When Courts Are Too Slow, Police Replace Judges, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• India's civil justice system faces extreme delays, with cases in the Bombay High Court sometimes taking over 20 years, and one instance lasting 79 years.
• This delay is partly due to a severe shortage of judges; Maharashtra has 15 judges per million people, while the Bombay High Court has only 1.9 judges per million.
• Frustrated litigants, particularly the affluent, resort to involving the police to "criminalize" civil disputes like contract breaches.
• Police officers allegedly accept bribes, sometimes on a "commission basis," to intervene in these civil matters.
• Police pressure tactics, including intimidating summons and threats of arrest, often lead to quick settlements without a First Information Report (FIR) being registered.

Detailed Insights:

• The National Judicial Data Grid indicates over 6.48 lakh pending cases in the Bombay High Court, including 9,454 civil suits, overwhelming the limited number of judges.
• The judge-to-population ratio in India is significantly lower than in developed nations, with India having approximately 15-22 judges per million people, compared to 157 in New York state.
• The practice of criminalizing civil disputes is considered an "abuse of process" and has been repeatedly discouraged by the Supreme Court.
• Police involvement transforms slow civil processes into swift, intimidating encounters, leveraging fear of arrest and poor prison conditions to force settlements.
• This parallel justice delivery mechanism arises from systemic issues like archaic procedures that allow defendants to prolong civil litigation.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Civil Dispute: A legal disagreement between private individuals or entities seeking monetary compensation or specific performance, not involving criminal charges.
• Criminal Offence: An act punishable by law, considered harmful to society, leading to prosecution by the state.
• Abuse of Process: The misuse of legal procedures for an improper purpose, such as harassment or to gain an unfair advantage, rather than for genuine justice.
• First Information Report (FIR): A written document prepared by the police when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence, initiating a criminal investigation.