Plea Bargaining Has Been A Non-Starter, Compounding And Probation Need Legislative Focus: CJI Sanjiv Khanna In Constitution Day Address

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, addressing the Constitutional Day celebrations at the Supreme Court, shed light on pressing concerns in the judiciary, including backlog of cases, delays, costs of litigation, access to justice, and trust deficit in the system. He elaborated on some of these issues while highlighting efforts to address them.

Pointing to specific issues, CJI Khanna highlighted the backlog of cheque-bouncing cases, which constitute 9 percent of pending cases in trial courts. He also highlighted the limited success of plea bargaining, compounding, and probation, as an area requiring legislative intervention.

“The backlog of check bouncing cases in our district courts have reached an alarming proportion - nearly 9% of the cases pending in the trial court. Data also reveals plea bargaining has been a non-starter. Compounding and probation have not gained acceptance. Perhaps these require legislative interference.”

The CJI also drew attention to the disparity between the judicial workforce and the prison population. With approximately 20,000 judges at the district level and 750 High Court judges, the judiciary handles a prison population of 5.23 lakh. Despite this disparity, data reflects efficient case handling, he said.

“This vast disparity for those seeking justice and those tasked with dispensing it should basically typically forecast a paralyzed system. Yet data tells another story. In 2022, in spite of influx of 18,00,000 new inmates, the judiciary facilitated release of about 15,00,000 prisoners out of which 3,00,000 undertrials were released within the first year, achieving 69% release rate. 2024 data further highlights this efficiency. By November 24, courts have released about 5.38 lakh prisoners, surpassing 5.29 new admissions”, the CJI highlighted.

The CJI noted the staggering volume of cases flowing into the courts leading to high pendency of cases. However, he emphasized that these figures reflect a challenge but also the public's trust in the judiciary as the ultimate arbiter of justice.

“This year alone, our judicial system received over 2.8 crore cases in the district courts and about 16.6 lakh cases in the High Court and around 54,000 cases in the Supreme Court. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are more than 4.54 crore cases pending in the district courts and 61,00,000 cases pending in the high courts. These numbers reflect the challenge and yet they represent deep trust citizens place on our courts as ultimate arbiters of justice. Our district courts have shown remarkable improvement in efficiency, particularly in civil matters”, the CJI said.

He commended district courts for improving efficiency, particularly in civil matters.

Our district courts have shown remarkable improvement in efficiency, particularly in civil matters. The case clearance rate, a clear metric of judicial productivity, has risen steadily from 98.29% in 2022 to impressive 101.74% in 2024. Last year alone, our district courts resolved over 20,00,000 criminal cases and more than 8,00,000 civil cases. The Supreme Court, too, has enhanced its performance with our case clearance rate, driving from 95% to 97%. These improvements, while encouraging, remind us that our journey towards efficient justice system is ongoing and lot of steps have to be taken.

CJI Khanna appreciated the government's approval of Rs. 7200 crore for Phase 3 of the E-Courts project, enabling the judiciary to enhance its core functions. He highlighted the introduction of real-time transcription and speech-to-text tools in the Supreme Court and some district courts, which aim to address the issue of "truth deficit" and improve justice delivery.

The CJI spoke about the role of the National Judicial Data Grid, a comprehensive repository of case and litigation data. He underlined its utility in policy formulation, performance appraisal, and infrastructure planning. He also emphasized the importance of judicial impact assessment to evaluate laws' effectiveness and identify areas for legislative reform.

“We have often spoken about the need for judicial impact assessment at the time when the laws are enacted. However, there's another element of judicial impact assessment. This is in the form of statistics and data in the grid for analyzing the laws and their implementation. In this data-driven era, the availability of judicial statistics represents an untapped opportunity for conduct of thorough impact assessment and transform governance. Judicial impact assessment is a tool to identify, modify or repeal, re-enact laws and their correction. It enables us to correct characteristics where the law is burdensome for the people to follow or implementation is problematic”, he said.

Concluding his speech, CJI Khanna quoted Albert Einstein emphasizing the need to "rethink, reimagine, and act with a renewed vision" to address challenges and move towards a more efficient justice system.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Supreme Court judges Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant, Attorney General R Venkataramani, SCBA President Kapil Sibal and BCI Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra spoke at the event.