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Timely justice at Re 1 per head per month, Almost 3 Crore Cases Pending In Indian Courts

By Unregistered Visitors, Section News
Posted on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 11:22:37 PM EST

As many as 37.1 lakh cases were pending in India's 21 high courts as of June 30, 2007.
On the same day, 2.5 crore cases were pending in lower courts.
Of the 792 posts of judges sanctioned for high courts, 206 are vacant. Of the sanctioned strength of 15,399 judges in lower courts, 3,031 are vacant.

People spend a lifetime in courts. Cases often take more than a decade to be decided. The judges are overworked, the infrastructure is shabby and the judicial system is creaking at several levels, especially in subordinate courts. Judiciary -- the one institution that still commands the people's respect is straining to deliver justice.

Who is responsible for this? Is it the judiciary or the government? TOI took a close look at different aspects of the judicial system and found that while there might be a modicum of truth in the popular refrain of courts not working to their potential, the bulk of the blame for unfilled lower court posts and the creaky infrastructure lies with the government.

Not just that, the government is also responsible for fixing pathetically low salaries for judges. It starts at Rs 9,000 per month for judicial magistrates and goes up to all of Rs 35,000 for the Chief Justice of India. If the best legal talent doesn't want to join the judiciary, it's hardly surprising. And if there's corruption in the courts, it is not surprising either.

TOI would like the salaries to be much higher to ensure an efficient and corruption-free judiciary. It worked out a model in which judges would get a respectable salary and it hiked the number of judges to the level required to clear the backlog within two years, and found the additional cost would be Rs 1,426 crore (see Times View). This works out to Re 1 per Indian per month a small price to ensure quality and timely justice.

The government, however, has simply not focused on how to pull the judiciary out of the mess. Each passing year, Parliament and state assemblies pass more and more laws, yet no one in government appears to give thought to the obvious -- that the number of judges should be increased to cope with increased number of litigants and that retraining of judges in new laws should be mandatory.

Govt needs to invest in infrastructure of courts

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Govt needs to invest in infrastructure of courts
Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan has worked out a figure of additional judges that would be required to clear the judicial backlog. According to him, if 1,539 new judges were added to the existing 792, all pending cases in high courts would be cleared in a year. And if they are to be cleared in two years, 770 additional high court judges would be sufficient.

Likewise, the Chief Justice has calculated that if all pending cases in the lower courts were to be cleared in one year, all existing 15,399 posts must be filled up and an additional 18,479 judges should be appointed. If the backlog were to be cleared in two years, 9,239 additional judges would be required.

Would this involve an unacceptably high cost? Certainly not. In the model worked out by TOI, the cost is just Rs 1,426 crore but at existing levels of salary, it is a meagre Rs 180 crore if Rs 15,000 is taken as the average salary and 10,000 new judges are appointed.

The government has to invest more in the infrastructure of courts. Most of them, especially the lower courts, are in a shambles. The buildings need repair and expansion. The courts need to be fully computerized so that old files don't eat into half the court space. Also, court rooms should be airconditioned to increase efficiency in extreme weather conditions.

Who is responsible for filling up vacant posts? Actually, both the superior judiciary, and the state and central governments. For the lower courts, it is the government. And for the high courts, it is a collegium of judges headed by the Chief Justice which forwards the name of the new judge for ratification by the law ministry and the PMO.

Law minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj was quick to point out that ``not a single file regarding appointment of judges to the high courts is pending with the government.'' In other words, the collegium has been tardy in recommending judges for the high courts. Justice Balakrishnan has said, ``The backlog cannot be wiped out without additional strength, particularly when new filings are likely to increase and not come down in the coming years.''

Source: The Times Of India, November-30-2007

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