Just numbers

Sometimes data talks more than hundreds of thousands of words. Legal luminary and MP, Fali S. Nariman, in one of the private member8217;s bills he introduced in the Rajya Sabha last week, hopes to harness the power of statistics towards making the judicial process more transparent and amenable to reform. Judicial Statistics Bill, 2004, is an attempt to assess the performance of judicial institutions, locate and diagnose the faultlines in the delivery mechanisms of justice, and suggest ways to clear the backlog of cases through the simple expedient of actually producing data on pending cases.

Everybody is aware of the crisis of pending cases 8212; the backlog, today, is believed to be over six crore. Yet nobody knows what these cases are about, the names of the judges hearing them, the number of hours taken on them, the adjournments granted, the intervals between the filing of each case and their hearing, and numerous other details that would have provided an insight into the reasons for the inexorable delays that have come to scar the system like the mark of Cain. Any attempts to gain information of this kind have been rebuffed on the grounds that it would undermine judicial autonomy. Such an argument needs to be countered with all the force at one8217;s command. Citizens 8212; and not just litigants 8212; must be brought into the loop in the interests of judicial accountability because it is they who pay the ultimate price. Even a case like Shibu Soren8217;s is an eloquent commentary on the pernicious nature of judicial delays. We have a bureau for garnering statistics on crime. But all information dries up after that stage, as we enter the black hole of judicial functioning. It is this reality that the Bill hopes to change, a change all the more necessary in these globalising times when economic reform is so closely related to legal and judicial reform; when global best practices need to be emulated; when, above all, we have the means to achieving this, given the benefits of cyber connectivity.

As for the sensitivity of judges, Nariman8217;s Bill takes care of that as well. The various authorities of judicial statistics, that the Bill seeks to constitute, will be administered largely by the judicial fraternity, under the chief patronage of the chief justice of India. Several nations 8212; which set a high premium on judicial independence themselves 8212; already have such institutions in place. We would, therefore, strongly urge the government to adopt Nariman8217;s Bill and get it translated into the law of the land.