“Justice delayed is Justice denied” the phrase that we all are aware of but does the Indian Judiciary is solely responsible for the backlog and pendency of cases in the law of courts. Answer to this question is ‘NO’ as delay in justice in India can’t be just attributed to the legal system and judiciary alone rather it is due to the way the three pillars in Indian Democracy works and the interaction of three powers and throwing the hectic and controversial matters over each other.
In a recent judgment of Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Sanjay K Kaul has accused the Government for backlog of the cases and the bench categorically said that “Government is fully responsible for burdening this court. It takes everything to this court irrespective of the merits of the matter. And we have to then examine everything whether or not it has any merit.” The apex court has in aforesaid judgment alleged the Government for backlog of cases in the higher courts especially due to multiple petitions filed in appeal in cases related to service matters. And in its own way expressed displeasure by criticising the Government and put the blame on the Government for delay of justice by overloading the court of law with petty and meritless cases.
If one scrutinizes the matter, it will find that such matters which are filed by the Government in higher courts as appeal or so, identical matters are already adjudicated pertaining to similar and common issues which does not need any interpretation of statute or matter is related to the question of law. It is only the lack of coordination between the different departments (inter or intra) and lacklustre of the Government that the similar and already decided issues time and again bring back before the courts for decision and interpretation, which actually does not need the involvement of higher courts and waste its precious judicial hours. The Supreme Court very cautiously put the onus on the Government for burdening the court with frivolous and meritless cases as it takes everything to the court, irrespective of the merits of the case to examine it.
This simply shows that the reason for delay of justice in India is not only due to fault or lacunas on the side of Indian judiciary system and procedures rather it is due to the ramifications of the works of Government, which supposed to be done by the Government itself are actually burdening the court of law, which is already overloaded with the pendency.
The other reason for the pendency of the cases in India could be as follows:
There are not enough judges. The current judges to population ration is 10 to 1 million which the Law Commission Report in 1987 recommends atleast 50 to 1 million judges tp population ration, which is not even half and High Courts are also running with almost half of its strength and for this both Central and State Government playing blame game.
There are not enough courts and modernisation of courts. Indian judiciary has insufficient budget and both the Central and State Government are not interested in increasing spending with respect to the judiciary as India needs more courts and benches. The modernisation and computerisation of all the courts in India is need of the hour as it will solve backlog, delays and will be cost effective and will discourage paper wasting.
There is low judicial quality in lower courts. Indian judiciary has miserably failed to attract the best brains and the talented students. The quality of judges in lower courts is not up to the mark, appeals are filed against the decision in higher courts, which again increase the number of cases.
There are outdated laws and vague drafting. The outdated laws and acts that fill up the statute books which is vague and faulty in current situation and due to recent developments and their multiple interpretation by various courts are also reason for prolong litigation.
There is increased in the awareness of rights by common man and new mechanism and new rights. The recent socio-economic advancement and media presence have given courage to common people to approach courts of law for justice and new rights and mechanism like judicial activism, PIL etc. are working as catalyst and volume of cases has increased proportionately.
These are few reasons out of many others, which Indian Judiciary is facing from decades that made the pendency of the cases. And this non-proper functioning of the Government and putting the extra burden of the cases which are already adjudicated and ones which can be easily resolved by the active and aware Government department by its own mechanism and outside the court of law.
The allegation that the Government is responsible for backlog of cases in court of law is not vague rather with sound reason and background that the Government is the largest litigant in India and solely responsible for nearly half the pending cases. Many of these cases are actually of one department suing another making the commencement of the court proceedings and making the court departmental grievance redressal forum due to paralysed indecisiveness’s of the officials, red tapism, etc. These cases of the service matters travel to the Supreme Court, in appeal, after being adjudicated by the High Courts and majority of these cases are rejected by the High Court due to lack of merit and need no judicial intervention in these matter and yet the Government preferred such vague and worthless matters in appeal before the Supreme Court is wastage of precious judicious time and mockery of Judiciary. If one delve further it is commonly find that the Government side miserably fails to prove the point at High Courts and yet brings the meritless and frivolous matters before the Supreme Court to show that Government is actively working for its rights and spread awareness but actually it’s the highhandedness, playing of delaying tactics, to circumvent the incumbent officials responsibilities and as its in trend for Government to file appeal.
These matters which Government bring before writ courts are usually not involve any question of law and its interpretation rather on factual merits and jurisdiction which can be decided by the respective Tribunals and arbitration proceedings. The lack of coordination of Government departments and non-proper scrutiny of records is the vital reasons for the burdening the court of law with petty and frivolous cases which bring back the bad name to Indian Judiciary of ‘justice delay’
Therefore, Government should act responsibly before bringing matters before writ courts and prior to activate the court proceeding should check the merit of the case twice and scrutinise the records in advance and properly to avoid bringing back the similar matter and frivolous matters before the higher courts. And the court needs to be more strict and define the limits and whenever required should impose hefty fines on the petitioners for filing meritless and frivolous cases.
So, Indian Judicial system alone can’t be accredited for the justice delay in India rather it is due to the lack of coordination between the three pillars of our democracy and they should work together for smooth and proper functioning of the democracy and should not compete rather complement each other to achieve the justice.
