Public opinion on establishing special courts in India is largely positive, with many expressing hope for improved judicial efficiency and reduced backlog. However, there are notable concerns about practical implementation and potential infringements on fair judicial processes. Skepticism exists regarding whether these courts can effectively tackle the underlying systemic issues in the justice system.

Supreme Court of India

Indian Government

Judicial System

Lawyer here.

In civil cases, once pre-trial steps are over and the trial begins, the Court will add the case to that month's list and then it will be called on a day to day basis as practicable as possible. However, if the Court finds that the case cannot be taken up on that day, it will be adjourned to the next possible date. Backlog of cases is a huge problem and even though there are guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court to dispose of cases in an expeditious manner, the problem still persists.

[deleted]

if laywer is regular/takes interest with case, his case gets pushed up.

i know a case dragged for 9 years, then laywer decided he will finish it, it got over in next 6 months. :))

reddwinit

You dont have to wait, you always know the next date of hearing irrespective of anything.

bcsac

If the matter is urgent, as we often see in cases like bankruptcy proceedings in the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), an **urgent listing** can be requested. For example, if a creditor’s name is left out by the Resolution Professional in the list of creditors, and the Committee of Creditors (CoC) approves a payment procedure that excludes them, there’s little that can be done once the final order is passed by the NCLT.

To avoid this, lawyers request urgent listings to ensure the matter is heard quickly, protecting their client’s interests. Otherwise, once the payment procedure is finalized there’s not much that can be done to correct such oversights.

I’d suggest talking to your lawyer to **see if an urgent listing would be appropriate in your case**, especially if you feel the delay could cause serious harm.

Feel free to reach out for further help!!!

ConsiderationSad184

Before that you need to understand the condition of courts in India. The legal system only exists so the rich can preserve their wealth and ensure their safety. Look at the legal backlog, case timelines, and pre-verdict prisoners and it will be clear that there is practicality no honourable discourse for common people. Getting into a legal matter by itself is a punishment. Nobody is fighting for you anywhere..

ScoobySnack87

Normal lawyers usually have 2 or 3 cases a day while public prosecutors are expected to do cases from morning to evening. Also they are entirely at mercy of police actually giving them evidence 

I don't understand why the government don't hire more public prosecutors or appoint lawyers on temporary basis. They are lot of Junior lawyers who could easily deal with less serious cases  to build experience freeing up Prosecutor to focus on serious cases

Noobodiiy

I'm quite anti-bjp in my politics. Despite my personal beliefs there have been some concrete and long lasting positive steps taken by the govt.

-bThere are 27 new state of the art forensic labs opening up in the country to help achieve better forensic data to eventually begin having chain of custody processes as standard. 
- making the international standard in healthcare/labs/diagnostics of NABL / ISO 17025 so the entry standard has become very high and very competitive matching with international standards
- public prosecutors now are contractual roles with incentives and contract terms as short as 4 years (you would know how simple commerical litigations end up taking 5-7 years easy on the district level alone) - ensuring that perfomance based retention happens. 
As these are contractual roles - the lawyers don't get CGHS, no retirement, none of the perks around education for your children etc thus being cheaper than the older breed of public prosecutors. 
- to incentivise younger, tier 1/2 law college graduates to work for the govt - there are programs where judges hire judges assistants straight from colleges and young lawyers with 1-3 years experience. With a starting stipend of 50k in delhi, and get incentives in matters where the court has impounded any property. Thus giving a first hand experience of working for the govt in justice and getting good pay which pays a little less than private law firms but with better work-life balance. 

Source - my wife, best friend, a few neighbours of the last 30 years,about a dozen friends - are all practicing lawyers. Across the board as in-house counsel, running a law firm, working for a law firm in litigation, working as a contract lawyer for the ministry of corporate affairs, 2 folks who are the third generation lawyer inheriting  40+ year legacy law firms.

Humble_Consequence20

They don't even appear in court. Usually on ground, complainant's private lawyer end up representing the aggrieved party in criminal cases. Public prosecutors allow it and courts allow it too. They only appear in high profile cases.

cyber_gateway

The answer is setting of accountability.

Most district attorney in USA are directly elected. And these DAs have one job and responsibility which is to prosecute criminals in their constituency.

While in India, public prosecutor is just another govt official.

In USA, all of these jobs are directly elected with just one responsibility. Attorney General, Comptroller. They are directly elected with just one responsibility

Ok-Treacle-6615

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dataisbeautiful-bot

What's the story for the 100k cases that have been pending for 30 years? Are there a few common topics? Is it usual to have that many (relative to population)?

heyzeus_

HaroldGodwin

normal disagreeable screw lunchroom onerous tub rock ruthless silky squealing ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `

RunAwayWithCRJ

Why are they no commas, drives me crazy when they do that

jonmon454

What are the some of reasons for the lack of charges/lawyers? Could it be that less people study law or that many leave the practices because dissatisfaction with the job?

May-shine17

Source- [National Judicial Data Grid](https://njdg.ecourts.gov.in/njdgnew/index.php)

Tool - Adobe Illustrator

saxypatrickb

This is not beautifully presented data at all.

imnotsoclever

Not having commas on larger numbers is not beautiful data

R3moteman

My family's case against illegal construction by our neighbors has been pending since 1992

bluehole2657

maxant20

The people posting regarding commas need to realise that India follows the Indian Numbering system, where we use Lakhs and Crores rather than Millions and billions. The commas would make this wayyyy worse

Minute-Egg

Write numbers for humans. Either 1,000,000,000 or 1 000 000 000.

Tomagatchi

OP why dont you use comma separatirs fir numbers, it will naje them more readable

Legitimate-Space8847

More than 1 out of 100 cases have been waiting for 20-30 years.... :|

&amp;#x200B;

This is more than a third of the life expectancy.

Damn those munchers are insane. Imagine being one of those numbers knowing nothing is going to happen for years. 
They might as well void all existing cases and just start over.

kuka101

xyrnil

I know when things are fucked up. Thats fucked up.

Killawife

Im sadly curious of this broken out by caste of accused and accuser

Sir-DiamondHands

That's awful. The two cases mentioned at the beginning are shocking. 

&gt; Rudal Shah, arrested in 1953, remained in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur jail for 30 years despite being acquitted in 1968.

&gt; Boka Thakur, arrested at age 16, was jailed and detained without trial for 36 years in Bihar’s Madhubani jail

&gt; Shah and Thakur are examples of 282,879 undertrials in Indian prisons, according to Prison Statistics 2014, a number equal to the population of the Caribbean nation of Barbados.

twiggez-vous

Given the presumption of innocent until proven guilty. The Scottish method of preventing these backlogs is very effective.

After 110 days if on remand or 1 year if free the accused walks free presumed innocent. Cases are then prioritised so the courts are occupied by the most serious cases. Having possibly guilty people walk away because the system is inefficient is better than the massive cost and damage of locking up innocent people for years.

As I understand Finland goes a step further and those convicted are released on license until a prison place becomes available. It sounds crazy that someone would take themselves to prison when it's their turn, but of course this is what most accused are doing when they arrive at court for trial with the possibility of being given a prison sentence. It works well, prisons populations can be well managed and as a result repeat offending is much lower.

The overall cost to society is far lower.

Societies need to decide if they really want to pay the very high cost of "punishing the bad guys", or the much lower cost of protecting the public.

Edit: As this is getting more upvotes than I expected I'll try to be a good redditor and provide references. I have also updated the timelines above based on the reference data.

[https://www2.gov.scot/Publications/2003/06/17498/22830#:\~:text=Where%20the%20accused%20is%20remanded,the%20start%20of%20the%20trial.](https://www2.gov.scot/Publications/2003/06/17498/22830#:~:text=Where%20the%20accused%20is%20remanded,the%20start%20of%20the%20trial.)

Report on prison overcrowding - mentions Finland prison place wait list.

[https://rm.coe.int/session-iv-rob-allen/1680942dea](https://rm.coe.int/session-iv-rob-allen/1680942dea)

Apparently Iceland also has a wait list, and if you wait 5 years your sentence is cancelled.

[https://www.icenews.is/2017/08/15/theres-a-long-line-to-get-into-prison-in-iceland-up-to-5-years-waiting-time/](https://www.icenews.is/2017/08/15/theres-a-long-line-to-get-into-prison-in-iceland-up-to-5-years-waiting-time/)

Good general article on Finish prisons

[https://www.businessinsider.com/norways-prisons-are-better-than-the-american-prisons-2018-6?r=US&amp;IR=T](https://www.businessinsider.com/norways-prisons-are-better-than-the-american-prisons-2018-6?r=US&amp;IR=T)

WoofyChip

it has nothing to do with the number of judges and everything to do with the judicial process. These cases last so long because they just keep having sessions which do nothing and reconvene. Eg. property cases regularly last several generations where a lawyer shows up in court, says hello and gets the next court date. There is no urgency for the court to close the case.

Not surprising considering I worked with an Indian lawyer loading trucks for UPS when I was in college, I can't imagine how hard it must be to retain lawyers if being a laborer in the US is better than being a lawyer in India.

SteveusChrist

The backlog will only get worse as the public urges more social governance on the police to punish people they don't like.

Scoundrelic

Judge Harry Stone could have cleared this log in one night.

therealshecky

Is it safe to assume millions of innocent people are locked up?

Their system has failed. These people should all be released with compensation.

HAHAHA YEAH RIGHT.

svenmullet

Many of India’s best and brightest are emigrating.  Brain drain.

theSPYmustFLow

Indian justice is known for its slowness, both in civil and criminal cases.

And the 12 years would be when *no* new case would occur.

France has the same issue, although less extreme: with the lack of judges, some investigations in the heating of La Défense have taken 18 years.

Johannes_P

binger5

Also, judges have 180+ days off per year in india.

I know many who have never entered a Police station or court in their lives, just due to the fear of the broken system. There was a famous case of a woman who filed sexual assault/eve teasing case on a guy, went to Canada for higher education, never cared to visit the court for deposition, and the guy was not getting any job due to this case. He was later acquitted based on eye witness, I think after 6 years. The girl succeeded in punishing him, by just tangling him in the broken legal system.

All one has to do, to Ruin someone's life, is to file a case. How cool is that ?? 

Judiciary must be feared by the "Guilty", but Indian Judiciary is feared more the "innocent"...

RealityCheck18

Would there be any way to use AI to sort through the cases and reduce numbers or something?

nihongopower

Considering the lawyer surplus in the US, I see a solution here.

ghostoutlaw

And then they still have less people incarcerated than the US..

Aristocrafied

&gt;amount of judges

Amount is for a volume of a substance (e.g. 1 liter of milk, 1 ton of sand).

Number is for individual objects (e.g. 20 judges, 16 candles).

sixft7in

Indians, huge backlog, poor estimates. As a programmer I feel pain reading this.

k-one-0-two

12 years to clear the pending cases. + the amount of cases that add up in 12 years

virtualdreamscape

So let's just shut down for 12 years to flatten the curve

Koolaid_Jef

If you're shocked by this, you might be shocked (as I was) to learn that the percent of prisoners awaiting trial is about the same in the US.

[https://www.vera.org/publications/for-the-record-justice-denied-pretrial-detention](https://www.vera.org/publications/for-the-record-justice-denied-pretrial-detention)

whatsit578

Mannibal_Buress

goldenblacklee

This isn't really justice, is it?

God forbid any foreigners get arrested there. This must happen sometimes, what is the result?

01ARayOfSunlight

we had a similar problem (much tamer) in canada. The Jordan ruling by the supreme court stated that undue delay of judicial proceedings is cause for release. it sure lit a fire under the system. bunch of horrible criminals went free but now its working better because it had to... india needs something like that.

vinnyboyescher

The Indian justice system is notoriously slow and convoluted, and always has been. I have a cutting somewhere collected in India in the 70s, reporting that the second longest-running court case in India had passed another judicial milestone - 756 years, as I recall. It had been through the courts of kingdoms that whose capitals are now rubble (the longest was around 840 years - both concerned temple disputes). If you could stay out of jail you had a good chance of dying before your case came up.

Peter_deT

And Charles Dickens thought things were bad in England when he wrote Bleak House, at least those were civil cases.

MBAMBA3

What a backwards country.  If you have that much of a backlog, come up with some sort of way to train some of your citizens to hear cases.  There's no reason in a country with such a huge population that more judges can be hired.  But in the mean time, find temporary citizen judges to hear the backlog.  Even if you get some radical decisions, it'd be far better than the complete denial of justice by not hearing the case for years on end.

This is a fine example of why governments should have no business running court systems.

How does the US fare? If you're poor, I mean.

I_am_not_Elon_Musk

The United States is at 25%.

And two thirds of them are held for no other reason than that they cannot afford to pay the bail.

So be careful if you think "it couldn't happen here," because we're well on our way...

Edit: [here's the pie chart.](https://i.imgur.com/NRqH0tt.png)

Pariahdog119

And yet thousands of daily rapes go unpunished

CareerMicDrop

Only 2% of criminal cases go to trial in the US.

Even the Economist agrees that plea bargains are a problem: [https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/11/09/plea-bargains-save-time-and-money-but-are-too-easily-abused](https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/11/09/plea-bargains-save-time-and-money-but-are-too-easily-abused)

&gt;In countries such as America where prosecutors have broad leeway, crimes  are often loosely defined and sentences harsh. This is no accident:  these are the tools used to browbeat defendants into guilty pleas. When  few cases are tested in trials, police may become sloppy, lawyers lazy  and judges capricious. When the innocent are bullied into trading away  their day in court, justice is weakened for everyone.

ratbum

AlexanderChippel

You can watch online but stay on mute and never create any disturbance 

moonshinekiss

Entrance to the hc may be difficult but you can walk into any of the district courts and watch the proceedings there. 

You can watch people argue their cases online through the hc website and cause lists, but I don't know if you can watch trials that way. 

In the Madras High court, evidence and trial is conducted before someone known as the Master. Objections are recorded and are answered by the Judge when it goes to them for arguments / hearing. You can't watch the trial conducted there online. You'll have to be present physically if you wish to, and they won't let you in unless you have a reason to be there, sanctioned by your lawyer for that specific case that is listed on that specific date.

afromace7

Yes, but you should take your own popcorn.

melancholy-musings

The Supreme Court has emphasized the urgent need for dedicated special courts to handle cases under stringent laws like the UAPA.

Special Courts for Expeditious Trials in India

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

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What the people want