Status Updates From Court on Trial: A Data-Driv...

Measures required for admitting SLP - Only those SLP that raise important questions of law should be permitted. The benefit would be.
1. Fewer SLP will be filed.
2. Judges of the court will be able to make decision to admit or dismiss SLP more easily. The limited question to answer is whether do the Indian courts need the Supreme Court to provide an answer to this question of law.

Justice Robert Jackson in US Supreme Court said - “we are not final because we are infallible…we are infallible because we are final”

It means that we are not final because we can’t commit mistake.
We can’t be wrong because we are final.

Each SLP is granted on an average 93 seconds of hearing

Statistics of type of matters, pendencies and time it takes for disposal

60000 SLP are filed each year. The SLP constitute 80% of the docket.

Initial hearing in SLP lasts for an average of 2 minutes.

Out of yak, only 10k are admitted and very few of them gets full hearing of court.

Inspite of full hearing, judgement can be short or 1 liner.

Evidence that it is no longer people’s court
1. Win rates of petitioners in PIL cases have reduced
2. Even if small people favoured at admission stage, they are rejected at final stage
3. Court becomes biased in favour of some big groups

Critics of the Court have claimed that the Court has turned away from its commitment to protect the interests of marginalized groups. Instead, some lawyers and legal scholars see the Court as supporting the interests of big businesses, at the expense of giving special attention to marginalized groups. As scholar and activist Usha Ramanathan argues, the poor and powerless no longer ‘have the Court on their side.

Introduction page xxiv

Judges are appointed by president till 1993.

Later CJI with 4 senior most judges decide in collegium to decide who should be appointed. Since then president is only in advisory role as collegium can refuse appointment of any judge.

Introduction page xxiii

CJI alone will decide who will hear which matter.

* This I think is most serious part of the functioning of the court

Introduction page xix

Reasons for delays in the Indian judicial system -
1. Too many cases and too few judges
2. institutional and working culture of courts—where dilatory tactics are not only an accepted part of court craft, but find willing acceptance from judges.
3. Seeking intervention and stay by higher courts, non-availability of counsel, witnesses not turning up, blocking proceedings by filing application

Although footnote markers are provided the descriptive footnote is at the end of the book. Hence to know the content or reference in the footnote, one has to constantly turn the book to read. This is a bit inconvenient.

The footnote either could have been as running text or at the end of each page

I've never written what I feel while I am still reading... But seriously, the only reason I am continuing reading is coz this is the first book of it's kind and it relates to my field... Unfortunately stats can be applied in any way to prove any hypothesis.. Such immature approach by treating important factors as unimportant... It seems a retired SC judge and some Senior Advocates just like this version...

Mixed feelings
Pros: Highly impressed with the effort... Appreciate the understanding of the issues and the reasons behind them
Cons: The solutions discuss simply the "what" aspect... If you discuss the "how", you'ill realise that the "what" sounds good only in abstract... The entire Machinery from top to bottom needs over-haul, and the State has a big role to play.
Might feel different once I am done with the book !