India needs 10,000 more courts: Supreme Court-The Times of India

To tackle the pendency of nearly 2.5 crore cases, there was an urgent need for an additional 10,000 courts, the CJI said. “But, establishing these courts alone will not give the desired result. To approach these courts for grievance redressal, there has to be awareness, which will come only when there is a rise in the education level among people,” he said.

The CJI does not view the large number of cases in courts, popularly referred to as `docket explosion’, as a major problem before the judiciary. But he feels `docket exclusion’, meaning that needy have no knowledge of how to approach courts, could only be tackled through proper education. (via India needs 10,000 more courts: Supreme Court-India-The Times of India).

Your Honour, here is someone who would like to point out three aspects which Your Lordships have not considered.

More courts and faster justice will also create greater case load. At least 50 percent prospective litigants do not approach the courts due to the time and money implications. So, more courts, more judges will create more litigation.

The second thing Your Lordships have missed out is how linguistics politics is keeping out non-English speaking people from the court systems. While there has been some movement towards using Indian languages in courts, the higher courts still use English and all laws are written in English. Are the Courts and the Government trying to make us a nation of English speaking people?

Thirdly, Your Honour, the courts, overlook the fact that more laws also create more litigation. I am tempted to point an excellent and recent example. Mumbai police decided to use an irrelevant and impractical law to create litigation and case load.

They (Mumbai police) decided to raid a birthday party. After the raid, they booked some teen-agers for alcohol consumption - without a permit. As one of the accussed teenager, pointed out, ‘what does the law mean by saying people below 21 cannot drink (without a permit)? So you are wise enough to elect a government, old enough to drive but not fit to make personal lifestyle choices?’ (underlines text, mine). Why does it take a teenager to make such a simple point to our law-makers and courts?

India has the lowest prison population, the lowest police-to-population ratio in the world with the largest number of poor in the world and the second largest gun population in the world - and a crime rate which ranges between low-to-average. This is further interesting, as most of the guns in India, are illegally obtained.

Excess laws are like road space. More roads will create more demand for more cars - and more traffic will soon choke the roads. Like you correctly pointed out, Your Honour, more courts are not the answer.

The answer, My Lord, is in reducing the number of laws itself.

And may I remind your Lordships, that India also has the largest number of the poor in the world - and our judicial system must deliver justice to the poor - first!