Posted on 02/04/2023 4:55:28 AM PST by FarCenter
NEW DELHI -- The recent conclusion of India's longest-running legal dispute -- after 72 years and by a judge who was not even born when the case began -- has sparked renewed calls for solutions to speed up the country's snarled judicial system.
The case, which involved the liquidation of the former Berhampore Bank in Kolkata, started after the city's High Court ordered the insolvent institution to wind up operations on Nov. 19, 1948. But a maelstrom of litigation to recover money from debtors left the matter unresolved for seven decades, until January.
For the public, the key takeaway has nothing to do with the case itself, but simply how long it took. The saga serves as evidence of how citizens of the world's largest democracy often have to wait years for justice.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju noted in parliament in December that the number of pending cases across various Indian courts will reach 50 million in 2023, the highest of any country. Granted, India is set to surpass China as the world's most populous nation this year. But as of the last count in 2019, there were 105,560 cases still pending that have been in the courts for more than 30 years, according to the Law Ministry.
Pinky Anand, an attorney who has argued cases at the Supreme Court, said that although the Indian legal system is one of the world's most creative and substantive, it is riddled with procedural problems that cripple delivery of justice. "An average litigation in India takes five to 10 years, which is phenomenally high," she said.
Experts say this judicial paralysis owes to a combination of factors, including political delays in judicial appointments, inadequate infrastructure resulting in overburdened courts, and a bureaucratic culture of apathy toward aggrieved citizens. Making matters worse, India has just one lawyer for every 951 residents. In the U.S., the ratio is one for every 248 residents, according to World Population Review.
India also trails in the number of judges per capita. Responding to a question in the upper house of parliament, former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad pointed out that as of 2020, the number of judges per million people was nearly 21 in India, compared with 107 in the U.S., 75 in Canada and 41 in Australia.
India has a lawyer shortage?
Send ‘em ours.
CC
They won’t go. The payout takes 30years after litigation. Worse than a mortgage.
My first thought! The Indians learned well from the Brits.
You have to visit India and see first hand how mired in bureaucracy they are before you’ll believe it. I’ve never seen as place that has as many layers of bureaucracy as India. It doesn’t surprise me a bit that it took 70 years to get something finished there.
And many Indians are bringing that same mentality over here.
Jarndyce v Jarndyce
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