The greatest loss this judicial activism has caused is that of the credibility of the only institution that the people of the country looked up to, until recently—with some hope of deliverance from “evil” politicians. The higher courts’ tendency to poke everybody everywhere has given rise to titters on twitter and facepalm moments on Facebook. @Babu-Bhaiyaa tweeted on Raksha Bandhan Day: “Supreme Court should also fix the maximum amount of money that a sister can demand from her brother after she ties the rakhi on his wrist.” An Anil Mattoo posted on Facebook: “MyLord just passed judgement: Radius of jalebi shouldn’t be more than 1.24 cms”, and was liked by hundreds and shared many times.

Nastier comments, about judges promoting their progeny, also surface, but we are not printing them for obvious reasons. However, what needs to be flagged is the fact that even ordinary citizens think the judiciary is out of line.

Lavish Lifestyle In The Face Of Backlog

While the CJI has made a scene—breaking down on one occasion at a function where Modi was in attendance—over a serious deficit of judges that, he claims is a major reason for delayed cases, it seems other judges prefer to waste time on trivial cases if they happen to catch the media’s fancy. In any case, justice delays are the result not only of many vacancies left unfilled, but also the excessive need for court vacations. The Supreme Court, which stopped listing pending cases in March 2015, had 61,300 cases pending in that month. But consider how many holidays the court has. Apart from 43 days of summer vacations, there are more than 40 other court holidays in 2016, not counting Saturdays and Sundays. This is far more than even most kindergarten schools.

And then you have splurging at the taxpayer’s expense. “Supreme Court spent Rs 38 lakh on Justice A.K. Sikri’s air tickets, Rs 37 lakh on CJI T.S. Thakur’s in 3 years” read a recent newspaper headline. Refer to The Economic Times of 17 June for more. Add to that the fact that four of the six judges who joined the apex court in the last two months are yet to declare their assets, livemint.com reports.

Just the normal cost to the exchequer incurred on a new judge is Rs 15 crore per annum on all his expenses including running his court and maintaining his lifestyle over and above his salary. And CJI Thakur is asking for 70,000 judges! That is about 10,000 more than the number of judges required if the country were to have 50 judges for every million of our population. India’s 16,438 judges in 9,930 subordinate courts, 621 judges in 24 High Courts and 29 judges in the Supreme Court must find out other ways to clear the backlog of 27-odd million cases.

CJI Thakur might well have not done his calculation properly. The rate of completion of cases is higher than that of filing of new cases. Between July 2014 and July 2015, for example, while 18,730,046 cases were cleared, 18,625,038 were filed.

Curiously, the courts are but averse to being told they should have more officers. Last month, the Madras High Court rapped Principal Secretary Apurva Varma for asking for compliance of Justice Shetty Commission recommendations on infrastructure, staff strength and pay details for judicial officers!

It would, however, be facile to conclude that the present set of judges has a political agenda against the current government. During UPA-1, in February 2008, then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee— also a lawyer by profession— had warned the judiciary against encroaching upon the territory of law makers.

No less than a former CJI, the late Justice J.S. Verma, found it difficult to support the Supreme Court’s order on corruption in 2011. In an interview he had said: “When I read the order, I found the precedents cited to justify it was the Jain hawala case. I was a little amused. I don’t think that is a valid reason. How can a retired judge be assumed to be the most competent authority to investigate? Moreover, it raises uncomfortable questions. The presence of a judge in the investigation might make the accused think the case is already weighed against him. I would not call it legitimate judicial intervention and if someone said it was judicial activism, I wouldn’t be able to contradict it. I find it difficult to support such an order.”

Corruption Of Judges

Chatterjee was so worked up by the judges’ overreach that he did not mince words in remarking that 20 percent of the judges were corrupt. This is a point Justice Katju never tires of making. He said last year that 50 percent of higher judiciary was corrupt. In the same league is eminent lawyer and former Minister of Law in the Morarji Desai government, Shanti Bhushan. In 2010, he had famously said that eight of the last 16 chief justices India had had since 1990 were corrupt.