A judicial booster dose for our economy.

“See you in court” is often said with gusto in an argument, however, unfortunately, such confidence in the Indian legal system to deliver timely justice can be many times misplaced. The Indian legal system is hamstrung by pendency and such pendency is not restricted to courts alone, it is a chronic issue with India’s tribunals as well. However, this is not to play down the role the Indian judiciary has played in our nation building, the judiciary has been at the forefront in leading a charge against issues such as sexual harassment at the workplace, goading the Election Commission of India to make provisions for ‘NOTA’ option, and have chosen to interpret the constitution in the light of evolving times and have ushered in a paradigm shift in the jurisprudence of rights. A robust justice delivery system is a prerequisite for ensuring economic stability and growth and will play a key role in the resolution of disputes within a structured and orderly framework. Some of the reasons behind the delay in adjudicating cases are the skewed judge to population ratio, low rate of disposal of cases, outdated procedures, and widespread vacancies in the higher and lower judiciary. Further, the lower judiciary in many parts of the county is yet to adopt Information Communication Technology (ICT), instances of almost continuous adjournment of cases without valid grounds and dilapidated infrastructure have severely affected the judicial system. Need to reboot the judiciary to bolster the Indian economy. India’s monumental LPG reforms in the early 1990s opened up the economy and fostered linkages with the global economy and this led to the establishment of several statutory tribunals to adjudicate any disputes that may arise. A case in point is the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a platform envisaged to resolve India’s debt problem, but however, it currently has 21,259 pending cases were as of December 31, 2020. Delays in contract enforcement and disposal resolution are arguably the single biggest hurdle to the ease of doing business in India and higher GDP growth. India stands at an abysmal 162nd position in the ‘Enforcement of Contracts’ category under the Ease of Doing Business Report 2020. Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations with several nations have hit a roadblock owing to India’s insistence on exhausting all the domestic remedies before taking the issue outside of Indian legal jurisdiction, with a majority of countries insisting on taking the issue to the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. These incidents indicate the lack of faith in the Indian judiciary to deliver timely justice. According to international research published in 2018, failure to deliver timely justice cost the country as much as 9% of its annual GDP. How to go about it?

There is no silver bullet solution to all the maladies mentioned above. Some of the widely mentioned remedies are improved budgetary allocation, filling the vacancies with the timely appointment of judges, ensuring delegation of administrative functions, ICT adoption on a larger scale, Case management and most of all promoting an Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism. A healthy judiciary bodes well for the social, economic and political system of a country. Taking into the context of the economy-judiciary interplay, a robustly independent judiciary has a symbiotic relationship with economic growth and a system of well-functioning courts seems to enable the development of credit markets. A stronger judiciary lays the ground for a competitive market, and clamps down upon predatory pricing policies and restrictive trade practices, thereby ensuring that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of economic power in hands of a few. India's judicial reforms are very much needed and will act as a catalyst in pushing India’s economy to higher growth orbits. The reforms will need to release the judiciary of its shackles and make it an institution infused with dynamism.