Lok Sabha Question No. 946 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-08
Subject: Ratio of Judges Per Million Population
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Dushyant Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.946 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 08 TH  DECEMBER, 2023

## RATIO OF JUDGES PER MILLION POPULATION

## 946. SHRI DUSHYANT SINGH:

## Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government is lagging behind Law Commission's 1987 target of reaching 50 judges per million population in a decade;
- (b) if so, the details of the current ratio of judges per million population and the timeline if any to bridge this gap;
- (c) the current number of pending cases in the higher courts;
- (d) whether cost incurred due to delay in disposal of pending cases has any impact
- on the GDP; and
- (e) if so, the details of cost incurred due to delay in disposal of pending cost and its annual impact on GDP?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

## (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

- (a) & (b): As  per  the  target  recommended  by  Law  Commission's  1987  Report recommending 50 judges per million population, presently the judge - population ratio in the country works out to be approximately 21 Judges per million population. In order to calculate the judge-population ratio for per million population in a particular year, the Ministry  of  Law  and  Justice  uses  the  criterion  based  on  the  population  data  as  per Census 2011 (1210.19 million) and the sanctioned strength of Judges in Supreme Court, High Court and District & Subordinate Courts in the year 2023.

In  so  far  as  timeline  for  bridging  the  gap  in  judges'  strength  is  concerned,  the increase  of  judges'  strength  in  the  higher  judiciary  is  a  continuous  and  collaborative exercise between  the Executive and  Judiciary. Further, in case of District  and Subordinate  courts,  the  need  for  appropriate  number  of  judges  and  the  consequent requirement for filling up of the vacancies lies in the domain of respective High Courts and the State  Governments. It can be seen that over a period of time, the strength of Judiciary  has  seen  a  marked  increase  with  District  Judiciary's  working  strength  of 15,115  judicial  officers  as  against  sanctioned  strength  of  19,518  in  the  year  2014 increasing to a working strength of 20,026 as against sanctioned strength of 25,423 in the year 2023. Similarly, from 2014 till present, 61 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court. 964 new Judges were appointed and 694 Additional Judges were made permanent in the High Courts. Sanctioned strength of Judges of Supreme Court increased from 31 in 2014 to 34 now while sanctioned strength of High Court Judges has been increased from 906 in 2014 to 1114 at present.

(c): The current number of pending cases in the higher courts is given below:-

|   S. No. | Name of Court          | Details of Pendency as on 04.12.2023*   |
|----------|------------------------|-----------------------------------------|
|        1 | Supreme Court of India | 80,102                                  |
|        2 | High Courts            | 61,79,185                               |

*Source: National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

(d) & (e): There  is  as  such  no  data  available  on  the  cost  incurred  due  to  delay  in disposal of pending cases and its impact on GDP.  However, the Government is aware that  early  disposal  of  pending  cases  helps  in  improving  the  overall  economic  growth. Accordingly,  the  Economic  Survey  2018-2019  had  concluded  that  a  well-functioning legal  system  has  a  profound  impact  on  the  economy.  The  Government's  efforts  of introducing  the  Insolvency  and  Bankruptcy  Code  and  the  adoption  of  the  Goods  and Services  Tax,  have  had  a  profound  impact  on  improving  Ease  of  Doing  Business (EoDB) in India, with the country being one of the biggest 'improvers' in the World Bank's last Doing Business Report (DBR) 2020, with its latest rank jumping to 63 from the earlier 142 in the year 2014. Further, with a view to reduce pendency and unclogging of  the  courts,  the  Government  has  recently  amended various laws  like  the  Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Commercial Courts (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2018.

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