DELAY DEFEATS JUSTICE: ISSUE OF LARGE PENDENCY OF CASES IN INDIAN COURTS

Abstract

Justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered. The concept of justice is not new; it has been prevalent since time immemorial. In Vedic period, justice is meant by preserving the righteousness and punishing the evil. Webster dictionary defines justice as “the process or result of using laws to fairly judge and punish crimes and criminals.” When we take discourse of Jurisprudence, we come across various jurists defining justice in their own way for instance, Plato in his book „Republic‟ said that “justice is the having and doing of what is one's own.” John Locke says “justice is a part of natural law.”  Similarly, John Rawls in his book 

„Theory of Justice‟ says that “justice is a part of fairness, an impartial distribution of goods.” 

As far as Indian judicial system is concerned, a large number of pending cases have paralyzed the whole justice delivery system. People are languishing in jails for number of years without having trial. On the one hand, cases are mounting by leaps and bounds and on the other, rate of disposal of cases is very less. Therefore, the problems of pendency and delay are very significant to discuss. The term „pendency‟ connotes “all cases instituted but not disposed of, regardless of when the case was instituted.” The term „delay‟ denotes “a case that has been in the Court or judicial system for longer than the normal time that it should take for a case of that type to be disposed of.” It is obvious to say that inordinate and unnecessary delay defeats the end of justice. The Apex Court in its various landmark judgments held that “right to speedy trial is a fundamental right which is implicit under Art. 21 of the Constitution.” Law Commission of India has also discussed the matter of arrears and backlogs in its various reports and expressed its deep concerns for reducing the pendency of cases.