The PTI reported the law ministry releasing data that: according to the latest data compiled by the Law Ministry, as on [1 August], the high courts were facing a shortage of 384 judges as against the approved strength of 1017. Thus, the 24 high courts are functioning with a working strength of 633 j...

The Hindu reported that the Rule of Law Index 2015 by the US-based World Justice Project has placed India 59th out of 102 countries globally for its rule of law performance on a number of metrics. On criminal justice India ranked 44th, while for civil justice it ranked 88th globally, third in South ...

The cabinet will introduce The Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill 2015 in the current parliamentary session “taking into consideration the Law Commission’s recommendations”, according to a release from the Press Information Bureau (PIB). F...

Hot on the heels of the government getting ready to create special fast-track commercial divisions of all high courts , Delhi high court chief justice G Rohini has decided to redesignate four benches of the Delhi high court to exclusively handle commercial disputes, of which around 20,000 are curren...

Legal scholar Nick Robinson explores how (and if) the proposed new commercial fast-track courts might work.

To address the backlog of pending cases relating to criminal and taxation matters, the Supreme Court has set up two benches to exclusively hear them on a daily basis when the court resumes work after the Holi break on 9 March, it was announced Monday. Apex court registrar MK Hanjura Monday said that...

A group of lawyers analysed 884 judgments handed down by the Supreme Court in the 2014 calendar year and found that only 64, or 7 per cent, involved any substantive constitutional issues.

The second National Lok Adalat held across India Saturday involving the Supreme Court, 24 high courts, districts courts and taluka-level courts saw the settlement of a record number of 1.25 crore cases, that also resulted in reducing the pendency of cases by about nine percent. “Approximately, 1.25 ...

A total of 62,641 cases were disposed of and settlement amount of Rs 65 crore awarded by various Delhi courts on the Second National Lok Adalat Saturday. “As many as 201 benches took up all kind of cases i.e. civil cases, criminal compoundable cases, Negotiable Instrument Act cases, electricity case...

With the objective to reduce its dependency on courts and avoid unnecessary litigation involving its ministries and departments, the government was formulating the National Litigation Policy (NLP), Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said today. “The proposed policy has been sent to various ministries f...

“The judges are serious about rendering speedy justice to litigants. In most cases, the law has already been succinctly laid down and does not require further arguments to delay a verdict. Those cases need to be decided fast with crisp judgments focusing only on facts in the backdrop of the already ...

Madras high court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has ordered that every judgment must mention on its first page, the dates on which it was reserved and pronounced, in a bid to increase transparency of and reduce the delay in pronouncing judgments, reported The Hindu . Kaul relied on the 13-year-ol...

Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha has notified the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 that have received the president’s assent and will reduce the maximum time of the apex court’s summer vacations from 10 to 7 weeks, reported the Indian Express , though the total annual holidays will remain capped at 10...

The SC has said that from 8 July, two benches would only hear miscellaneous matters in service matters, cheque bounce appeals and labour matters.

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), through president Pravin Parekh, wrote to Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha suggesting that in his proposed scheme of 365-days working courtrooms, lawyers be consulted before listing their matters on what would otherwise be non-working days. Asking for “...

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*Delhi lawyer Prashant Reddy argues that many of the plans for reforming the Indian courts fail to see the most fundamental problem - a lack of transparency – and proposes several ideas to fixing it.

The Hindu ’s senior court reporter J Venkatesan has interviewed Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam, who retires tomorrow from his post. In the hour-long interview, excerpts of which were published by the paper, Sathasivam recounted how he rose to the highest judicial office in the country fro...

Despite the BCI chairman’s recent ringing personal but apparently representative endorsement of Narendra Modi, lawyers will have to make their own choice this election. LI tries to help.

Law minister Kapil Sibal has written to all chief justices to get recommended names on how to increase each HC’s bench strength by 25%, taking the total size of India’s higher judiciary to 1,112 from 906. Nevertheless, there are already 250 vacancies, even without the new plan [The Hindu]

With Lok Sabha elections now scheduled to start on 7 April it is fair to ask: what has the current government done for India’s legal profession? And can any of the others do better?