Courts That Rest While Justice Waits

A Nishani.in Explosive Thought Piece

Hospital: 0
Border Post: 0
Police Station: 0
High Court: 155
Supreme Court: 160

That single list should make every Indian’s blood boil.

Because the places that save lives, protect borders, and guard law and order—they never sleep.
But the temples of justice, the very institutions meant to deliver fairness, take 155–160 holidays a year.

Yes, the High Courts work roughly 210 days a year.
The Supreme Court, around 190 days.
Meanwhile, over 5 crore cases gather dust in files.

Justice in India has become a luxury item—slow, selective, and shockingly unavailable to those who need it most.

Why Is This Happening?

Let’s call out the truth.
Our courts are not short of cases—they’re short of judges, urgency, and accountability.

1. India needs 70,000 judges (as per population-to-case ratio), but we have barely 22,000.
   That’s less than one judge for every 50,000 people.
   Compare that to developed nations—where the ratio is closer to 1:5,000.
   Justice delayed? Of course. Justice denied? Absolutely.
2. Appointments crawl slower than cases.
   Files bounce between Collegium and Government like a legal volleyball.
   Months turn into years.
   By the time someone is approved, half the backlog has doubled.
3. The system itself is outdated.
   Courts still run on paper piles and manual adjournments.
   In the digital India era, our judiciary runs like a 1980s typewriter.
4. Legal education produces lawyers, not judges.
   Every year, thousands of LLB and LLM graduates flood the system.
   But they don’t make it to the bench—because there’s no structured judicial pipeline.
   The exams are rare, outdated, and inaccessible.
   The curriculum never trains them in judgment-writing, evidence analysis, or ethics of adjudication.
   We are manufacturing degrees, not justice.

Why Can’t Courts Work Like Hospitals?

If hospitals, police, and borders operate 24/7, why can’t courts?

Yes, judges are human. They need rest. But in a system drowning in 5 crore pending cases, the logic of long recesses sounds like a cruel joke.

When a citizen waits 10 years for divorce, 15 years for property dispute, or 20 years for accident compensation, “summer vacation” feels like state-sponsored torture.

Justice should be a service, not a seasonal offer.

What Can Be Done—If We Really Care

If the government and judiciary are serious about solving this, here’s what must happen immediately:

1. 24×7 Shift-Based Judiciary:
   Split judges into rotating shifts. Courts should operate like hospitals—morning, evening, and night courts.
2. Fast-Track Appointments:
   Judicial vacancies should be filled within 30 days of arising. Stop the bureaucratic ping-pong between the Collegium and Government.
3. Judicial Academy Overhaul:
   Transform LLB and LLM programs to include mandatory judge-training modules—logic, ethics, reasoning, and decision-making.
   Build a clear ladder: Law Graduate → Judicial Intern → Assistant Judge → Judge.
4. Digital Courts and AI Assistance:
   Every lower court should use e-filing, online hearings, and AI-based case sorting to prioritize urgent cases and reduce manual delays.
5. Accountability Metrics:
   Track each judge’s disposal rate and court efficiency publicly. Let transparency become the pressure.
6. Limit Adjournments:
   Lawyers using adjournments as strategy should face penalties. Justice delayed by manipulation is injustice legalized.

Final Verdict

India calls itself the world’s largest democracy.
But when it comes to justice, we are a nation still waiting for judgment day.

A country where a hospital runs 365 days, a border post never sleeps, and a police station stays awake for our safety—yet our courts take month-long vacations while citizens rot in procedural limbo.

The real crime?
Not what’s committed outside the courtroom.
But what’s allowed inside it—in the name of “procedure”.

It’s time to reopen justice.
No holidays. No excuses. No more waiting decades for what should take months.

Because justice that takes a lifetime… isn’t justice at all.

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