Inefficiency, out of court

Poor governance is adding to judiciary's woes

The large number of vacancies in the appointment of judges is a well-known systemic weakness of the Indian judicial system. Less acknowledged is the leading contributory role that governments at the Centre and states play in compounding the problem. That was the blunt analysis by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana addressing the joint conference of the chief ministers and chief justices of the high courts at New Delhi last week. In his forthright address in the presence of the prime minister, who had inaugurated the conference, Justice Ramana pointed out that the government accounts for half the pending