General view of the Supreme Court in Nový Dilli 16 July 2025 | Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP
Early justice is the cornerstone of public confidence in the legal system, as captured by the classic maximum “delayed justice, justice is denied”. An extended delay often discourages people from the upcoming courts. Last year, the president of the murm called this hesitation “Black Coat”.
Although it was a lasting problem in India, the scale is now remarkable. In the Supreme Court (SC), more than 63.3 cases in the Supreme Courts (HCS) and 4.6 Crore cases at district and subordinate courts, over 86,700 cases are waiting. The adder, the total number of waiting cases in India is more than 5 crore, as shown in the graph below.
While the main actors in the trial – judges, lawyers, disputes and witnesses – generally act in good faith as a rational intention, their functioning is often prevented by structural narrow rates, procedural delays and systemic restrictions. These restrictions in the case of solving cases arise from several interconnected factors, including insufficient infrastructure and court employees, complex cases, nature of evidence and degree of cooperation from key stakeholders. The delay deteriorates by the lack of ordered time eight for different types of cases of frequent adjourning and weak mechanisms for monitoring, tracking and many cases for hearing. The main contributor is the absence of effective management and planning of cases, without clear time schedules for submission, witnesses or hearing tests.
Analysis of the timeline provision of justice in Indian courts reveals significant differences across the court level and types of cases as shown in the graph below.
Criminal cases, generally considered to be crimes against the state, are solved faster than civilian, such as property, family or contractual disputes at each level. HCS leads 85.3%of criminal cases within one year, followed by SC to 79.5%and district courts to 70.6%. Real concerns consist in a civil dispute at the district level, which processes most of the Indian waiting cases, where only 38.7% of civil cases are resolved within one year and almost 20% spread after five years. This means that the courts serving most are the least equipped to ensure early justice.
Although the judiciary and the government consistently introduce various reforms, the main systemic cause of the court delay is the persistent abyss between the sanctioned and the true power of judges across the courts, as shown in the graph below.
Indian judiciary works on only 79% of its capacity. Of the 26,927 sanctions, 5,665 are unoccupied, resulting in a stunning workload. District and subordinate courts, which address most of the litigation, have a sanctioned power of only 25,771 judges, on average 18 judges per 10 lakh population. India works with only 15 judges on the 10 Lakh population. Even at full sanctioned power across all courts, only 19 judges for 10 Lakh populations – deep below the recommendations of the Legal Commission from 1987 to 50.
Along with wider legal and procedural reforms, alternative dispute resolution offers a promising way to alleviate the burden on traditional courts and provide faster, more affordable and civic justice. Mechanisms such as mediation, arbitration and Lok Adalats provide flexible alternatives for dispute resolution outside the traditional courtyard. The success of the National Loos Adalats, which is organized at the same time in all Taluks, District Courts and HCS on a pre -fixed date, is clear from the graph below: between 2021 and March 2025, more than 27.5 crore cases, including 22.21 crore and 54 CRORE, which are court cases.
Published – July 30, 2025 08:00
