Tribunals were set up to offer swift, cost-effective, and decentralised resolution to legal disputes. The principal idea was that these quasi-judicial bodies would comprise members with specific sector expertise to deliver better-informed judgments relatively swiftly, reducing the caseload on regular courts. It is deeply concerning, therefore, to discover that India’s commercial tribunals in particular suffer from the same infirmities as the regular judicial system.

India’s commercial tribunals are grappling with a mounting backlog of 356,000 cases, worth ₹24.72 trillion, as of September, according to a study by legal think-tank DAKSH. The value of these pending cases amounts to about 7.48 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2024-25, the think-tank estimates in its State of Tribunals 2025 report.

The Odisha government has released a tender to develop, maintain, and operate an AI-based Judicial Petition Response Drafting System, as it plans to automate the judicial petition response generation process.

Last month, the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, highlighted the issue of court delays. In her speech at the National Conference of the District Judiciary, she noted that these delays are what are making people hesitate approaching courts, as they fear that the pursuit of justice will complicate their lives further.

A few weeks ago, the case of a woman who had filed a rape case, was sentenced to imprisonment, and fined by a court in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, dominated the headlines. The narrative, echoed by select media users, painted a picture of a woman who had brazenly fabricated rape accusations.

The number of bail applications filed in the country's high courts has increased by 35 percent in the past eight years.

Over the past eight years, bail cases filed across high courts in India have increased by about 35 per cent. Amid innumerable Supreme Court declarations emphasising bail as a ‘default’ practice, district courts routinely deny it.

Karnataka fell to 14th rank in 2020 from 6th rank in 2019 in terms of the overall justice delivery system, as per the India Justice Report released in Bengaluru on Saturday. While Karnataka topped the list in policing,

India takes an average of 2,184 days to dispose a case in its subordinate courts, 1,128 days in its High Courts, and 1,095 days in the Supreme Court, bringing the total life cycle of a case in India to 12+ years

Several government decisions and Supreme Court observations and verdicts delivered in 2022 have had, or will have, an impact on the justice system in India.