he launch of the Rule of Law Project and website by DAKSH at Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan on Saturday, 7 February, 2015, was a gathering of well-wishers, members from the legal community, researchers, and citizens concerned with governance.

There is a consensus in popular and expert opinion that the Indian judicial system is facing a crisis.

A friend recalled something a friend of his had said on hearing how Joseph K, the protagonist of Kafka’s The Trial, waited outside the court not knowing what his crime is: “Why? Didn’t he know anyone inside?!” This anecdote is of course more than an anecdote.

Twenty four states, two thousand five hundred and fifty three unique values, all to be sorted into a 290 x 24 matrix. This was the December that Shiva and I faced.

As a part of the Rule of Law Project, Ramya and I were assigned the task of doing something which had never been done before. 24 High Courts, about 2000 different case types (each case is classified into a particular type by the Court.

In the process of unfurling our research method at The Rule of Law project it has been important to examine what data can help us frame information that can answer the question of what “delay” and “pendency” really means, outside of the anecdotal narratives that get thrown up both in the media and in reports of and by the courts themselves.

Just last week, the mother of all delayed cases – the Disproportionate Assets Case against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, under the Prevention of Corruption Act – has come to a head.

DAKSH and India Together (www.indiatogether.org) have instituted the DAKSH-India Together Fellowship to encourage data journalism centered around elections.

In election season, everybody is a pundit and has a view about the factors that will determine the outcome of the election. The diversity of the electorate ensures that everyone can get their voice in and can claim credit for predicting something right! One of the all-time favourites during election is the argument around caste and its importance.

Caveat emptor: I wish I knew. And so do hundreds of wannabe-MPs right now, I’m sure. Karthik Shashidhar’s very interesting analysis of our data in Mint earlier this week documents some of the reasons we heard from nearly 2.5 lakh people across the country.