New Delhi:
Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan B. Lokur said on Tuesday that there were enough vacancies for the judges, but in fact there were not enough judges in the posts, resulting in justice denied.
“You may have enough vacancies, but you do not have enough judges. So where is the justice coming from?” He said that during the release of 2025 India Justice Report (IJR), which ranks states on the distribution of justice in the country.
Referring to the report, the former judge said that the vacancies in the district courts in the country were around 33 percent, while in the High Courts, the figures were around 21 percent.
“The fact of the fact that some time ago, the strength of the High Court judges increased by 25 percent, across the board, without any poetry or reason. Therefore, the Delhi High Court, for example, was the sanctioned spread of 48, which increased to 60.
“During a conference held in Delhi in February this year, in which (many) the Chief Justice participated, I was informed that there is not a single High Court, where the number of judges was equal to the approved strength before the 25 percent increase. Therefore, 48 judges in the Delhi High Court had never had 48 judges,” said the Justice (RETD) Lokur.
He said that the Law Commission of 1987 recommended 50 judges per million population, which meant 40,000 judges as per the then population.
“Today, the population is 1.4 billion, and if you take 50 per million, you need 70,000 judges. Now, out of 40,000, which was mentioned in 1987, IJR tells us that we now have 21,000 judges, while the number of sanctioned vacancies is 25,000, which means that the sanctioned vacancies are also not filled.
The former apex court judge said, “What the Law Commission had said 40 years ago. Today, the number (40,000) has gone up to 70,000; there is no way that you are going to get so many people.”
Justice (retired) Lokur said that another aspect was an essential employee for each judge, according to the Department of Justice, there were about seven-eight people per judge, meaning that about five lakh employees were to be admitted.
“Where are you going to get all these people? So the problem is going to continue until there is a desire to do anything about it,” he said.
He said that the idea of the village Judalis launched in 2009 with great enthusiasm was now faulty.
“It was an idea to tell people that, listen, you do not have to go to the district headquarters, you do not have to go to the High Court, you do not have to go to the Supreme Court. Just be your village Nyaya, and your legal problems will be taken care of.
“We are now 15 years below the line. There are hardly 40 or 50 grams of nyayalayas across the country, while thousands of people should have been. Most of the people who were installed with enthusiasm and enthusiasm are closed. People cannot even come to do justice?
Justice (retired) Lokur said that to improve the system, laws were to be implemented and implemented and that there were lots of data and information that could be analyzed to find intervals.
“But there must be a wish. A will to do this. And I am afraid of will lack,” he said.
The judge of the former apex court said that there was no problem of funds before the judiciary or the government.
“There is enough money running, by the way, a lot of money is going around, but not being spent. I know, as a matter of fact, in the 13th Finance Commission, Rs 5,000 crore (to the judiciary) was given, out of which Rs 980 crore was spent.
“The 14th Finance Commission doubled it for Rs 10,000 crore. Now, if the judiciary cannot spend Rs 5,000 crore, how do you expect it to spend Rs 10,000 crore? Therefore, money is available. The money is available. The point that I want to make is available, but the budget is a separate ball game, which will also have to use the fund.
The former judge said that children in conflict with law and children recorded in teenage houses in Delhi were facing equal conditions or problems, if not worse, compared to adult adult prisoners in Tihar.
“We have a teenage justice board in bad size. Children are not getting justice,” said Justice (retired) Lokur.
He also said that the tribunals were not able to provide justice to the people.
“There is a look at the tribunal, which is also a part of justice, and we have a lot of tribunals. Do they are giving justice? Union Administrative Tribunal, you have this loan recovery tribunal, you have consumer forums, commercial tribunals, national green tribunals, whose orders are bursting on daily basis. Are they giving justice? The former judge judge said.
Justice (retired) Lokur was elevated in the Supreme Court as a judge on 4 June 2012 and the office was removed on 30 December 2018. In December last year, he was appointed as the President of the UN Council of Internal Justice for the term ending November 12, 2028.
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