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The judiciary is slow and clogged — it’s time to get outside help to fix it
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Context
The appointment of the new Chief Justice of India (CJI) provides an opportunity to address systemic administrative inefficiencies that hinder the judicial system, as highlighted in the 2023 report “State of the Judiciary” and the reforms suggested by CJI Sanjiv Khanna.
Administrative Bottlenecks in the Judiciary
- Backlog and Delays: Over 45 million cases are pending in subordinate courts, contributing to a widespread sense of despair and delayed justice.
- Judicial Officer Inefficiency: Judicial officers spend over half their day on administrative tasks like issuing summons, rather than substantive judicial work.
- Infrastructure Challenges: Poor infrastructure, such as a shortage of courtrooms and judicial officers, combined with inadequate staffing, exacerbates delays in case disposal.
Proposed Solutions for Efficiency
- Learning from Past Successes: Strategies like the Cataract Blindness Project of the 1990s can be adapted, such as enlisting retired administrative officers to manage logistics and coordination.
- Performance Monitoring: High courts should conduct open reviews of case disposals to measure the performance of judicial officers and identify areas of improvement.
- Retired Administrative Officers: Retired officials from other sectors, such as the railways, could manage administrative tasks efficiently, allowing judicial officers to focus on actual case hearings.
Way Forward and Implementation
- No Overhaul Needed: A structural overhaul is not required; instead, administrative will and collaboration across various bodies can streamline judicial processes.
- Collaborative Effort: A combined effort of law secretaries, high court registrars, and retired officers from large organizations could bring about the desired reforms.
- Enhanced Justice System: By freeing judicial officers from administrative burdens, the system could become more efficient, resulting in a leaner, faster, and fairer justice system.
Practice Question:
Examine the administrative inefficiencies within India’s judicial system and discuss how inducting retired administrative officers could help in streamlining the functioning of subordinate courts, thus improving case disposal and judicial performance.
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