When it comes to economic growth and all the benefits that come with it, is India’s much-vaunted legal system more of a barrier than a facilitator?
A recent feature in the Financial Times carried the headline “How justice is delayed and denied in India.” But as our Cover Story this month illustrates (see Battle strategies), the crisis extends beyond justice and threatens the very functioning and purpose of the country’s legal system.
India Business Law Journal
It is easy to crack jokes about cases filed in the 1950s still working their snail-like way through the judicial process, of defendants and plaintiffs who have long-since died, of unresolved disputes spanning several generations. Some of the stories are no doubt apocryphal – but usually believable nonetheless.
One often hears the alarmist cry of “30 million cases pending.” At least 25 million of these are in the lower courts, 3.7 million in the high courts and 43,580 before the Supreme Court (as of June this year – up from 9,806 in 1998).
You must be a
subscribersubscribersubscribersubscriber
to read this content, please
subscribesubscribesubscribesubscribe
today.
For group subscribers, please click here to access.
Interested in group subscription? Please contact us.
