Justice Delayed : 55 Million Reasons to Act NOW !
— Hemen Parekh | 14 June 2026 | www.hemenparekh.in
◉ What Happened ?
The Supreme Court of India has just formed a high-powered Judicial Infrastructure Advisory Committee, headed by Justice Aravind Kumar, to prepare a nationwide roadmap for modernising courts at every level — district courts, High Courts, and tribunals. The Committee is expected to recommend construction standards, digital integration, hybrid hearing systems, security mechanisms, and litigant-friendly facilities. Reports suggest the judiciary may seek a budgetary allocation of ₹ 40,000 – 50,000 crore from the Government of India to implement the plan.
Hindustan Times covered this on 12 May 2026 :
➤ https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/supreme-court-forms-panel-to-prepare-roadmap-for-judicial-infrastructure-101778644850010.html
Why does this matter so urgently ? Because as of March 2026, India's courts are carrying a staggering 55.8 million pending cases — 49 million in district courts, 6.2 million in High Courts, and over 80,000 in the Supreme Court itself. Of these, 17.2 million cases have been dragging on for more than five years. The average judge is currently handling over 2,200 cases simultaneously. And India spends a mere 0.08% of its total budget on its entire judiciary.
◉ Did I Not Say This — Eight Years Ago ?
On 13 September 2018, I published a blog titled "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied". Here is the link — dated, archived, and verifiable :
➤ https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2018/09/justice-delayed-is-justice-denied.html
At that time, the backlog stood at 2.76 crore (27.6 million) cases in district and subordinate courts alone, with 5,223 vacant judge posts. I had anchored the blog on Beijing's 24/7 internet court — where cases were filed online, heard via video call, and the court never closed — and contrasted it with India's chronic paralysis.
My specific prescription, written in September 2018, was to launch a portal — www.OnlineJustice.gov.in — with the following features :
- Online case filing — no need to go to court with paper-based material
- Virtual / online court rooms — not limited by any physical constraints; software could open as many as required
- Audio-Video Conference hearings for all trials
- Online payment of court fees and lawyer fees
- Public video broadcast of hearings
- Upload / download of all case documents
- Empanelled lawyers with transparent fee tariffs
- AI-computed case disposal time targets — based on historical data, continuously updated
- Bonus-cum-Penalty formula for judges — linked to actual vs target disposal time, paid into Jan Dhan accounts
- Retired judges on per-case retainer basis — to conduct online trials from home, without imposing any infrastructure burden on the State
I had urged then Chief Justice Deepak Misra to treat my email as a PIL and direct the government to act. Eight years later, the backlog has doubled — from 27.6 million to 55.8 million cases.
◉ What Has Been Done — And What Has Not
Here is an honest scorecard of my 2018 suggestions against where India stands in June 2026 :
| My Suggestion — Sept 2018 | Status — June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Online portal for case filing | ✅ Partially done via e-Courts Phase III; limited rollout |
| Virtual / online court rooms — unlimited by physical space | ✅ Video-conferencing adopted post-COVID; now being institutionalised |
| Uniform standards — small towns equal to big cities | ✅ Now explicitly a goal of the new Committee |
| National digital infrastructure roadmap | ✅ Exactly what the new Committee has been tasked to create |
| Empanelled lawyers with transparent fee tariffs | 🔶 Still patchy and unstructured nationally |
| AI-computed case disposal time targets | ❌ Not yet proposed or implemented anywhere |
| Bonus-cum-Penalty formula for judges | ❌ Not yet proposed or implemented anywhere |
| Retired judges on per-case retainer | ❌ Not yet proposed or implemented anywhere |
Vindication Score : ~ 55% — four of my eight core suggestions are now either implemented or formally on the agenda of the new Committee. The remaining three — the most original, the most cost-effective, and the most transformative — remain untouched.
◉ The Three Missing Pieces
Building new court complexes and laying fibre cables will cost ₹ 40,000 crore and take a decade. The three ideas below will cost a fraction of that — and can be implemented within 12 months :
1. AI-Computed Case Disposal Time Targets
Every case filed on the online portal gets an AI-assigned expected disposal date, computed from historical data of similar cases. This single change makes delays visible, measurable, and accountable — for the first time in Indian judicial history.
2. Bonus-cum-Penalty Formula for Judges
A judge who disposes a case before the AI-computed target date gets a performance bonus — paid digitally into a Jan Dhan account. A judge who exceeds the target without documented reason faces a proportional penalty. No brickbats, no public humiliation — just transparent, data-driven accountability, as any modern organisation would expect of its professionals.
3. Retired Judges on Per-Case Retainer
India has thousands of retired judges — experienced, available, and currently idle. Rope them in to conduct online trials from the comfort of their homes, paid a per-case retainer into their Jan Dhan accounts. No courtroom. No infrastructure. No commute. Just a broadband connection and a video camera. This alone could add the equivalent of 10,000 new judges overnight — at near-zero capital cost.
◉ My Humble Request to Hon. Chief Justice Surya Kant
Hon. Chief Justice Surya Kantji, you have taken a bold and commendable step in forming the Judicial Infrastructure Advisory Committee. I urge you — and Justice Aravind Kumar's Committee — to consider adding the following three items to its mandate :
- Direct NIC / MeitY to develop an AI module for case disposal time prediction, integrated with the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), deployable within 6 months.
- Recommend to Parliament a transparent performance incentive framework for all judicial officers — linked to AI-measured disposal time targets — as a pilot in three High Courts.
- Launch a National Retired Judges Online Panel — a dedicated cadre of retired judges empanelled to hear online cases on a per-case retainer basis, reducing the effective case load on sitting judges by 30% within one year.
At 55.8 million pending cases and counting, India cannot afford to spend the next decade building courtrooms while the case mountain grows. The three suggestions above require no cement, no steel, and no ₹ 40,000 crore. They require only political will, a broadband connection, and an AI model.
I am a 93-year-old blogger, not a lawyer. I cannot file a PIL. But I can write — and I have been writing about this since 2018. I urge this Committee to prove that India's judiciary can move faster than the backlog.
Hemen Parekh | 14 June 2026 | Mumbai, India
✉ hcp@RecruitGuru.com | 🌐 www.hemenparekh.in | 🤖 www.hemenparekh.ai
Prior Art Reference : "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied" — 13 Sept 2018
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