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Walk into an Indian courtroom in 2025 and you may think you’ve stumbled into a Victorian theatre. Lawyers sweating in black gowns and stiff collars, bowing to judges addressed as “My Lord,” filing pleadings that begin with “May it please the court, I humbly pray…” It’s as if the British never left—except now the empire is run by clerks, adjournments, and endless pendency.
Meanwhile, India has moved on. The colonial Indian Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes are gone, Labour laws too have been rationalized into four codes meant to replace 29 archaic statutes. Yet while statutes are being rewritten, the courts remain frozen in colonial cosplay.
The Numbers That Shame Us
India’s justice system today carries the disgrace of over five crore pending cases. Nearly 85% sit in district courts, while the Supreme Court itself groans under nearly 90,000 pending matters. Far from reducing backlog, the top court’s pendency has risen month after month in 2025.
Worse, the human cost: undertrials make up about 76% of India’s prison population. In some jails, every single inmate is an undertrial. Citizens not convicted of anything are rotting in cells for years because the courts cannot—or will not—hear their cases. Taxpayers foot the bill. Justice delayed here isn’t just denied; it is destroyed.
The Holiday Court
And then there is the vacation culture. The Supreme Court in 2025 will “work” about 190 days. It still takes long summer breaks, Holi breaks, Dussehra breaks, Diwali breaks, and Christmas breaks—thinly disguised with “vacation benches.” But to the poor man waiting for bail, the court is simply shut. Do our hospitals go dark for festivals? Do the police vanish for summer recess? Then why should judges, who hold liberty in their hands, vanish for weeks at a time?
A court that locks up three out of four prisoners without conviction and then goes on holiday four times a year is not justice—it’s parody.
Colonial Habits Die Hard
It is not just vacations. Courtroom culture reeks of a bygone era. Black coats designed for London fog make no sense in Delhi heat. The feudal form of address—“My Lord”—is insulting in a republic. The legalese—res judicata, obiter dicta, locus standi—is alien to ordinary Indians. And pleadings, stuffed with florid English and phrases like “prayer” and “humble submission,” sound less like justice in a democracy and more like supplication to a colonial master.
What Must Change
First, kill the cosplay. Judges don’t need to be Lords; they need to be accessible. Dump the gowns, the bands, the ritual bowing. Courtrooms should radiate clarity, not costume drama.
Second, justice must be continuous. Doctors and cops don’t go on vacation en masse. Courts should not either. Bail hearings, undertrial reviews, and urgent civil relief must run 365 days a year. Publish disposal dashboards during breaks to prove the court is working, not resting.
Third, clean the undertrial swamp. Mandate bail audits every 30, 60, 90 days. Impose hard caps on pre-trial detention except for the gravest crimes. Use video-conferencing to speed hearings. Tie prison superintendents’ performance ratings to reduction of undertrial populations.
Fourth, industrial-scale case management. The National Judicial Data Grid already tracks pendency. Use it. Automatic cause lists must prioritize oldest cases. Saturday mornings should be reserved for fast-track hearings. Impose strict page limits and require plain-language summaries in every filing.
Fifth, fill the benches. Vacancies in the judiciary are the boring but central villain. Expand sanctioned strength across all tiers. Introduce mobile courts for small claims, cheque bouncing, traffic offenses. Publish dashboards showing both vacancies and pendency. Sunlight forces accountability.
Sixth, speak the people’s language. Orders must be issued in local languages with machine translation and human oversight. If the litigant cannot read the order in his own tongue, the system has failed him.
The Bottom Line
A justice system that locks up three out of four prisoners without conviction, piles up five crore pending cases, and goes on holiday four times a year is not a pillar of democracy. It is a museum of colonial rituals. India may have given new Sanskrit names to old laws, but unless we shed the black robes, the feudal bows, the long vacations, and the complacency, we will continue to deliver 19th-century justice in a 21st-century nation.
Scrap the colonial cringe. Keep the constitutional core. And for once, may it please the court not to vanish for recess but to show up, suit down, and speed up.
Mohan Murti
Advocate & Industry Arbitrator
Former Managing Director-Europe
Reliance Industries Ltd. Germany
Member of the Supervisory Board,
Innoplexus AG, Germany
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