Karnataka: Ayodhya case, which was posted for hearing on January 29 could not be taken up due to non-availability of Justice SA Bobde and the new date for the case is yet to be decided. With this development, one can’t help but turn the focus on the struggle of a common man to get justice when politically significant cases like the Ayodhya case sees delay of this kind.
Delay in delivering of justice is a common scene in a country like India and if statistics are to be believed then a study by the Finance Ministry has found that it took an average of 20 years for a property dispute to be resolved and it would take 324 years to resolve all the pending cases, which approximately stands at 2.90 cr.
The startling numbers make it inevitable to recall the words of Justice VV Rao, who had once said that if one considers the total pending cases in the Indian judicial system, every judge in the country will have an average load of about 2,147 cases. He had specifically pointed out in 2010 that India had 14,576 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 17,641 including 630 High Court Judges. This works out to a ratio of 10.5 judges per million population whereas, the Apex court in 2002 had suggested 50 judges per million population.
After the Ayodhya hearing was cancelled,senior journalist Kanchan Gupta tweeted that as many as 2,44,70,817 cases are pending in Indian courts as on today and of these, the Supreme Court alone has 57,346 pending cases, while 47,19,483 cases are pending in High Courts. According to statistics put out by him, there are around 60,00,000 cases which have been pending in the lower courts for more than 5 years. A romping 66,000 cases have been pending for more than 30 years, while around 1,800 cases are pending for almost 45 years.
While the under-trials inside the prisons languish in the cells for years, the ones seeking justice outside too are made to gulp up frustration and disappointment each day.
While some experts in the legal fraternity say that shortage of judges and increasing number of cases being registered due to awareness are the main cause for prevailing situation, many say that the issue is more serious then it seems.
High Court former judge M F Saldanha said, “Though there may be staff shortage in the judiciary system, it is not the sole reason for the pending cases. Lack of professionalism is also another reason for the same. Both lawyers and judges do not have will power to clear the cases and they keep on adjourning the cases in district courts for some hidden reasons, which leads to an unnecessary delay in clearing the cases. Both lawyers and judges should be held responsible if they unnecessarily adjourn the cases “.
Meanwhile, Niti Aayog, in its strategic documentation New India@75 has proposed setting up All India Judicial Service for requirement of Judge by the Union Public Service Commission and also creating a cadre-based service in the sub-ordinate judiciary to address pending cases.
