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The government faces flak for appointing P. J. Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner. Thomas has a charge-sheet pending against him in Kerala, accusing him of being a party to a palm oil import controversy dating back to 1992. This brings up the desirability of having fast-track courts to try anyone in public life, politician or civil servant. Fast-track trials should be made mandatory for all lawsuits pending against public figures, including candidates for political office. This is necessary till India overhauls its creaking judicial machinery. The total number of judicial officials, including the 31 Judges of the Supreme Court, is a little more than 17,600, which means that India has less than 18 Judges per million people. This compares badly with 51 Judges per million Britons or Canada’s 75 Judges per million citizens. Unsurprisingly, all Courts have a long queue waiting for judgment: over 30 million cases await a verdict, with 52,000 lawsuits pending in the Supreme Court and over 4 million in the High Courts.
The condition of most Courts can reduce the hardiest undertrial to tears: the buildings are dilapidated and infrastructure hasn’t been upgraded for near to a century. This has to change. The government is flush with funds, and some of that has to be used to improve physical infrastructure in Courts. Over 3,000 judicial posts are vacant, mainly in the lower Courts, and these positions must be filled quickly. Today, the job of hiring judicial officers is with state and central governments. But their track record is abysmal and the goal of having 50 Judges per million Indians, stated nearly nine years ago, still looks distant. Governments are not doing a decent job of hiring judicial officers, particularly state governments. It is time to create an Indian judicial service, on the lines of the administrative and police services. That’s an idea that has been discussed in the past, but never implemented. There is little justification for delaying the proposal any further. Justice delayed is justice denied. In India, the denial of justice has become endemic, and that must stop. Delivering justice on time is a vital instrument of inclusive growth, with the potential to check the rampant misuse of social power that works against the poor, in the absence of legal restraint.
