Judicial Pendency

Status

at present ~5cr cases pending in courts
estimated time for case to be finally disposed off by the SC since time of institution = 14 years
acc to former SC judge: will take $>$ 230yrs to clear entire backlog of cases in indian judiciary

Justice delayed is justice denied.

denial of justice
- impacts specifically the poor strata of society
deterrent effect of law suffers
credibility of rule of law suffers
- $⟹$ people often resort to extra judicial measures to settle their score
belief of common man in judicial system suffers

shortage of judges
- in india, 9 judges per million people
- China: 300 / million people
- US: 150 / million people
Archaic procedural laws
- eg. Evidence Act

introduction of All India Judicial Services
- improve intake of judges in lower judiciary
imp reforms in procedural laws (CrPC, IPC)
adopt time bound approach to dispose cases
Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism must be encouraged
massively investing in infra of lower courts
- tech for better case mgmt
regional SC benches for appellate cases
- constitutional bench in delhi should entertain cases relating to FR or Constitution
effective implementation of National Litigation Policy to turn govt into responsible litigant
rigorous judicial impact assessment to estimate new litigation and recruit judges accordingly

improve accessibility of justice to people in far flung areas
make justice more affordable to poor & marginalized
relieve constitutional seat from appellate work
- they can focus on laying down laws for lower courts

costly affair
- huge drain on resources of country
SC is apprehensive as it may compromise quality of judgement due to lack of uniformity by appellate courts
present strength of SC not enough to deal with workload that would be created due to setting up of NCA