Letters: Courting a weakness

India's court system is clogged by an overburden of cases, most often the result of the litigious nature of certain laws relating to property. At the same time, courts are under-staffed and judges under-paid. As a result, many judges are forced to pass verdicts after relying disproportionately on oral arguments put forth by counsels, without being able to go in depth into the merits and demerits of each case, especially considering pages of evidence routinely run into hundreds and thousands of pages. Many powerful businessmen have realised this lacuna in the system, and exploited it by ensuring that the top 10 or 15 counsels in their relevant state's capital city are somehow on their payrolls. This precludes those counsels from appearing on behalf of anyone who opposes these entities due to a conflict of interest. The resultant perversion of the cause of justice is plain to see. Instead of trying to push carbohydrates down the throats of the malnourished, the government of India might increase its budgetary allocations towards the justice system, before this justice of the mob turns into mob justice.

Rohan Soares Mumbai

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