• News
  • India News
  • Judges lose 55% of court time in admin work, hearings take a beating: Study
This story is from December 18, 2017

Judges lose 55% of court time in admin work, hearings take a beating: Study

Up to 55% of court time is spent by judges each day on tasks such as reissuing summons, fixing dates for future hearings and case administration decisions rather than judicial functions such as hearings, a nationwide survey conducted by Bengaluru-based Daksh has found.
Judges lose 55% of court time in admin work, hearings take a beating: Study
NEW DELHI: Up to 55% of court time is spent by judges each day on tasks such as reissuing summons, fixing dates for future hearings and case administration decisions rather than judicial functions such as hearings, a nationwide survey conducted by Bengaluru-based Daksh has found.
The study analysed over 91,000 court hearings involving over 6,000 cases across the country and argued that even without more manpower, the judiciary can enhance efficiency and double case disposal rate by delegating “non-substantive” work to court-appointed administrative officers rather than burdening judges.

The data analysed by Daksh also showed that an average 87 cases got listed each day before a subordinate court judge and about half were adjourned. “This is far too many, given that a judge sits in an open court for only about five-and-a-half hours. This means that on an average, judges have a little more than three-and-a-half minutes on each case,” it said.
This long list of cases before each judge created pressure to hear each case and affected the fundamental objective of a fair hearing, the report said. The study found that in 40% of the 91,797 hearings analysed, other than the date of next hearing, there was absolutely no additional information available on proceedings.
years-pendency

“Of the hearings for which information was available, 47% were adjournments. The reasons for adjournment were varied and attributable to all actors in the system, including the judge, parties to the case, advocates, witnesses and court administrators,” the report said.
“Delegating these functions (issuing summonses and administrative matters) to an administrative officer will give every judge nearly double the time each day for dealing with substantive matters and can significantly improve day-to-day efficiency of courts,” it added.

The study pointed out that case flow management rules notified by most high courts already provided for delegation to an administrative officer. “However, this has not been implemented successfully because the registry in subordinate courts does not have suitable officers who can deal with these issues authoritatively,” the report said.
Daksh offered a solution: appointing retired district judges for a period of two years to deal with procedural matters in the registry. “This will ensure proper procedure of implementing case flow management rules and also help subordinate courts to evolve an efficient longer-term process to deal with administrative matters,” it said.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA