Sitting in judgment: Issues and solutions for efficient judgment delivery

Civil litigation in India is hampered by outdated court practices, unchecked frivolous litigations, and frequent adjournments, making the system unsuited for the 21st Century.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 In most states these rules are outdated and obstructive to modern technology integration.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.

Expediting judgment delivery

Judgment and decree form the penultimate stage of the lifecycle of a civil case. A judgment provides comprehensive reasons behind the decision of the court, while the decree provides the executable aspects of the same, such as the costs due. Order XX, Rule 1 of the First Schedule of CPC states that judgment must be pronounced within 30 days of the conclusion of the hearing, which may be extended to 60 days under extraordinary circumstances. Despite the procedural mandate, judgments continue to be delayed in several cases, prompting litigants to approach the High Courts for expedited pronouncement. This final paper in the consultation series, therefore, seeks to identify the reasons for delay in pronouncement of judgments and offer procedural, technological and personnel-related solutions for the same.

About the Authors

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.

Atishya Kumar (Research Fellow)

Atishya was a Research Fellow with the JALDI team at Vidhi. She completed her B.A. LL.B (Hons.) from the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi in 2018 and went on to pursue her LLM in Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham in 2019, for which she was awarded the Developing Solutions Master Scholarship. Her areas of interest include gender rights, diversity, and inclusion. Her experience includes working with governmental organisations like the National Human Rights Commission and the Department of Justice. Prior to joining Vidhi, Atishya was a Director at IDIA Charitable Trust. In her free time, Atishya can be found baking, reading or binging Netflix.