Systemic Rot: Indian Judiciary Declines, Facing Crisis of Credibility, New Report Finds

Systemic Rot: Indian Judiciary Declines, Facing Crisis of Credibility, New Report Finds

The India Judicial Research Report 2025 has been officially archived on Zenodo—a globally recognized research repository developed by the European OpenAIRE initiative and managed by CERN. This ensures worldwide visibility and academic traceability of its findings.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | October 21, 2025

New Delhi, India — The Indian judiciary is no longer fulfilling its constitutional role as an independent arbiter and is instead operating as a “compromised institution, plagued by inefficiency, opacity, and corruption,” according to the India Judicial Research Report 2025 (IJRR 2025). Authored by Rakesh Raman of RMN News Service, the report argues that the judicial decline is deeply systemic, threatening the democratic foundation of the country.

The decline is categorized primarily by a crisis of credibility. Courts are overwhelmed, facing nearly 50 million pending cases across the Supreme Court, High Courts, and subordinate courts. This staggering backlog means that justice is routinely denied by default, with hearings frequently adjourned for years, if not decades. India’s internal dysfunction is reflected globally, ranking the country at 79th out of 142 in the 2024 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, particularly lagging in Civil Justice, Criminal Justice, and the Absence of Corruption.

Evidence of Bias and Elite Protection

The report emphasizes that sheer pendency is not the core problem; the deeper issue lies in the quality and impartiality of judicial outcomes. Observers point to a consistent and troubling pattern of bias:

• Political Protection: High-profile politicians accused of corruption or serious crimes are swiftly granted bail or acquitted, often without a full trial.
• Selective Persecution: Conversely, activists, students, and dissenters—including those like Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam—are repeatedly denied bail, causing them to languish in jail for years under stringent laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). This contrast is seen as demonstrating a double standard.
• Enabling Executive Overreach: In practice, the judiciary often acts as an enabler of arbitrary state power and executive overreach.
• Post-Retirement Rewards (Sinecures): The practice of rewarding retired judges with lucrative government-appointed positions raises serious questions about the neutrality of the judgments they delivered while in office.

Systemic Failures and Incompetence

The IJRR 2025 also identifies major internal causes of the decline:

• Opaque Appointments: Judicial selections remain secretive, which allows nepotism, casteism, and political favoritism to flourish within the collegium system.
• Professional Incompetence: The defective education and training of lawyers and judges contribute significantly to the decline. Reports from the Bar Council of India indicate that approximately 30% of lawyers in India hold fraudulent degrees.
• Technological Lag: A lack of proficiency in English among many judges and lawyers impedes engagement with international precedents and legal texts. Despite significant funding for digital initiatives like the e-Courts Mission Phase III, courts still rely heavily on printed paperwork, compromising efficiency and accuracy. Failures of systems like the Delhi High Court E-Filing Portal demonstrate how technology often amplifies existing institutional dysfunction rather than solving it.
• Human Cost: The failure of the justice system is not abstract; citizens lose property, liberty, and livelihoods due to endless delays, and civil society loses faith in the rule of law.

The report concludes that half-hearted attempts at reform are insufficient to address the “systemic rot”. It calls for a comprehensive transformation based on transparency in judicial appointments, strong accountability mechanisms for judges and lawyers, the mandatory use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and expert systems to audit judgments for bias, and systemic checks against post-retirement sinecures. Without these structural changes, the report warns, India risks collapsing into a regime where the rule of law is permanently subverted by political expediency and judicial complicity.

The India Judicial Research Report 2025 has been officially archived on Zenodo—a globally recognized research repository developed by the European OpenAIRE initiative and managed by CERN. This ensures worldwide visibility and academic traceability of its findings.

The report is freely available for access, download, and citation via its permanent Digital Object Identifier (DOI). By securing international archiving, the report offers a credible reference point for global research on judicial reform, corruption, and human rights in India.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.

As a technology and AI expert, his professional focus is on applying emerging AI and digital technologies to enhance decision-making, operational efficiency, transparency, and democratic participation in governance, media, and business systems. You can click here to view his full profile.

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