Why do cases take so long in Indian courts?

The Indian court system has the problem of slow disposal of justice, with some court cases taking decades to get a verdict. In this article we discuss some of the reasons for the same.

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As the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied. Cases pending for a long time lead to unnecessary stress and unnecessary costs in litigants, and may result in denial of justice altogether. Therefore, this delay of resolution is a problem that urgently needs tacking.

Scale of the problem of slow disposal of court cases

An article in the Wire analyzed government data to find that 37 lakhs cases took 0-20 years to reach a verdict, 6.4 lakh cases took 20-30 years and about 2 lakh cases took more than 30 years.

Reasons for delays of disposal of court cases

There are multiple reasons for the delays, some of which are as follows:

Too many pending court cases

The Indian courts system is overloaded with court cases. Supreme Court – 60000 pending cases High courts – 57.5 lakh cases Lower courts – 3.8 crore pending cases

References:

1. https://theprint.in/opinion/indian-judges-overburdened-looking-after-legal-aid-shouldnt-be-on-plate/573300/

2. https://thewire.in/law/india-judiciary-pending-cases-supreme-court

3. https://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l317-Justice-Delayed-is-Justice-Denied.html

4. https://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l452-Litigation-&-Delays-in-India.html

5. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/nation/story/20210208-bogged-by-a-backlog-1763840-2021-01-30

6. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20160509-judicial-system-judiciary-cji-law-cases-the-long-expensive-road-to-justice-828810-2016-04-27

Too few judges

India has only less than 17000 judges in total, with 17 judges per million of the population, which is probably the lowest judge to population ratio in the world.

The ideal number should be around 60000 judges for the 50 judges per million ratio, as per the findings of the law commission of India.

References:

1. https://www.livemint.com/Politics/3B97SMGhseobYhZ6qpAYoN/How-many-judges-does-India-really-need.html

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1170564/india-number-of-judges/

Delays in recruitment of judges

New judicial recruitments are also not being done soon enough. The government is also not doing enough to recruit the needed increased number of judges. There is a high bar on recruitment of judges and also on recruitment of judges to higher courts such as high court and supreme court. Even today, thousands of vacancies (upto one third of the sanctioned strength, which itself is low) are lying unfilled. The budget allocated by the government for the judiciary infrastructure is too low as well.

References:

1. https://theprint.in/opinion/one-third-judges-posts-lie-vacant-in-12-high-courts-so-much-for-collegiums/532266/

2. https://www.livemint.com/Politics/3B97SMGhseobYhZ6qpAYoN/How-many-judges-does-India-really-need.html

3. https://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/why-india-s-courts-are-struggling-to-find-judges-116061600898_1.html

Corruption of police and other government agencies

Police often refuse to file FIRs in the case of many complaints by the public, or refuse to investigate properly on time.

Doing this, investigating and taking action speedily by the police, could have led to speedy disposal in the earliest stages of the cases and led to them not having to come to the courts, reducing the burden on the justice system.

Why do the police not take speedy action? It could be due to a number of factors such as lethargy or corruption, where some of the parties are well connected politically. It could be inaction by other government agencies as well. The police may be more hesitant to take action if the complainants are poor, not connected, or from rural areas.

References

1. https://www.helplinelaw.com/employment-criminal-and-labour/FIR/all-about-filing-a-complaint-and-lodging-fir%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s.html

Tools for litigants to delay cases in India

There are a number of ways in which litigants can delay the cases if they wish to do so. This my be the case if they are illegally occupying property, for example. This can include things like not being present in court giving various pretexts, inserting unnecessary applications to divert the court’s attention in an ongoing case, asking for adjournments, requesting the court to get information from banks or other government agencies and thus wasting time of the court, delays in execution even after an order has been given, unnecessary appeals and so on. This is also a factor in the slow disposal of cases.

New types of cases such as PILs

These types of cases such as Public Interest Litigation (PILs), although made with good intention, also case an increased number of court cases, further overburdening the system. The concept of PIL can be abused by some parties for their own vested interests.

Reference

1. https://blog.ipleaders.in/abuse-of-the-concept-of-pil-in-recent-years-with-examples-of-case-laws/

How to speed up pending cases

Some of the ways in which pending cases can be speeded up include the following:

1. Increase the recruitment of judges

2. Make virtual hearings, using software on a computer, possible in all courts including lower courts (this has got some progress in recent times due to Covid)

3. Make sure the police and other agencies do their job speedily

4. Increase the budget allocation from the government

5. Improve the quality of judges by better training

Conclusion

To conclude, there are a number of reasons why cases in Indian courts take too long. The government and judiciary have to come together to seriously think of ways to tackle this problem.

#LitigationStress #PendingCases #Slowdisposalofcases #Speedyjustice