SC tells government to expedite cases to keep people's faith
NEW DELHI: After 50 years of legal tussle, a farmer finally got possession of his land, thanks to the Supreme Court's intervention.
But farmer Rajinder Singh failed to partake in the merrymaking as he passed away years before the land was restored to its rightful owner.
Anguished at the manner in which the lower courts handled the case, the apex court asked the government to expedite disposal of cases if it wants people to pin their hope on the judicial system.
A bench of Justices AK Mathur and Markandey Katju noted that the suit against Singh was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court in 1964 holding that Singh was the owner of the land.
The judgment was affirmed by a larger bench of the high court in 1971. It went unchallenged as late as 1999, when the HC again intervened and set aside the final orders.
Interestingly, by the time Singh could move to other courts for justice, the tenants had 'gifted' the land to the DAV College trust.
"A suit filed in 1957 has rolled on for half a century. Is this not descriptive of the situation prevailing in India?" the court rued.
"People are fast losing faith in the judiciary because of inordinate delay in disposal of cases," the judges said.
According to the law ministry, about 40,240 cases (civil and criminal matters) were pending in the Supreme Court as on January 31 last.
About 40 lakh cases were pending in 21 high courts across the country till December 31, 2006.
According to a petition filed by lawyer PS Narasimha, as against 107 judges per million people in the US, there are only 13 judges for as much population in India.
Narsimha suggested that at least 50,000 more judges are immediately required to meet the present exigency.
While a whopping 1.30 crore cases are disposed off by courts in India every year, a corresponding 1.45 crore fresh cases are filed, pushing the backlog rate to 2.19 crore, he added.
Under the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-2007) involving an expenditure of Rs 8, 93,183 crore, only Rs 700 crore have been earmarked for judiciary. It's only 0.078 per cent of the total outlay.
