Reforming the Art of Oral Advocacy: Mitigating delays during final arguments

Civil litigation in India is hampered by outdated court practices, unchecked frivolous litigations, and frequent adjournments, making the system unsuited for the 21st Century. The judicial system requires a significant overhaul to modernise and streamline processes. The Civil Rules of Practice (“CRP”) promulgated by each High Court combined with the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (“CPC”), govern civil litigation practice in district courts of India. While amendments to CPC, a centralised legislation will take considerable time and effort, the state level CRP can and should be modernised on a priority basis. In most states these rules are outdated and obstructive to modern technology integration.

This consultation series therefore aims to modernise civil litigation in India’s District Judiciary through the formulation of a Model Civil Rules of Practice. To achieve this, each paper in the series comprehensively looks into a specific stage in the lifecycle of a civil suit, questions the current processes and reimagines them with technology and simplified legal rules at its core.

Reducing delays in final arguments

The stage of ‘arguments’ in a civil proceeding presents an opportunity for both parties to convince the judge of their pleadings, supported by the evidence adduced. The National Judicial Data Grid (“NJDG”) reveals that as of May 2024, approximately 10% of all of the 43,91,655 cases pending at the stage of hearing/evidence/arguments across District Courts in India are specifically pending at the stage of final arguments. This paper seeks to propose reforms for enhancing efficiency, optimising time and resources, and ensuring effective advocacy for meaningful justice. In this regard, two major structural reforms – tackling “adjournment culture” and reshaping the current practice of oral advocacy for swifter dispute resolution – are analysed in light of the overarching ‘ideal’ model of civil litigation developed in the earlier papers in this Series.

About the Authors

Priyamvadha Shivaji (Senior Resident Fellow)

Priyamvadha is a Senior Resident Fellow with the Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in India (JALDI) team at Vidhi. Her areas of interest include judicial reforms, constitutional law, and women's rights. At JALDI, her work primarily focuses on ensuring user-friendly, universally accessible, and efficient justice systems at all levels of the Indian judiciary. She graduated with a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad in 2020 and obtained the BCL from the University of Oxford in 2021. She has previously provided research assistance on independent projects. She enjoys reading, writing speculative fiction and poetry, quizzing, and learning new languages.

Jyotika Randhawa (Senior Resident Fellow)

Jyotika is a Senior Resident Fellow with the Justice, Access, and Lowering Delays (JALDI) team at Vidhi. She completed her B.A.LLB. from ILS Law College and went on to pursue her Master's from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She has worked extensively within the Juvenile Justice System as part of her fieldwork at TISS. Her interests lie at the intersection of law, research, and advocacy and include Criminal law, Criminology, and Human Rights law. When not working, Jyotika enjoys reading, painting, and spending time with cats.