There is little doubt that the delays caused by India’s creaking judicial system are a national disgrace and one can certainly sympathise w...
There is little doubt that the delays caused by India’s creaking judicial system are a national disgrace and one can certainly sympathise with the outrage expressed by Shailesh Gandhi in his article June 28. The bar and the bench have failed to tackle the issue in a convincing manner and they deserve to be criticised for their failure to take constructive steps to reduce the backlog.
However, it is important to be careful when proposing solutions to the problem. Any reform process must be transparent and democratic with a healthy scepticism of the current trend of proposing technological solutions for each and every problem being faced during the administration of justice.
The PIL route
Let us begin with Gandhi’s wish for the Chief Justice of India to initiate a suo moto Public Interest Litigation that will implement all the suggestions proposed by him in order to solve the problem of judicial delays once in for all. Before putting the Supreme Court in charge of solving the country’s backlog, let us not forget that the Supreme Court itself is facing quite a massive backlog.
As a result, it has delayed hearing critical cases like the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and electoral bonds. Even tax cases which are not politically...
