Sanjeev Sanyal to judges: 'Take leave for judgements, no reason to shut down whole system for weeks'

Noted economist Sanjeev Sanyal on Thursday hit back at those questioning his call for reforms in the judiciary. "Looks like the TN Bar Council has issued a fatwa against me for questioning the efficiency and vacations of the judicial system," he said in a tweet. The noted economist also offered a point-by-point rebuttal to those defending the present legal system.  

Sanyal recently pointed out that the Supreme Court and High Courts work for a few years and take long vacations. This, he said, needs to be changed especially when millions of cases are pending in courts.

The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP), and senior advocate and expert mediator Sriram Panchu defended the present system, saying judges spend holidays writing judgements. They also argued that the bureaucracy is very inefficient, of which Sanyal is a part.  

"Well, I agree. Hence all the efforts to do process reforms. Clearly, no one in the bar council has bothered to read anything I write about government systems (or economists for that matter). This is no justification for keeping legal processes inefficient," the economist, who is part of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, said. 

Sanyal also countered their argument that judges write judgements during vacations and holidays. "Very well, the judges are welcome to take leave like everyone else. There is no reason for the whole system to shut down for weeks on end," he said, adding that other members of society also work hard - corporate managers, scientists, politicians, journalists and even civil servants. 

"We are all participants in building India. No one asks for the system to shut down when they go on vacation." 

The economist said that he has heard statistics that some 73 per cent of all cases in the courts involve government departments. "Have heard such statistics thrown around before but, when I tried to substantiate it with data, I was unable to do so. I will be grateful if the TN Bar Council can give me the definite data so that we, as a country, can do something about it."

Sanyal's hard-hitting response came after the BCTNP condemned his call for reforms in the judiciary and said those who are acquainted with the court system will know that judges work for long hours and are burdened with cumbersome tasks which require them to stay in courts beyond regular hours.

"Contrary to public perception, weekends and vacations are spent writing and correcting the judgments and orders," P S Amalraj, president of BCTN, said in a statement.

A Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court recently said that it was very unfortunate that "despite efforts being put in by judges, it is said that judges work for very few hours." Justice Dipankar Datta said that those who say all this are part of governance. "Not one matter filed by Union (government) etc is filed within limitation. Every case has a condonation of delay application. All who castigate the judiciary must take note of this. We burn the midnight oil even during the vacations." 

Sanyal, in a podcast aired on May 12, said the judiciary must be modernised, and if not done, it will probably be the biggest obstacle to the country's economic, social, and national progress. "We will have to change the justice system. Think about this 'tareekh pe tareekh' system...High Courts and the Supreme Court take leave in summer and then take leave again in Dussehra. What is this system? They work for a few hours. All these old systems will have to be changed."

Last week, economist Shamika Ravi shared a study that showed that if the SC had worked every other Saturday, there would have been 28 per cent more judgements passed till now. Ravi, also a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, shared the paper that analysed the productivity of the apex court from 1950 to 2019. "Our analysis reveals that approximately 14,359 additional judgements would have been passed by the SC if the proportion of judgement days increased by a mere 10%," the study said.