[Assam] More About Indian Justice--From Indian Justices

[Chan Mahanta]

The following in US News papers today ( St. Louis Post Dispatch, Los 
Angeles Times, etc.)
cm

Indian court will take 466 years to clear its backlog, chief justice 
says in damning report

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-as-india-delayed-justice,1,2555110.story

NEW DELHI (AP) - The High Court in New Delhi is so behind in its work 
that it could take up to 466 years to clear the enormous backlog, the 
court's chief justice said in a damning report that illustrates the 
decrepitude of India's judicial system.

The Delhi High Court races through each case in an average of 4 
minutes and 55 seconds but still has tens of thousands of cases 
pending, including upward of 600 that are more than 20 years old, 
according to the report.


The problems of the Delhi High Court, which hears civil, criminal, 
and constitutional cases, is more the standard than the exception in 
India. The country's creaky judicial system has long been plagued by 
corruption, inefficiency and lack of accountability, often making the 
rule of law unattainable for all but the wealthy and the 
well-connected.

The United Nations Development Program says some 20 million legal 
cases are pending in India.

"It's a completely collapsed system," said Prashant Bhushan, a 
well-known lawyer in New Delhi. "This country only lives under the 
illusion that there is a judicial system."

One reason for the delays is that there aren't enough sitting judges. 
India - a country of 1.1 billion people - has approximately 11 judges 
for every million people compared with roughly 110 per million in the 
United States. India's Justice Ministry last year called for an 
increase of 50 judges per million people by 2013, but it was unclear 
how the government would pay for such a massive overhaul.

The Delhi High Court, the state's top court, had 32 judges in 2007 
and 2008 instead of the allotted 48, according to the chief justice's 
annual report, released Tuesday.

The court had at least 629 civil cases and 17 criminal cases pending 
that were more than 20 years old as of March 2008. Although, that's 
an improvement from April 2007 when the court had 882 civil and 428 
criminal cases pending that were that old.

Chief Justice A.P. Shah said in the report that "it would take the 
court approximately 466 years" to clear the pending 2,300 criminal 
appeals cases alone.

Critics say another major problem is corruption, a plague throughout 
every layer of Indian government.

"Of course corruption is there," said J.S. Verma, a retired Supreme 
Court justice. "The people who man the courts and the court system 
come from the society" where corruption is commonplace.

Last year, the Delhi High Court convicted two senior lawyers for 
trying to influence a key witness to change his testimony in a 
high-profile case involving a hit-and-run that left six people dead. 
The lawyers, who were busted in a sting by a television news channel, 
received what some called a light punishment: They were barred from 
appearing in court for four months and fined 2,000 rupees ($50).

The corruption in the case was only notable because one of the 
lawyers had defended important political figures, said Bhushan

"There are plenty of lawyers who are engaged in this business of 
bribing judges," he said. "It's a lucrative business."

The hit-and-run case was another example of the long lag between 
crime and conviction: the accident occurred in 1999, but the driver 
was not found guilty until 2008.

Critics say other problems include the strict formalities that slow 
down every step of the legal process and are common across India's 
vast bureaucracy.

Bhushan says the Herculean task of simply registering a case wastes 
time and denies ordinary citizens access to the court.

"All kinds of objections are raised - the copies are dim, the margins 
are not wide enough, it's single-spaced instead of being 
double-spaced," he said. "For a layperson, it's impossible."

Verma, the retired Supreme Court judge, said extending working hours 
would be a major step toward clearing the backlog.

The Delhi High Court hears cases for five hours and 15 minutes a day, 
and is open for 213 working days a year, according to the report. 
Verma and others said the court could easily work longer hours.

"A commitment and proper work culture can solve at least half the 
problems, if not more," Verma said. "I don't think you would have to 
wait four centuries to have a case decided."



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124 years to clear all the pending cases in the Indian courts

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/124-years-clear-all-pending-cases-indian-courts



by Sanjay Jha | April 20, 2008 at 07:26 pm
490 views | 2 Recommendations | 3 comments
Backlog of cases has become a big problem for the Indian judiciary - 
from the Supreme Court to the subordinate courts. At the current 
speed, the lower courts, may take 124 years for clearing 2,50,000 
cases.
In the last seven years, the disposal rate has increased by 48 per 
cent in the high courts and by 28 per cent in the subordinate courts, 
but the pendency has increased. Thus, it is the system (and not the 
judges) which is at fault. Unless the disposal rate improves, the 
backlog will keep mounting. To make rule of law a reality, the 
arrears will have to be reduced.
Hopefully this move will help in faster judicial delivery


The Chief Justices' Conference has recommended increasing in the 
working hours of high courts to clear the huge backlog of cases.

At the end of the two-day conference, Chief Justice of India KG 
Balakrishnan said the working hours could be increased by 30 minutes 
each day or one more working day be added to the calendar. Most high 
courts work for 210 days in a year and it has been recommended to 
increase it up to 215 or 220, he said. "Some... high courts are 
already working up to 220 days," he added.
Giving details of the decisions taken at the meet, the chief justice 
told a gathering of lawyers the conference has also recommended 
setting up 463 family courts, one in each district, to deal with 
matrimonial cases. The conference has recommended setting up one CBI 
court in each state. There were about 13,000 cases under the 
Prevention of Corruption Act pending in various high courts out of 
which 6,100 were CBI cases, he added.