites like computers, high speed internet and printing facilities.
This causes the witnesses in many cases, who on most occasions travel from far flung areas, to return without any substantial and effective appearance. This results in avoidable delays which can be stemmed by adequate deployment of basic facilities. Even primary amenities like toilets and waiting rooms which are non negotiable to provide justice to the litigants in a dignified manner are absent in many courts.
As per a report by Vidhi, a Delhi-based think tank, there were no toilets for women in 15 percent of the 665 District Court complexes in India. Although the Government of India has announced an outlay of Rs 7,000 crore in 2023 for the e-Court project which aims to bring down judicial pendency, this cannot be achieved without sufficient number of court staff, infrastructure and increased number of judges.
Look Beyond Cities Too
While justice delivery in cities might appear subdued, the state of affairs in the villages and interior parts of the country is abysmal. The Gram Nyayalaya scheme to establish courts at the local village level is in total disarray as only 15 states have notified courts under the system out of which only half have been operationalised.
We need a bottom-up approach. The big city approach of digitisation and deployment of artificial intelligence is necessary to match the contemporary jurisdictions but the dichotomous gap between cities and villages needs to be bridged by way of larger budgetary outlays for Courts in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities and rural areas.
The Government should derive inspiration from Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Indian Constitution and ensure that our justice system develops proportionately.
Kaustubh Mehta is an advocate who practises in Delhi. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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