1. ENSURING EXPEDITIOUS AND
TIMELY JUSTICE TO ALL
JUSTICE, Social, Economic and Political” is the spirit and
vision of our Constitution as adopted by us which WE,
THE PEOPLE OF INDIA have solemnly given to ourselves
on 26th November 1949.
Our justice administration system as represented by the
court is unusually slow.
"Justice delayed is justice denied”
- by buddingLAWYERS

3. PROBLEMS OF DELAYED JUSTICE
The Indian legal system measures
up rather well if assessed by the
yardsticks of fairness and
independence. Where it fails and by
a long shot is in terms of speed and
efficiency, attributes that are vital for
the health and credibility of any
justice delivery system, and ipso
facto, to any liberal democratic
order. The observations made by the
Supreme Court, while disposing of a
land dispute case pending for a
staggering 50 years, have focused
critical attention on the problem of
judicial delay. The strong language
used by the Division Bench which
said the “inordinate delay in the
disposal of cases” has eroded faith
in the judiciary and left the people
“simply disgusted” — is a reflection
of the anguish about a problem that
is getting worse by the day. It is no
secret that a major cause for this
delay is understaffing. India has
fewer than 15 judges per million
people, a figure that compares very
poorly with countries such as
Canada (about 75 per million) and
the United States (104 per million).
 Justice delayed is justice denied" is the oft repeated
sentence which itself is delayed and denied both in
letter and spirit. Pendency is an ever- pervading
dilemma mutant in the legal system, stultifying the
cause of justice. Commissions have had
recommended different thing to tackle the ever
growing “gigantic” problem as opined by Justice
J.B Sinha, pioneer of Lok Adalats in India. Faith
in the legal system is determined by its ability to
provide accessible, speedy and cost effective justice
to all equally.
 The fact is that for every 1,467 Indians, a lawyer is
there to take their briefs and for every million
Indian population 14 judges help to render justice,
however 2.7 crore cases are still left pending in the
trial courts alone. In China there are 1,30,000
courts while it is just 14,000 courts in India with
almost 85 percent increase needed to balance the
litigating population. Financial experts had
opined that the delay is eating up 2 percent of the
GDP on an average especially creating a hostile
environment for investment. .

4. Pranab Mukherjee as Finance
Minister, once expressed "Delays
in courtrooms lead to corruption in
government; lack of investment in
vital economic spheres due to
uncertain contract enforcement;
higher transaction costs and a
general inflationary bias. The study
estimates indicate that streamlining
the judicial system will increase the
GDP growth rate by 2 percent per
annum. This high payoff surely
outweighs the costs of investing in
improving the system.”
For a variety of reasons the working
strength at all the three levels
is short by 15 to 30 per cent.
Compared to India’s population this
is admittedly an inadequate
number.
In the All India Judges’ Association
Case [(2002) 4 SCC 247],
The Supreme Court directed the
Central and State governments to
consider increasing the number of
judges five-fold in a phased manner
over a five year period in order to
achieve the judge to population ratio
as 50 per million. The proposal was
not acted upon, inter alia, due to
financial constraints.

5. CURRENT SCENARIO
 Figures of cases filed per thousand population comes around 1.2 per 1000
population in India, which is far less than 17 cases per 1000 in malasia and
14 per 1000 in korea
 India in 2004, we had 11 judges per million population.
 Delhi high court hears cases for 5 hours and 15 minutes a day, and is open
for 213 working days a year.
 Over 3 million cases are pending in India’s 21 high courts.
 An astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across
the country.
 Delhi high court had at least 629 civil cases and 17 criminal cases pending
that were more than 20 years old as of march 2008.
 Of the 72.6 lakh civil cases pending n the trial courts, UP accounts foe the
lion’s share with 12.3 lakh cases. Sikkim is the lowest with just 51 pending
cases.

6. CAUSES
 Inadequate number of courts
 Inadequate number of judicial officers
 Judicial officers not fully equipped to tackle cases involving specialized knowledge.
 Dilatory tactics by the litigants and their lawyers who seek frequent adjournment and delay in filing
documents.
 Role of administrative staff of the court
 Red tapism and corruption. It may be pointed out that the causes of delay in litigation are not mere
technical or procedural flaws in the system.
 lack of proper supervision of courts,
 unsatisfactory service of processes,
 non-observance of the provisions of procedural laws,
 delay on the part of investigating agencies,
 non-attendance of witnesses,
 delay in writing and delivering judgments,
 dilatory tactics by the lawyers and the parties, etc.

7. Measures & Possible Solutions
 The time is ripe to thoroughly revise our
procedural laws in order to bring them in
conformity with modern needs. This exercise
though time consuming will produce positive and
far-reaching results in eradicating courts delays,
and improve judicial system.. It is therefore
proposed that the process of law reforms be
carried through:
 introducing legislative reforms through
amendments;
 administrative reforms; and
 introducing means of Alternate Dispute
Resolution.
•National recruitment of Judges
Proposition of Indian Judicial Service (IJS) is one
possible solution. According to an article of Times of India,
Law minister Ashwani Kumar said the government's plan to
introduce an all India Judicial Service (IJS) for recruitment of
judges for subordinate courts had the support of most
states.
•Need to make people aware of their rights –
Law should be made a part of subject in schools
Legal awareness camps must become more active among
the rural sector of the country
A team from the NGO 'Marg‘ conducted a Legal Literacy
workshop at Bhanwargarh, Kota, Rajasthan. On the second
day of the workshop, a constable came to the workshop
venue to call a woman on the pretext of interrogation in
regard to an FIR (First Information Report) lodged by her.
Since the NGO team had discussed the right of women vis-
a-vis police a day before, she refused to accompany the
constable to the police station saying that if an interrogation
had to be made the Deputy Superintendent of Police was
supposed to come to her, as a woman could not be called to
the Police Station for this purpose, according to the law.

8. THE PROBLEM OF DELAY IN JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM HAS
ENGAGED THE ATTENTION OF OUR LAW COMMISSION
FOR QUITE A LONG TIME. TO COPE UP WITH THIS
SITUATION THEY HAVE ALSO PROPOSED TO MAKE
SEVERAL AMENDMENTS TO THE EXISTING LAWS. BUT THE
NEED IS NOT SO MUCH FOR AMENDMENTS TO LAWS BUT
FOR A SYSTEM TO ENSURE THAT THE EXISTING LAWS ARE
ENFORCED PROPERLY AND A REVIEW SYSTEM TO ENSURE
TIMELY AND PROPER JUSTICE WHICH ACTS AS AN
EFFECTIVE DETERRENT TO LAWLESSNESS AND RESTORES
THE FAITH IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND ENSURES THAT
LAW ABIDING CITIZENS LIVE WITHOUT FEAR AND IN
PEACE.

9. THE PURPOSE IS TO PRESENT THE COLLECTIVE OPINION OF
THE PEOPLE WHICH COULD INFLUENCE THE LAW MAKERS TO
TAKE APPROPRIATE DECISION. SECURING JUSTICE - SOCIAL,
ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL TO ALL CITIZENS IS ONE OF THE
KEY MANDATES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION. BUT THE
EXPERIENCES OF LAST 66 YEARS SHOW THAT THE STATE HAS
FAILED SQUARELY ON ADDRESSING SOME VERY BASIC ISSUES-
-QUICK AND INEXPENSIVE JUSTICE AND PROTECTING THE
RIGHTS OF POOR AND THE VULNERABLE. HOWEVER
PERSONALITY LIKE NANI PHALKIWALA OPINED THAT ‘JUSTICE
IN COMMON PARLANCE IS CONSIDERED AS BLIND BUT IN
INDIA IT IS LAME TOO AND HOBBLES ON CRUTCHES’. THE
JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IS ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE
WITH MORE THAN 30 MILLION CASES CLOGGING THE
SYSTEM. THERE ARE CASES THAT TAKE SO MUCH OF TIME THAT
EVEN A GENERATION IS TOO SHORT TO GET ANY TYPE OF
REDRESSAL. THAT IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN 300 YEARS TO
CLEAR THE BACKLOG OF CASES IN INDIAN COURTS IS PROOF
ENOUGH THAT OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IS SICK,
STAGNANT AND IN URGENT NEED OF A COMPLETE OVERHAUL.

10. SECONDLY DELAYED CRIMINAL JUSTICE ENCOURAGES
WRONG DOER TO TAKE CHANCE OF ESCAPE AND ENSURE
FRUITFUL RESULTS OF THEIR WRONGFUL ACTIONS. THE
OPPONENT WHO IS COMPARATIVELY WEAKER EITHER
COMPROMISES IN TERMS DICTATED BY THE WRONG DOER
OR LOSES ALL REMEDIES. THIS SITUATION IS A CHALLENGE
NOT ONLY TO CITIZENS BUT ALSO TO GOVERNMENT OF
STATE AS THE GOVERNMENT ALSO POSSESSES HUGE WEALTH
AND PROPERTY. ON THE OTHER HAND THE CONCEPT OF
WELFARE STATE COMES TO AN END, CAUSES A STATE OF
CHAOS AND LAWLESSNESS AND THE PEOPLE LOOK BEYOND
THE EXISTING SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND LAW COURTS
FOR REMEDY , THUS THERE IS A GREAT POSSIBILITY OF
INTERVENTION BY OTHER COUNTRIES WHOSE CITIZENS ARE
WITHIN THE TERRITORY EITHER FOR BUSINESS PURPOSE OR
OTHERWISE . THE APPARENT BEHAVIOUR IS TO SHOW THE
SYMPATHY AND TO SAFEGUARD THE INTEREST OF HUMANITY
BUT THE HIDDEN MOTIVE MAY GO TO ANY EXTENT.