How India’s court system affects Modi’s plan to lure investors away from China
- Nearly 40 million cases are pending across the country, including about 173,000 which have been languishing in state courts for over two decades
- While India is rated highly for overall ease of doing business, it ranks bottom in the world when it comes to enforcing contracts
The Supreme Court ended the 38-year saga of an alleged turmeric forger, who was arrested in 1982 and, eventually, sentenced to a month in jail and a 500 rupee (US$6.70) fine. After a decade, the top court reversed his conviction; the two lower courts took around 14 years each to render verdicts.
The lifespan of the turmeric case is extreme but not unique among the nearly 40 million cases pending across the country’s three-tiered judicial system.
Among cases in 25 state high courts, roughly 173,000 have been pending for more than 20 years, and roughly half of those for more than 30, government data showed.
The World Bank ranks India in the top one-third of countries for overall ease of doing business, but when it comes to enforcing contracts – a measure of legal efficiency – the South Asian nation lands in the bottom 15 per cent, worse than Pakistan, Syria and Senegal.
“It’s pretty incredible,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank in Singapore. “The complexity, the unnecessary delays – it shows how India lags countries like China in their judicial system and just how much further they have to go.”