Justice Ramana regretted that the lack of foresight in legislating is often directly resulting in the clogging of courts. He cited, for instance, the introduction of the Bihar Prohibition Act in 2016, which resulted in the High Court being clogged with bail applications. Because of this, a simple bail application took one year to be disposed of, he pointed out.Elaborating on the helplessness of the judiciary, the CJI pointed out how the role of the executive was crucial in ensuring justice. “The courts do not have the power of the purse or the sword. Court orders are only good when they get executed. The executive needs to assist and cooperate for the rule of law to prevail in the nation. However there appears to be a growing tendency to disregard, and even disrespect Court orders by the executive,” he said.The Chief Justice also spoke at length about the vexed problem of long pendency of cases and the heavy backlogs, which are hampering the delivery of justice for large number of litigants, shaking their faith in the judiciary.Recent statistics indicate that 4 crore 60 lakh cases are pending before Indian courts. By itself, this number is not a very useful indicator. Further, the population of India, which is nearly 1.4 billion, and the judge-to-population ratio of 21 judges per million must be kept in mind, Justice Ramana cautioned.(IPA Service)Views are personal
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