[9] According to a 2018 Niti Aayog strategy paper, at the then-prevailing rate of disposal of cases in the courts, it would take more than 324 years to clear the backlog.
With the cases taking time in courts, it leads to delays in the delivery of justice for both victim and accused.
In April 2022, a court in Bihar state acquitted a man of murder for lack of evidence after he spent 28 years in jail.
[17][18] The sanctioned number of judges of the Supreme Court of India can be increased by the Parliament passing a law.
[23] During All India Chief Justices Conference 2022, the officials promised to increase the sanctioned number of district court judges by 110% in a phased manner on the basis of weighted case disposal rate.
[23] Despite the sanctioned number of judges, courts in India have often not worked at full capacity due to vacant positions.
[25] Vacancies in courts keep on arising periodically due to retirement, resignation, demise, or elevation of judges.
[32] In some cases, the appointment of judges has been delayed for 4 years due to the names pending with the union government for approval.
[35] The union government has proposed setting up AIJS (All India Judicial Service) to tackle vacancies in the lower judiciary by centralising the recruitment process.
[36] Lower judiciary suffers also from not attracting and retaining talented judges, and lack of career progression.
Recommendations of the Judicial Pay Commission and the Supreme Court orders to increase the judges salary are not implemented by the states.
[38] In Delhi Judiciary exam 2019, 66 percent seats could not be filled as candidates were simply unable to score even the cut off marks.
[34] In Tamil Nadu judiciary exam 2019, of around 3,500 lawyers appearing for the district judge examination, none passed.
[42] In comparison, there are similar body within Judiciary in other countries, for example, Administrative Office of the United States Courts in US.
[47] Lawyers unrestrictedly argue with unrelated oral arguments and submit impractical, long written pleadings to waste time and delay the proceedings.
[48] In 2023, Supreme Court of India while expressing concern, again recommended the time limits in CPC to avoid delay in the proceedings.
[49] In CrPC, one rule does not allow criminal cases to proceed if either an accused or a witness is not present before the court.
However, after the judicial reforms, the delays became negligible and Singapore now ranks among the top countries with civil and criminal justice system.
[63] The disputes and complaints which arise are not resolved by the executive government to the satisfaction of the aggrieved individual and in a fair manner.
Judges have criticised that the executive and the legislative are not using their full potential which is leading to bad governance and hence putting the burden on the courts.