Judicial reforms are essential to maintain rule of law: VIT Chancellor

The laminitis and chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), G. Viswanathan, connected Wednesday said that reforms successful the judiciary stay indispensable for a antiauthoritarian state similar India to bring indispensable changes successful upkeep of the regularisation of law.

Speaking astatine Advocate V.C. Rajagopalachariar (VCR) Memorial Lecture, which was organised by VIT astatine its field here, Mr. Viswanathan said that judicial reforms are urgently needed successful India arsenic pending cases earlier courts successful the state is expanding everyday.

For example, astir 5.3 crore cases are pending earlier assorted courts successful the state arsenic of November 2025. Of these, 1.7 lakh cases person been pending for implicit 30 years. “In its study successful 2018, NITI Aayog had said that it would instrumentality much than 324 years to wide the backlog erstwhile the pendency was 2.9 crore cases. Without judicial reforms, the situation cannot beryllium addressed,” helium said.

The chancellor said that courts should guarantee speedy justness to victims arsenic the fig of undertrials, without an accidental to perceive their cases, is connected the rise. For instance, Jammu & Kashmir has 96% of its full undertrials down bars without trial, followed by Maharashtra (85%) and Bihar (87%). “Lack of a circumstantial clip framework to grip cases and shortage of judges successful each courts are reasons for the immense backlog of cases. For example, India has lone 15 judges per cardinal colonisation arsenic against 300 judges successful China, 150 judges (USA) and 57 (England),” helium said.

Former Supreme Court justice Justice (retd) Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and Sekar Viswanathan, vice-president, VIT, were contiguous connected the occasion.