By Saanvi Goel
William Gladstone famously said “Justice delayed is justice denied”, which was further highlighted by former US President John Kennedy when he said, “Justice delayed is democracy denied”.
This can’t be truer in a country like India. According to a reply filed by the government of India in the Lok Sabha there are over 50 million cases pending in India, with over 43 million languishing in district courts alone and over 5 million in various high courts of the country.
Recently a court case was disposed of by the High Court of Calcutta about 72 years after it was filed in 1951. In fact the adjudicating judge was born 10 years after the case was filed. The apathy can’t be lost on anyone. According to data, the average time taken by the district court to dispose of the case is over 6 years while the same for a high court is 3 years. Majority of the cases in the courts relate to land and property disputes, with the government being the chief litigant. The main reason attributed to the judicial delay is the poor judge to population ratio that we have. In India we have about 21 judges per million population whereas the requirement is for 50 judges per million people. Even this is not ideal by international standards. Just to illustrate, a developing country like China has that ratio at 300 per million people.
Technology can play a major role in reducing the delays in different facets of the judicial processes. Technology can help in scheduling of cases in a smarter way thereby enabling the judiciary to hear important cases on priority basis whereas adjourning non urgent ones. Technology also allows legal practitioners to operate more effectively by automating repetitive and time consuming duties such as document management and legal research. One of the foremost benefits of technology in judiciary is the digitization of court proceedings, which makes them easily accessible to anyone, improving transparency and speeding up of judicial processes. The E Court project has been launched which aims to computerize all the courts in the country and make the judicial system more efficient.
The Supreme court of India recently passed a landmark order, making it mandatory for all the judgements of the Supreme Court to be translated into vernacular languages. This move is path breaking as it will allow people even in the remote parts of the country to access them in their own languages. It is being done using SUVAS an acronym for Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software which is an AI tool. E-filing of cases, initiated by the courts, have made the process of filing cases faster, more efficient and cost effective. Video conferencing of cases has made conducting hearings remotely making it easy for both lawyers and litigants. This was particularly useful during COVID 19 pandemic when all hearings were done through video conferencing. Blockchain technology is a relatively new form of technology which helps in ensuring security and transparency of records. For example Telangana is using blockchain technology to secure land records and prevent frauds.
Just as in every field, technology can have its pitfalls also, which we need to watch out for. Like data integrity is the bedrock of any form of justice, which can be breached, AI can lead to bias among the people involved in the judicial process. These are some of the challenges that we need to guard against, to benefit fully from the vast potential that technology offers, in our judicial system.
By Saanvi Goel
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