CRISIS IN THE COURTROOM

The Supreme Court's jurisdiction extends to a population of over 1.4 billion. Does the court make access for the disadvantaged a priority? To what extent is it responsible for the adage 'justice delayed is justice denied'? Are some lawyers more influential than the others? Authors Aparna Chandra, Sital Kalantry and William H.J. Hubbard discuss these and several other topics concerning the country's highest court in their book Court on Trial

- Aparna Chandra, Sital Kalantry and William H.J. Hubbard

COURT ON TRIAL: A DATA-DRIVEN ACCOUNT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

AUTHORS: APARNA CHANDRA, SITAL KALANTRY, WILLIAM H.J. HUBBARD

PUBLISHER: PENGUIN

RANDOM HOUSE PAGES: 208 | PRICE: Rs 599

We begin with the fact that the judges of the Supreme Court face a crushing case load. As we described in Chapter 1, the Court’s pursuit of being a ‘people’s court’ has led it to invite a massive flow of SLPs that it must sift through. The Court receives over 60,000 petitions per year. It devotes two days per week— Monday and Friday—to hearings on whether to admit or dismiss these petitions. And because it holds at least one hearing per petition, and sometimes more, before admitting or dismissing the petition, this means that on any given Monday or Friday, the Court holds around 1000 hearings.

The judges of the Supreme Court must somehow sort through this mountain of cases. To do this, it divides itself into benches of two judges to hear each petition, allowing it to hold many hearings in tandem throughout the day. And it holds incredibly compressed hearings. As we’ve noted, most hearings on SLPs last one minute and thirty-three seconds or less. In other words, in a typical case, the judges hear the law, facts and arguments relevant to the case for less than 100 seconds before they make their decision.