The "enormous delay" in disposal of cases allows undertrial criminals to indulge in more heinous offences, the Supreme Court today said while citing lack of judges as one of the reasons for the malady.
"Such enormous delay in the disposal of cases also comes in handy for the criminals to indulge in more and more of such heinous crimes and in that process, the interest of the common man is sacrificed," a five-judge bench, while deciding issues arising out of Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, said.
"It is common knowledge that disposal of cases by courts is getting delayed for variety of reasons. Major among them are the disproportionate judges: population ratio and lack of proper infrastructure for the institution of judiciary.
"... The above factors also added to the large pendency of criminal and civil cases in the courts which results in abnormal delay in the guilty getting punished then and there," it said.
In 2009, the judges' population ratio was "8 judges for 1 million persons here, while "it was 50 judges per million population in Western countries," the bench remarked in its over 250-page verdict.
