A study conducted by the research wing of the Supreme Court has shown that the judge-population ratio in the country is far less than the similar ratio involving police officers and bureaucrats.
The report prepared last year titled “Subordinate Courts of India: A Report on Access to Justice” makes out a case for bettering the Judge population ratio. Although much has been said about it in the past by the law Commission of India and even by the Supreme Court in 2002, the study has analysed the issue by making a comparison with the other arms of the administration involved in rendering justice — mainly the police and civic administration.
It said that as per the data available with the Bureau of Police Research and Develo-
pment, Ministry of Home Affairs, the States and Union Territories employed the services of 51,523 police officers above the rank of Inspector as on January 1, 2015. “In contrast, the sanctioned strength of judicial officers across the country was 20,174…which shows that for every million of the population there were close to 41.58 police officers (inspector and above) while the judicial officers for the same population stood at 16. “
The situation becomes grim when one compares this figure with the total working strength of civil servants. According to the report of the Seventh Central Pay Commi-
ssion, Ministry of Finance, the total civil servants in Group A services alone were 91,501 as on January 1, 2014. On this date, the corresponding number of sanctioned judicial officers was 19,526.
While the figures display the treatment meted out to the Judiciary based on the quantitative approach, the report of the Supreme Court Centre for Research and Planning said, “Access to justice is meaningful when each citizen has literally, access to courts. In other words, every citizen has to be afforded reasonably close proximity to courts.”
The available figures suggest that in the total area of the country extending to 31,66,414 square kilometers, there is at least one police officer every 100 square kilometer but there is negligible probability of finding a court in that same distance. This becomes a barrier to justice, claims the report.
The report further reveals that for 20,558 judicial officers there are only 15,540 court halls, a shortfall of 5,018 courtrooms. Similarly, there is a shortfall of 8,538 residential quarters for subordinate judges, which suggests there is no official residence for almost 40 per cent of judicial officers working in the country. Under such pressing conditions, the present working strength of judicial officers deals with 1.80 crore cases on an average every year and disposes close to 50 lakh cases. To curb the mounting pendency, the report recommends that in the next three years, the country requires an additional workforce of 14,597 judicial officers, subject to the condition that filing of cases remains constant.