By K Raveendran
Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud’s call for an end to the ‘adjournment culture’ in the functioning of the courts could not have come a day sooner. “In the near future, we must address structural issues affecting the judiciary such as the pendency of cases, our archaic procedures, and the culture of adjournments,” he said while delivering an address at the inauguration ceremony of the upcoming year-long celebrations marking the diamond jubilee of the Supreme Court.
The CJI he called for a shift from an ‘adjournment culture’ to a ‘culture of professionalism’ within the courts, which is essential for the effective and timely administration of justice. The interminable delay in judicial outcomes lead to the capture of judicial institutions by the powerful and the mighty, he asserted. There is a pressing need to begin the ‘difficult conversation’ on long court vacations, and proposing the exploration of alternatives such as flexi-time for lawyers and judges to overcome the problem.
Frequent adjournments are frustrating the delivery of justice. And the most worrisome aspect is that these adjournments are granted by the courts on unreasonable grounds. The lawyers play an important role in this both for professional as well as personal gains. And this has led to calls for limiting adjournment of a particular case to a certain minimum number and imposition of fines on the party seeking adjournment on flimsy grounds. But these have remained mere calls and very little has been done on the ground to correct the situation.
According to latest information, over five crore cases are pending in various courts in the country, with over 10,000 cases added to the Supreme Court’s pendency list in the last five months alone. The apex court had over 80,000 pending cases as of December 1 last year, up from less than 70,000 six months before that. The 25 high courts had more than 61.7 lakh cases pending while district and subordinate courts had over 4.4 crore cases, taking the total pendency in all courts to over 5 crore cases.
The long pendency has serious implications for the affected parties. For instance, as much as 67 percent of the prison population are undertrials, mostly belonging to the underprivileged classes and 47 percent of them are between the age of 18-30 years. Worse still, a majority of the undertrials have been in custody for about a year. In fact, a former CJI had lamented that a that a fair share of the much-vaunted demographic dividend is being unjustifiably lodged in the jails and mostly for petty or less serious offences.
The then CJI Ranjan Gogoi once complained about the existence of two Indias, which were in conflict with each other. He maintained that there is an India that believes that it is the New Order and there is an India that lives below a ‘ridiculously drawn’ Poverty Line on daily wages in night shelters with no access to education or healthcare, let alone access to the courts of law. There is a graphic disparity right there and he insisted removing this disparity will be the mission for the Indian Judiciary in the times to come.
“Not a reform but a revolution is what it needs, to be able to meet the challenges on the ground and to keep this institution serviceable for a common man and relevant for the nation. For the effectiveness of the judgments to show, the justice dispensation system has to be made more result oriented i.e. to say, more focused on enforcement,” he said.
CJI Chandrachud echoed the sentiment when he called for greater inclusivity, both for the people as well as the legal profession. He further stressed the need for the legal profession to provide a level playing field for first-generation lawyers from all backgrounds. He also highlighted the underrepresentation of members from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, both at the bar and on the bench.
According to official data, 492 of the 650 High Court judges appointed between 2018 and 2023 belong to the general category, which worked out to over 75 percent. Out of the High Court judges’ appointments made during this period, 23 are from the Scheduled Caste category, 10 from the Scheduled Tribes category, 76 from the Other Backward Classes and 36 from religious minorities. The SC, ST, OBC and minority representation is at roughly 3.54 per cent, 1.54 per cent, 11.7 per cent and 5.54 per cent respectively. (IPA Service)
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