Join the IJS, another steel frame we need

One of the most unfortunate features of the Indian judicial system is the high pendency of cases. According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), 510 million cases are pending across the judicial pipeline, including 82,989 pending cases, an all-time high, in the Supreme Court. In his address at a conference on 75 years of the district judiciary on Sunday, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said that tackling pending cases remains a critical challenge, and that increasing the disposal-to-filing ratio is important, but this hinges on attracting skilled personnel to the system. He added that the time has come to think of 'national integration' by recruiting members of judicial services across the 'narrow walls of regionalism' and 'state-centred selections'.

CJI's endorsement of an all-India judicial service, along the lines of IAS or IPS, has been on the NDA government's wishlist, and underscores the practical benefits of a national-level service. GoI's 2015 proposal had virtually no takers, with most states pushing back on the grounds of violating the federal nature of the polity or linguistic barriers. Interestingly, linguistic barriers have not posed an insurmountable problem for the administrative or police services.

An all-India judicial service will bring much-needed transparency to judicial appointments by creating a system based on established criteria. Besides attracting high-quality legal talent into the system, it will break the local and state-level nexus between political and judicial establishments and ensure inclusivity. This will enhance the quality of justice and accelerate its delivery while creating a strong pool of candidates for the higher judiciary. Strengthening the judicial system is essential to bolstering the health of our democratic polity.