Impacts of Judicial Pendency

♤ Denial of ‘timely justice’ amounts to denial of ‘justice’ itself- Timely disposal of cases is essential to maintain rule of law and provide access to justice. Speedy trial is a part of right to life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

♤ Erodes social infrastructure- a weak judiciary has a negative effect on social development, which leads to lower per capita income; higher poverty rates; poorer public infrastructure; and, higher crime rates.

♤ Overcrowding of the prisons, already infrastructure deficient, in some cases beyond 150%

of the capacity, results in “violation of human rights”.

♤ Affects the economy of the country as it was estimated that judicial delays cost India around 1.5% of its Gross Domestic Product annually.

o As per the Economic Survey 2017-18 pendency hampers dispute resolution, contract enforcement, discourage investments, stall projects, hamper tax collection and escalate legal costs which leads to Increasing cost of doing business.

♤ Violation of Fundamental Right: Supreme Court has said that Article 21 of the Constitution

entitles prisoners to a fair and speedy trial as part of their fundamental right to life and liberty.

♤ Quality of judgement suffers: It is not uncommon to see over 100 matters listed before a judge in a day leading to very less time on analyzing every facts of the case.