Daily Newsings: 19 May 2025
On the huge backlog of cases in India's courts
Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news
For today's newsing, we look at the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025, which was released last month.
The report has a lot of concerning numbers. One of the biggest issues facing the justice system in the country is the backlog of cases. Of all the prison inmates in the country, more than 75% of the inmates are under trial. They have not yet been sentenced. This is a ridiculously high number.
3 out of 4 prisoners in the country have not been convicted. Many of them may be innocent. Yet they languish in prisons all over the country till their case finally comes up for hearing.
Now the justice system in India is often praised for being thorough. The Supreme Court of India has in the past quoted what is commonly referred to as Blackstone's ratio. William Blackstone, an 18th century English jurist supposedly said, It is "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer." Indian law prioritises the principle of presumption of innocence. This means that a person is deemed innocent until he/she is proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt. In practice, though, wrongful convictions do continue to happen, especially to the marginalized in the country who don't have access to good legal aid.
But this principle of being thorough often results in cases dragging on for so long, and when new cases get filed, the backlog of cases keeps increasing. Many prisoners are awaiting trial and sitting in prisons. This is definitely not right.
This does not mean that judges ought to rush the judicial process to get through the cases. The principle is still good. What is needed, rather, is policy changes that address other reasons for this backlog.
One major reason for the backlog, according to the IJR 2025, is a huge shortage of personnel in the justice system. Forensics, for instance, has a 49% shortage of scientific staff and a 46% shortage of admin staff. There's a 32.7% shortage of High Court judges. There's also a huge shortage of police personnel, with 28% shortage of officers and 21.4% shortage of constables.
We've noted here on daily newsings in the past that administering justice for the people is one of the core responsibilities of governments and rulers. That is why they have been given the sword according to Romans 13.
Huge delays in cases are a form of denial of justice. When wait times are long, important evidence might deteriorate or get spoilt or witnesses may turn hostile due to political pressure. In this way many criminals could end up not being punished for their crimes.
When countries are delaying justice by so many years, they are failing in their responsibility in some way. This is more so especially if the reason for the delay is a shortage of personnel.
It is not like the country has a shortage of skilled people. It is rather strange for a country to be facing problems of unemployment among a lot of people, and shortage of personnel in various Government roles, both at the same time. The solution almost seems obvious. But the reason things don't get solved so easily is due to poor policy-making, poor implementation, and just straight up corruption.
The heavy backlog of cases in the country is another reason for the high degree of crimes committed in the first place. This ends up becoming a vicious cycle. When conviction rates are so low, the law loses its deterrent effect.
Take violence against women for instance. Governments have been legislating harsher punishments for the crime, but it doesn't seem to reduce the incidence of such violence. What is needed rather is to increase conviction rates and speed up the judicial process. When criminals know that less 5% of criminals who go to trial for rape get convicted1, they are not so scared of the law.
We as Christians care about news such as the India Justice Report because we worship a God who is just. The God of the Bible cares deeply about justice, and so those who worship him likewise care about justice. At the same time, Bible believing Christians also recognise that the law and enforcement alone will not reform a society. Hearts don't just change out of fear of the law.
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/conviction-rate-just-256-in-rape-cases-for-trial-report/article68542661.ece