Courtrooms in India have become so packed with cases that the administration of justice suffers. This is the position in practically all the courts of the country. Look at the figures. In the subordinate courts in the districts there are now as many as 2.8 crore cases. These nearly 3 crore cases involve almost about 10 crore people. A large number of these cases are kept pending for years, sometimes decades. In the supreme court, there were recently 26,750 cases and in the high courts, they number nearly 31,88,000. There are vacancies for about 5000 judges in the country’s courts. We need ten times the existing number of judges to cope with the work load. Amendments in the Civil Procedure Code by the Amendment Acts of 1999 and 2002 laid down a stringent time period for completion of pleadings in civil cases. The number of adjournments which can be granted by courts has been restricted. The amendment is, however, being honoured more in the breach. Lawyers are accused of employing delaying methods, but no lawyer can succeed if the court refuses an adjournment. On the average, 50 to 60 cases are listed every day before a high court judge. It is not possible for a judge to seriously hear and decide more than two or three cases in a day. In spite of the odds, the judiciary discharges its functions to the best of its ability and competence. It undoubtedly stands as the last hope of the people. The large number of cases pending in courts and the numbers being filed every day are proof of the people’s increasing faith in the courts. People have faith that justice will be done, though belatedly. There is no doubt that courts do not take any decisions without affording the parties a hearing and every decision by a judge is accompanied by reasons which constitute a guarantee against arbitrariness. The judiciary is also adopting the spirit of innovation. Public interest litigation is a unique device, shedding the shackles of locus standi; the judiciary can entertain grievances of a public nature. The device of a letter petition is similar, wherein all formalities of attaching documents with the presentation of a petition to a court are dispensed with if the grievance relates to the enforcement of fundamental rights. On judicial reform, the judiciary is seen to be conservative, but this is essentially a neglected area of governance. Tribunalisation of the judicial system has not proved effective as, with the exception of a few, tribunals do not dispose of cases quickly and their decisions are invariably challenged in the law courts. Those presiding over tribunals are often retired judges and government officials, who find it hard to muster the effort and energy required for the effective discharge of their functions. Some measures can be urgently taken to deal with the problems of delay. Vacancies in posts of judges should be filled up. Additional judges should be sanctioned; no judge should have more than 30 matters listed before him or her on a given day. A monitoring mechanism must be developed for high court judges whereby a supreme court judge should monitor the disposal of cases by a high court and groups of high court judges could monitor the subordinate court judges. Section 102 of the Civil Procedure Code prescribed that no second appeal is maintainable against any decree where the subject matter of the original suit is for recovery of money not exceeding Rs 25,000. This limit needs to be raised, and it should not be less than about 3,00,000, which should be the pecuniary limit for cases filed before civil judges in Delhi. In most cases, only first appeal should be allowed. Tribunals should be constituted in respect of only matters highly technical; special courts may be assigned only specific subject matters. The period of detention undergone weighs heavily with the courts in deciding on bail. This factor is actually not relevant. The period of detaining a person in jail as an undertrial is to prevent the person from repeating the offence, from tampering with evidence or intimidating witnesses, or, in extreme cases, from escaping. Unfortunately, detaining a person as an undertrial is often used as a measure of ‘‘punishment’’. For the broader objective of judicial reform, there is need to plan in the long and short term. The number of judges must be suitably increased. Information technology must be utilised — court records must be digitalised; e-filing, video-conferencing and other methodologies can save much time and energy. Alternate dispute resolution systems need to be adopted — the Lok Adalats have done a commendable job in the last four decades and this procedure is now catching up in international commerce. Continuing education, refresher courses and orientation programmes should be devised to enhance the professional competence of judges. The Eleventh Finance Commission of the Department of Justice recommended the creation of 1734 additional courts for disposal of long pending cases. The scheme has since been sanctioned and an amount of over Rs 500 crore was allocated as special problems and upgradation grant for judicial administration. This amount is to be spent over a period of five years. Fast track courts are primarily taking on sessions cases pending for two years or more and the cases of undertrials in jails. At present, there are about two lakh undertrials in jails on whose maintenance, governments are spending about Rs 400 crore per annum. About 18 per cent of the undertrials have been in jails for more than one year. Till now, 1652 fast track courts have been established, of which 1370 courts have started functioning. Another innovation has been the establishment of family courts under the Family Courts Act enacted to promote conciliation and secure speedy settlement of disputes regarding marriages and other family affairs. Till a few years ago there were only 87 family courts. As a result of the initiative of the central government, 36 more family courts have been set up in states. Over three years, from 1997 to 2000, family courts disposed of 91,619 cases, of which 27,793 ended in reconciliation of the disputes.
