Introduction

The Indian Judicial system, as we know today incorporates the Supreme Court, high courts, and various other subordinate judiciaries. It began functioning on January 28, 1950. Since then, our judicial system has been able to prove itself as the nation’s moral conscience, upholding the rights of all citizens irrespective of their class, gender, status, religion, and on several occasions, it has also saved the democratically established government itself. Even though our nation’s judiciary has achieved remarkable feats in a span of just 70 years, a gap between ideal and reality is becoming wider and clearer over the years. Slow delivery of justice, the appointment of judges enmeshed in controversies, ineffective disciplinary mechanisms are some of the major problems our justice system is facing. The question of delay in the administration of justice has been addressed in the past, but even now there has been no considerable change. And the ironic thing is that today in all the other avenues of this modern civilization, speed and efficiency are of great significance. “Delayed Justice, if Justice at all” has become the basic premise of the Indian Judicial system. There are almost 25 million pending cases all over the country and according to experts these numbers are likely to grow with the growing population unless and until something is done to tackle this. The objective of this article is to identify and study the gridlocks leading to such delay and inefficiency and to suggest effective measures to correct them.

The ineffectiveness of the Indian justice system has been in existence since the beginning of the 20th century, and many committees have been constituted to correct it. In 1924, a committee was constituted under Justice Rankin of the Calcutta High Court to cautiously look over the delay in the disposal of civil appeals and cases. Another committee under the chairmanship of S.R. Das was constituted in 1929, which suggested measures to reduce the arrears in the various courts of the country. But the result of all these committees had proved to be futile as the measures suggested by them were neither discussed nor implemented in the system. A report submitted by the High Court Arrears Committee, 1972 under the chairmanship of J.C. Shah identified the major cause of the delay in judicial administration as the lower number of judges in the High Courts as well as inordinate delay in vacancy appointments. Even various law commission reports such as the 14th, 27th, 41st, 54th, 58th, 71st, 74th, 79th, and 144th reports have several times posed the question of delay in the Indian Judicial System. Justice P.N. Bhagwati, in his Law Day speech in 1985 addressed the concerns about the judicial system and said that it is presently suffering from an ailment and is on the verge of collapse. So, not only the present generation, but also the past several generations have been suffering from the pace and inefficiencies of the adjudicating authority.

The Blind Spot: Criminal Justice

The criminal justice system has been revamped by hundreds of thousands of pending cases and is also skewed against the poor or unprivileged section of the society. Even though justice is served it still takes several years which highlights the deficiencies of the adjudicating authority. The Constitution of India grants every citizen certain fundamental rights, the breach of which may lead to legal consequences, but still, there are thousands of rape cases are never investigated, because of the belief that court may take 8-10 years to decide the matter. This is the ongoing condition of the Indian Judiciary. For example in the Nirbhaya Rape Case, even after the whole nation knew that those six people were guilty of rape and needed to be punished it still took the court 8 precious years of the victim’s mother’s life to decide whether they are guilty or not. The Mohammad Harris Nalapad Case in Bengaluru took into consideration the fact that charge sheets are never filed within the stipulated 60-day period. Evidence has also been tampered with in several cases due to political pressure or sometimes due to callousness.

Major Obstacles and Deadlocks

It is unfortunate that despite the Indian judiciary’s many successes, it is suffering from several structural problems, that hamper its effective and efficient administration of justice. Unlike in the past, this structural mess can be understood and analysed in a better way in present times, due to better availability of data. There are numerous causes behind the law’s delay and ineffectiveness. The inadequate number of judges as well as courts in the country is one of the primary causes of delayed disposal of cases. In the year 2000, unlike 107 judges to every million in the US, 75 in Canada, India only had 10.5 per million people. Incompetent and inefficient judges is another such reason. In Indian courts, it can be easily seen that there is a habit of taking adjournments by the majority of the lawyers for their own benefit. This is one of the big reasons for such a huge number of pending cases in India. The legal costs and all the expenses that a person has to incur to commence a legal action, even for a small claim, is so heavy that it becomes worthwhile to claim any legal action possible. The procedure and formalities are so complex and full of technicalities that it hinders the litigants at every stage. A lot of time is wasted on jurisdictional arguments, sufficiency of notices, causes of action, and other procedural issues. And even after the court of law has given the initial judgments, the number of counter appeals in higher courts is also one of the reasons for delay in imparting justice.

There are other reasons for the ineffectiveness in the working of our judiciary like many supreme court and high court judges being made to study various commission reports and recommendations which in turn hamper the working of our courts. Political affiliations and sluggish tactics committed by judges also defeat the true essence of the justice system. One of the biggest reasons for the delay in our courts is our country’s diverse culture, language, religious sentiments, customs and practices which pose an unsettling issue in front of our courts i.e. whenever a matter is addressed before a court of law, the rule to be applied is capable of hundreds and thousands of interpretations which prevents the judge making a straightforward and quick decision in not so complicated matters.

Suggestive Measures for the Way Ahead

The necessary changes cannot be brought in one day, but surely they will come if we strive for them. Despite many loopholes and deadlocks, a change needs to take place to reform the justice system in India. There can be various measures to affect this change.

The number of judges should be increased in the High Court as well as the Supreme court. Although we have highly qualified judges, their strength has failed to administer justice. As discussed earlier, we are far behind in the appointment of judges as compared to other developed nations, which is the main reason for inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

A Fast Track Court should be set up and also there is an urgent need to increase in the number of tribunals, judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. Each tribunal must be categorized according to the specialization of its judges which reduces the burden of the courts.

Red tape or the inordinate delay due to paperwork creates a gap between the sections of the society. This must be replaced by the technological infrastructure e.g. e-filing of cases, e- returns, and the files pertinent to the case must be stored online, which will lead to a speedy disposal of cases.

A major shift needs to made from adjourning authority to adjudicating authority and advocates who seek delay excessively must be condemned severely.

People should be made aware of the Alternative Dispute Resolution systems like mediation, arbitration, conciliation, etc. which ensure speedy justice to trivial cases and screening of matters that require court assistance.

Conclusion

Justice is a foundational goal of any civilization. Thus, it is imperative for the judicial system to perform its duty with due diligence so that society can strive for peace, harmony and progress. Article 39A of the Indian constitution shines a light upon the concept of free legal aid to poor and weaker sections of society, but keeping the present state in mind, it has failed to achieve significance. The judges are considered equivalent to god, hence it their duty to ensure that no guilty person escapes unpunished. Since our independence, we have suffered a lot due to the excruciating slow pace, but now is the time when reformations must be done in the Indian Justice System. “Justice delayed is justice denied” should be a major aim of every adjudicating authority. If this is not so, then how much we develop economically or technologically doesn’t matter because we will never be a developed nation.

Akshat Jaithlia is a first year student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law in Patiala, India.

Aayush Maheshwari is a first year student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law in Patiala, India.

Suggested citation: Akshat Jaithlia and Aayush Maheshwari, The Agonizing Pace of the Indian Judiciary, May 14, 2020, https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/05/jaithlia-maheshwari-indian-judiciary-pace/

This article was prepared for publication by Tim Zubizarreta, JURIST’s Managing Editor. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org