Bombay, February 2021: Reputed Bombay High Court Judge, Dr. Adinath Someshwar, has returned from his two month sabbatical with a strongly worded opinion piece on the worsening case of the judiciary in the country. The opinion piece was expeditiously published in a special edition of the Indian Law Review, titled “You Ain’t Got Served? Oops.”
The comprehensive, and possibly exhaustive, 500-page monograph begins and ends with the dismal situation of the pendency of cases at all levels of the judiciary. There are instances mentioned where suspects, after being denied bail, have spent more time in imprisonment awaiting trial than the maximum prison term carried on their charges. Even among those who have been convicted, hearings for appeals have been pending longer than their sentences. While no one wants to take away the right to appeal, the “chronic pendency of criminal appeals” is a major challenge to the judiciary system.
There is a significant correlation between pendency of cases in a region and the judicial vacancies. Many high courts have vacancies of over a third or more of the sanctioned strength of the court. Some of the district and taluka courts are worse.
“Jobs for upholding the law, and in some places, upholding the law itself, is just not in vogue,” says Dr. Someshwar. “With a population of over 1.3 billion to look after, reform is needed to attract more human resources toward taking positions in the judiciary.”
There are over 3.4 crore pending cases in the District and Taluka courts of India, 78% of which are more than one year old. There are more than 85 thousand cases which have been pending execution for over 30 years now. There are over 85 lakh pending cases in the High Courts of India, 85% of which are more than one year old. Even in the Supreme Court, there are over 60 thousand pending cases.
Many prominent members of the judiciary have come forward praising the monograph and have written editorials about it. “It is high time for reform in the judiciary,” said a judge from the Mizoram High Court. Meanwhile, the ongoing strike in Jantar Mantar calling for reduction in work hours for judges continues.