Legal and judicial reform in India: a call for systemic and empirical approaches

Judicial delays and high pendency is a serious problem that has rule of law and fundamental rights implications. Law and judicial reform in India aimed at reducing judicial delays and pendency have met with limited success since they have been almost solely focused on increasing the number of courts and such other supplydriven mechanisms without ascertaining the causes of delay. This paper argues for re-orienting law and judicial reform by engaging in empirical methods. In so arguing, this paper also exposes the difficulties in using empirical methods in India owing to the unavailability of crucial data. It also suggests some nonconventional solutions for more effective and efficient civil and criminal justice systems