On the day of the three-month ultimatum
I remember reading the headline and feeling that peculiar mix of hope and incredulity that comes when institutions ask others to sprint while they themselves are walking a marathon. The Supreme Court urged High Courts to clear certain categories of cases within three months — an admirable, urgent command to unclog a judiciary groaning under years of pendency. And on that very day the Court released a judgment that had been reserved for fifteen months.
This contradiction isn't merely a newsy irony. It's a mirror held up to a system that rightly demands speed from its subordinate benches but struggles to hold the mirror steady itself.
Why the dissonance matters
- It erodes public confidence. When the top court insists on timelines for others yet takes far longer in its own docket, citizens ask whether deadlines are universal rules or situational aspirations.
- It masks structural problems. Deadlines without tools, manpower, or process changes are performative. The pendency isn't a failure of will alone — it's a failure of capacity and design.
- It creates perverse incentives. If the only visible pressure is on lower courts, the system will divert resources unevenly and push problems downwards rather than solving them sustainably.
What I’ve written about this before
I've returned to the theme of pendency and judicial reform repeatedly. Years ago I argued that we must combine temporary measures (engaging retired judges) with technology (virtual courts and case-management portals) to make any deadline meaningful. See my earlier reflections: Justice delayed is Justice Denied and my notes on engaging retired judges and e-courts in Thanks Supreme Court for hearing my PIL. These were not abstract wishes — they were practical blueprints for capacity and accountability.[^1]
The deeper problems (briefly)
- Chronic shortage of judges vs. exploding filings.
- Antiquated case management and listing practices.
- Lack of meaningful performance metrics and incentives for disposal of old cases.
- Insufficient use of technology for hearings, evidence exchange, and scheduling.
- Cultural resistance to process innovation inside institutions built on precedent and protocol.
What would make a three-month deadline credible?
For a top-down timeline to be more than a slogan, three things must happen together:
- Capacity expansion
- Temporary empanelment of retired judges on fixed tenures or per-case retainer (targeting old/backlog dockets). This idea appears in my earlier posts and remains practical and politically feasible.[^1]
- Process modernization
- A national e-court platform that: enables true virtual hearings, standardizes submissions, and shows live progress to litigants.
- Intelligent triage and metrics
- Use simple analytics to classify cases by complexity and risk, set realistic targets, and publish dashboards that explain exceptions.
I have long argued that technology plus reasonable administrative change will do more to clear pendency than exhortations alone. My proposals — such as virtual courtrooms, per-case incentives for retired judges, and AI-assisted case allocation — are not revolutionary; they are engineering applied to law.[^1]
A word on institutional humility
Institutions that set deadlines must also model them. If the Supreme Court wants High Courts to move within three months, it strengthens the message by demonstrating comparable pacing in its own priority dockets and by explaining what makes some matters legitimately longer.
Transparency is key: when a judgment is reserved for over a year, a short public note explaining reasons (complexity, need for fuller research, institutional constraints) would help. That doesn’t remove the need for reform, but it acknowledges reality, and honesty preserves trust.
My modest checklist for the next ninety days (if I were advising)
- Publish a national plan showing which categories will be targeted for three-month disposal and what resources will be added.
- Launch pilot virtual dockets in two states with clear KPIs and public dashboards.
- Authorize a panel to fast-track appointment/temporary engagement of retired judges for backlog disposal.
- Mandate simple case-triage labels at filing so every matter gets the right timeline from day one.
Closing thought
Deadlines matter. But without capacity, clarity and culture-change, they are slogans. We must treat this as a systems design problem, not merely a moral failing. We can clear decades of delay if we choose to redesign how justice is delivered — not by chastising only the lower rungs but by aligning incentives, tools and leadership at every level.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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[^1]: For concrete proposals and past commentary, see my posts: Justice delayed is Justice Denied and Thanks Supreme Court for hearing my PIL.
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