CJI Thakur slams Modi govt, says strong judicial system will tempt investors

Chief Justice T S Thakur attacked the Modi government on Sunday for not appointing adequate number of judges, and warned that none of its ambitious initiatives to bring in more investments from abroad, including Make In India and Skill India, will succeed till it makes the country's delay-prone judiciary effective.

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NEED TO STRENGTHEN JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Making several stinging remarks while addressing an international conference on arbitration at Vigyan Bhawan where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were present, Thakur said a major concern which any foreign investor has regarding safety of his investment is the efficacy of the judicial system of the country where he is going to invest. "If the judicial system is sound, he is tempted to invest. Therefore, there is need to strengthen the judicial system. It is intensively and deeply connected with our ambition to attract more and more investment from other countries", he said.

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The CJI said the government wanted FDI, and people from abroad to invest in India, but reminded that those whom it was inviting were concerned about the ability of the judicial system of the country to deal with disputes speedily that may arise in connection with such investment.

"So efficiency of the judicial system is connected to the development of the country", he said. Thakur is known to make such comments, but few expected it at a forum where Chief Justices, judges and officials of foreign arbitration companies were among the audience.

The CJI went on to say: "In this country, 18,000 judges are handling 50 million cases. The avalanche of cases is putting the judicial system under tremendous stress. At present, there is a vacancy of 5,300 judges in subordinate courts and 450 in High Courts."

NUMBERS SPEAK

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The comments came at a time when the total case pendency across the country stands at 3.3 crore. While 2.65 crore are stuck in subordinate courts, 64 lakh are pending in high courts. The most worrying part is that nearly 60 per cent of these are over one-year-old, and of them, 40 per cent are more than five-years-old.

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Some 59,458 cases are pending in the Supreme Court. Referring to recent amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act to make the process of out-of-the-court settlement hassle-free and timely, Thakur said arbitration, conciliation and mediation as old ways of settling cases provides relief not only to litigants but also to overworked courts and judges.

"In this country, right from the apex court to a Munsiff court, judges are over burdened. Arbitration is a good idea but again the real trouble starts after the award. Once it is challenged, they keep pending in the court for decades," he said. "We are poised to overtake China and US in terms of economic growth and each Indian should be proud of that. But we remain very low in terms of ease of doing business", he added.

Foreign companies that partner with Indian businesses are increasingly approaching countries outside India for dispute resolution. In the World Bank Report on the 'Ease of Doing Business', India has improved its position by 12 ranks. However, on the Enforcement of Contracts, India fares extremely poor and ranks 178 out of 189 countries.

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