According to reports in The Indian Express, CJI Thakur choked up with emotion earlier this week when he pleaded with the Indian government to help tackle the country’s critical judge shortage by addressing deficiencies in India’s judicial infrastructure. While the nine-judge US Supreme Court decides on around 81 cases annually, its 31-seat Indian counterpart has around 60,000 cases outstanding, CJI Thakur explained, adding that the average Indian judge will rule on a staggering 2,600 cases each year.

Investors deterred

‘We want people to come and invest in India. But those we invite are also concerned about the ability of our judicial system to deal with cases and disputes that arise out of such investments,’ he told an audience which included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ‘Efficacy of the judicial system is so vitally connected [with] development,’ he added.

System in crisis

As of December, India had around 5,000 judicial vacancies (including six empty seats on the Supreme Court) and a courtroom shortfall of around 3,989. The judge-to-population ratio in India is currently around just 12 judges per million people, compared with 41.6 judges in Australia, 50.9 in England, 75.2 in Canada and 107 in the United States. At the end of last year there were just under 3.9 million cases pending in Indian high courts – almost 20 per of which had been pending for more than a decade. The total backlog of criminal and civil cases across the county is estimated as high as 33 million.

Sources: Law Society Gazette; The Indian Express