Can Blind Increase in the Number of Judges Improve Quality of Justice?

Can Blind Increase in the Number of Judges Improve Quality of Justice?

These are the excerpts from the latest “India Judicial Research Report 2024: Decline of the Indian Judiciary”.

At present, the judge-to-population ratio in the country is extremely bad, as only about 21 judges are available per million population. Since the qualification and skills of judges are also not up to the mark, the judicial systems are working haphazardly.

According to the Lok Sabha information shared in February 2024 by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, there has been a marked increase in the judges’ strength with the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court judges increased from 31 in 2014 to 34 judges with no vacancy at present. Since May 2014, according to the Lok Sabha communique, the government has appointed 62 Supreme Court judges which comes to around 6 judges in a year.

In case of high courts, the sanctioned strength of high court judges has increased from 906 in 2014 to 1,114 judges as on 31.12.2023, with a total of 208 new posts of high court judges being created since 2014. A total of 968 high court judges have been appointed since 2014 which comes to around 103 judges a year.

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The government communique adds that the district judiciary’s sanctioned strength has increased from 19,518 judicial officers in 2014 to 25,439 judicial officers, as on 31.12.2023. Similarly, the working strength of judges has also increased from 15,115 in 2014 to 20,011 judicial officers as on 31.12.2023.

But this blind increase in the number of judges has not been useful to improve the judicial processes and quality of justice. The quality of judges and their judgments continue to be horrendous.

The judicial service examinations are so substandard that they cannot help produce qualified judges to handle complex court cases. Therefore, with their limited knowledge, these judges in all types of courts keep giving arbitrary, wrong, half-baked, unjustified, or totally absurd decisions which have adverse impact on the litigants. But unfortunately there is no punishment for unqualified judges who play with the lives of litigants as they work without accountability.

In order to overcome the increasing concerns in the Indian judicial systems, the Supreme Court and other government authorities are taking various steps without addressing the fundamental flaws in the areas of human resource management and academic frameworks. As a result, massive public money is being wasted without any useful outcome. Haphazard technology introduction in courts is one of these steps.

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