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Judicial management essential to reduce case backlog says Justice Ahmadi

The importance of judicial management should be realised and promoted in India to deal with the ever increasing backlog of litigation in various courts, feels former Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi.

The judge is of the view that management modules should be developed for each courts, whether it is the Supreme Court or high courts or the lower courts. This is required in view of the fact that India records the second highest cases in an year worldwide.

Expressing his views at a seminar, Justice Ahmadi said encouraging judicial management is necessary for the better handling of courts. ''Today, radical changes are required and I feel, efficient court management can do wonders.''

Saying that he had tried and succeeded in bringing judicial management to an extent in the Supreme Court during his tenure, Justice Ahmadi expressed the need for introducing the system in high courts and lower courts, where a large number of cases were pending for disposal for many years.

He stated that due to proper court management and computerisation he was successful in bringing down arrears of cases to 18,000, whereas on an average nearly 30,000 cases were filed every year in the Supreme Court.

''If it is sustained at this level, a litigation should not take more than a year to be decided,'' he hoped.

Citing reasons for the growth in the backlog of cases, he said the ratio of judges per million population in India was too little in comparision to the ratio of the developed countries. Against 10 to 12 judges per million people here, developed nations had 50 to 100 judges per million population. While the figure for the United States was 107 and Britain, 50.

Moreover, judges in other countries were assisted by court recorders -- who number in hundreds -- something missing in India.

The justice said in all advanced countries, the number of cases going to actual trial were between seven to ten per cent, "while in our country the figure was as staggering at 70 per cent."

''With a low judge ratio and high percentage of cases going to trial stage, the backlog of litigation is bound to rise,'' he clarified.

Since cases in the country mushroomed like 'wheats in lawns,' he felt the only solution was proper court management.

For quick clearance of cases, litigation should be classified under various heads. Subsequently, particular type of cases should be allotted to a particular bench for a certain period.

The Supreme Court could not give any direction to the high courts as the management of high courts did not fall under its jurisdiction. However, it would be in the interest of the high courts to adhere to the suggestions of the apex court.

Stressing on the need for complete computerisation of cases, he said it would help in the proper classification of cases, and make the procedure simple to identify the status of a particular case.

Justice Ahmadi stated that during his tenure he had appointed a committee to evole a uniform nomenclature for all courts in the country to simplify the system. At present different high courts were following different nomenclature which made the identification of the category of the case very difficult, he added.

The former Chief Justice said a solution could be found by answering three questions: