| A population of 1.35 billion and pendency of about 27 million cases in the Indian Courts. The numbers are quite staggering and worrisome. But, what is even more worrisome is the multifaceted effect that these numbers have and indicate about the plights of the people of the largest democracy of the world. The country suffers a scourge of the world's largest backlog of cases. Even though the courts dispose a really large number of cases every year, the number of cases filed are even more. The number of judges has increased six-fold in last three decades but, the number of the cases has shot up to be twelve-fold in the same time. |
| Delhi High Court had granted divorce to an 85-year-old man, in the year 2014. The man had been fighting a legal battle for more than 32 years and when he finally received a decree in his favour, all hopes and chances of resuming a married life were ruined. It was indeed a pity that the couple had spent a large part of their married life within the alleys of the court, fighting a case against each other and one can only try estimating the emotional distress caused to the parties lighting the cases. Now, this is not something which happens to be an exceptional case, rather, it points to a far greater problem plaguing the Indian Judicial System. |
| Delay in justice delivery can have very serious consequences at times, as in the case of a minor rape victim who gave birth to an unwanted child after being denied permission to abort her foetus. |
| In cases of false imprisonment, an innocent person suffers for no fault of her own and the delay in justice delivery mechanism adds further to the woes. The over crowding of the prisons is yet another problem, violating the rights of the prisoners. Many under-trial prisoners end up doing their entire sentence without getting a full trial. |
| A former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Agrawal had said, "Delay in disposal of cases, not only creates disillusionment amongst the litigants, but also undermines the capability of the system to impart justice in an efficient and effective manner." |
| This problem of pendency of cases also affects the economy of the country. The Economic Survey 2017-18, tabled recently in the Parliament said that there is a need to address the issues of pendency, delays and backlogs of cases in the judicial arena, in order to foster the ease of doing business. It also stated that the issues hamper dispute resolution, contract enforcement, discourage investments, stall projects, hamper tax collection, stress tax payers and escalatelegal costs. This particular issue amounts to a loss of billions of rupees to the country every year. |
| The 120th Law Commission report stated that India should have 50 judges for per million people. |
| Despite this, the number of judges remain an abysmally low of 17.86 per million, as per the data of the Law Ministry. This is in direct contrast with the judge-population ratio of USA, UK & Australia, where the number of judges for per million population is 107, 51 and 41 respectively. |
A) It hampers ease of doing business
B) It keeps the production stalled
C) It devalues the currency
D) It dissuades the foreign investors
Correct Answer: A
Solution :
(a) This problem of pendency of cases also affects the economy of the country. The Economic Survey 2017-18, tabled recently in the Parliament said that there is a need to address the issues of pendency, delays and backlogs of cases in the judicial arena, in order to foster the ease of doing business.
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