Justice Bobde has his task cut out for him

As Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde takes over as the 47th Chief Justice of India, his short term of 18 months is strewn with challenges. While he says his immediate goal is to ensure justice to all litigants, everyone who has been through the legal system knows that it is not going to be easy. Ushering in badly-needed reforms in the judiciary and overseeing their implementation is a really tough ask.

Sample this: There are more than 3.53 crore pending cases in Indian courts according to the Economic Survey 2018-19. In the Supreme Court alone 58,669 cases are pending. As many as 40,409 cases pending for the last 30 years. According to the recently released India Justice Report, 2019, nearly 24 per cent of pending cases in India have dragged on for more than five years. It found that in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat, and Meghalaya at least one in every four cases was pending for more than five years. And 2.3 million (23 lakh) cases were pending for more than 10 years.

The latest Economic Survey estimated that nearly 8,521 judges needed to work for five years to clear the huge backlog of cases. High courts and lower courts in India are short of 5,535 judges. Though the Supreme Court has 31 judges today, the Economic Survey said that it needed eight additional judges. In 1987, the Law Commission had suggested that the ratio of 10.5 judges per every million Indians be increased to 107. Today, the number is just 15.4.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, 43,63,260 cases were pending in the High Courts. Outgoing Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had pointed out that 15,000 courts at the district and sub-divisional levels were functioning against a sanctioned number of 18,000.

A former chief justice of the Delhi High Court said it would take 400 years at the current rate of disposal to clear the backlog of criminal appeals if no new appeals were filed! Pendency increases as the number of cases filed increases every year. This should worry Justice Bobde and it remains to be seen if he will try and bring down pendency.

Another worry for Justice Bobde would be the over 4.50 lakh undertrial prisoners languishing in jails across the country. Many cannot afford bail even if they get it. Undertrials cannot be deemed guilty till convicted. Justice delayed is justice denied.

In 2009, the National Consultation for Strengthening the Judiciary towards Reducing Pendency and Delays formulated strategic initiatives in policy, re-engineered procedure, leveraged information and communications technology and improved infrastructural facilities of subordinate courts. Not much has been done on this front and this will be another challenge for Justice Bobde.

The Scheme for National Court Management Systems formulated in 2012 by the Supreme Court predicts that the number of cases in Indian courts will increase to 15 crore by 2040, requiring the creation of 75,000 courts. Future Parliamentary enactments and growing trade-related disputes arising from globalisation will also lead to an increase in litigation. With Justice Bobde saying that his focus will be on delivering justice to litigants, it remains to be seen what he plans to do with the humongous challenges before him.

In the last few years, there has also been increasing friction between the executive and the judiciary with the executive saying that there has been too much judicial activism. However, the judiciary has had little choice but to step in where governance has failed and ensure that justice was done. It will have to be seen how this area shapes up under Justice Bobde’s charge.

There has also been controversy on the issue of appointment of judges. Justice Bobde will have to deal with questions around judicial appointments. He will have to bring in a more transparent system to demonstrate that justice has been done.

Justice Bobde had played an important role in cementing the cracks between the former chief justice Dipak Misra and four senior judges, J Chelameshwar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph, when they held an unprecedented press conference to highlight how all was not well with the judiciary.

With all the four judges now retired, it is up to Justice Bobde to restore faith in the judiciary and not just ensure that justice is done but also demonstrate that the Indian constitution has been followed and respected in the best tradition.

(Ramesh Menon is an author, documentary film maker and journalist based in Delhi)

The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.