India needs more judges, defiance not good: CJI
admin··4 min read 
New Delhi, April 30: Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana said on Saturday India has 20 judges for every one million people — “which is highly inadequate” — and said that deliberate inaction by the governments despite judicial rulings are not good for democracy. Addressing the 11th Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices here, Ramana said that there were more than four crore cases pending in trial courts, with a sanctioned strength of around 24,000 judicial officers. “So we have 20 judges per million population, which is highly inadequate to deal with the rising trend of litigation,” he said. “The judicial system is adversarial, not the judges.” Ramana warned that without speedy appointments to fill the huge vacancies in the posts of judicial officers and High Court judges, it would be difficult to make a dent in the huge volume of cases which are pending. The Chief Justice underlined that the governments were the biggest litigants, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the cases. “If police investigations are fair, and if illegal arrests and custodial torture end, then no victim will have to approach the courts.” Lack of special prosecutors and standing counsels is one of the major issues that needs to be addressed, he said. Ramana also said that the decisions of the courts were not implemented by governments for years. “The resultant contempt petitions are a new category of burden on the courts, which is a direct result of the defiance by the governments. Deliberate inaction by the governments, despite judicial pronouncements, are not good for the health of democracy.” Piling up of cases is often blamed on the judiciary, he said. “Due to paucity of time, I cannot explain the same in detail. But a keen look at the websites of the courts will give you an idea about the huge workload on judges. The number of cases filed and disposed each day is unimaginable.” “While discharging our duties, we all must be mindful of the Lakshman Rekha,” the Chief Justice added. Clarifying the stand of the courts, he said the judiciary will never come in the way of governance if it was in accordance with law. He also said that the judiciary was always concerned with the welfare of the people. “The 140-crore strong population of the world’s largest democracy is bound to test its judiciary. No other constitutional court in the world hears such a wide range of issues in such large numbers.” At the same time, the rising number of frivolous litigation was an area of concern, he said, adding that the well-meaning concept of public interest litigation was at times turning into personal interest litigation including by corporate houses. He said 126 appointments of judges have been made so far. However, 50 proposals were still awaiting approval by the government. The High Courts have sent around 100 names to the government. “They are yet to reach us.” Ramana said that of the 1,104 sanctioned posts of High Court judges, there were 388 vacancies. “We have made 180 recommendations but out of this 126 appointments are made. I thank the government for the same.” “When we last met in 2016 the sanctioned strength of judicial officer was in the country was 20,811 and now it is 24,112, which is an increase of 16 per cent in six years.” The judiciary was also confronted with the issue of the executive willingly transferring the burden of decision making to the judiciary, he said. “Although policy making is not our domain, but if a citizen comes to the court with a prayer to address his grievance, the courts cannot say no.” The Chief Justice credited the Indian President at whose initiative, he said, an initiative was taken to translate judgements into Indian languages. “If the legislature passes a law with clarity in mind, the scope of litigation gets minimised. When I expressed concerns on the passing of law without any scrutiny on August 15, I was misunderstood. But I am grateful my concerns were echoed by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.” Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that both the Centre and state governments would provide all possible assistance to the judiciary. He requested the Chief Ministers and Chief Justices to examine the cases of nearly 3.5 lakh under-trial prisoners across India who have been incarcerated for long and see whether they can be released on bail. The meeting on Friday was held to create frameworks for simple and convenient delivery of justice and to discuss steps required to overcome the challenges facing the justice system. The previous such conference was held in 2016. UNI SM MR
