Sir — This refers to the editorial, “India’s long tryst with judicial backlogs” (October 28) by Joginder Singh. The practice of buying time by the warring parties in a legal battle is one of the factors responsible for judicial backlogs. Moreover, it is beyond the capacity of the majority of Indians to engage lawyers.
legal aid cannot solve the problem as most of the established lawyers fight shy of joining a legal aid team. The need of the hour is to start a system of self-defence and to do away with the practice of lawyers’ defence. Cross-examination can aptly be done by the judges. It will stop tilting the balance of the objective scale the other way round by the subjective factor such as quality of lawyers and thus establish equal protection of the laws.