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Delhi bias in Supreme Court litigation -Rukmini Shrinivasan
-The Times of India

In a country already frequently accused of centralising decision-making in its capital city, new data on the Supreme Court now shows a disturbing Delhi bias in litigation too.

Litigants who live closer to Delhi are significantly more likely to appeal in the Supreme Court, according to the first detailed analysis of recent apex court data by a legal researcher. Nick Robinson, a visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, found that nearly a fifth of appeals that came to the Supreme Court in 2011 were from Punjab and Haryana, and a further tenth from Delhi. In contrast, less than 3 per cent came from Orissa, and less than 1 per cent from Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim. In addition to geographical proximity, wealth mattered: richer states were more likely to have appeals in the Supreme Court than poorer ones. Taken together, the findings, which will be made public on Friday in a paper published by the Bangalore-based Azim Premji University, indicate a cost barrier to approaching the SC, says Robinson.

aœThere have been studies in the past too that have shown that the Supreme Court is for many an inaccessible court, and a few decades ago, there was substantial discussion on establishing more benches of the SC,a says Videh Upadhyay, a lawyer in the Supreme Court who argues development and environmental matters. aœThe concern raised was primarily that establishing more benches of the SC would affect its unitary character. This new data strengthens the argument that there is merit in keeping this issue open,a says Upadhyay.

Additionally, Robinson found that despite the fact the disposal rate of cases in lower courts has not grown greatly a" just 4 per cent between 2005 and 2010 in lower courts, and 25 per cent for high courts a" the number of appeals to the Supreme Court has jumped (52 per cent), as has the SCas acceptance rate (70 per cent). aœWhat this means is that people are appealing cases at a disproportionate rate, and the SC is finding these cases worth hearing,a says Robinson.

aœThe disproportionate increase in the Supreme Courtas workload compared to the high courts and lower courts may indicate that not only are people losing confidence in the rest of the judiciary, but that the system of precedent within the judicial system is breaking down,a says Robinson. aœThis needs further understanding, but there does exist in peopleas minds the perception that justice is more likely to be served in higher courts,a admits Upadhyay, adding that Indiaas SC is also far more accessible than most apex courts the world over because of the enlarged understanding of fundamental rights in the Constitution.

But while there is a perception that the SC deals to a large extent with PILs, Robinson finds that the SC has become overwhelmingly a court of appeal; in 2011, just 1.8 per cent of cases in the SC were writ petitions.