'It's like Groundhog Day': Waiting decades for justice in India's overburdened court system

World Vancouver resident Sanjay Goel, who has been waiting for more than two decades to see his mother's alleged killers tried in India, says the country's overwhelmed courts are 'beyond comprehension.'(Salimah Shivji/CBC) Lawyers go through a case file inside their chamber at the court complex in Ghaziabad, India, on Sept. 6, 2024.(Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images) Stacks of court documents pile up at the Bombay High Court.(Ayushi Shah) Sudhir Dhawale, an activist in Mumbai, spent more than six years in jail waiting for bail. His trial is still pending.(Salimah Shivji/CBC) Retired Supreme Court justice Madan Lokur says here has been no serious attempt to tackle India's staggering judicial backlog.(Salimah Shivji/CBC) India's Supreme Court says that in 2026, it will move to restrict oral arguments in cases it hears to a maximum of 15 minutes.(Salimah Shivji/CBC) Sanjay Goel, left, and his mother, Dr. Asha Goel, right, are shown in an undated photo.(Submitted by Sanjay Goel) 'It's like Groundhog Day': Waiting decades for justice in India's overburdened court system Backlog of cases in country's courts would take several hundred years to clear, experts say The frustration and weariness crept into Sanjay Goel's voice as he stared at the giant stack of handwritten court documents in front of him. He was on one of his countless visits from Vancouver to Mumbai, India, to fight for justice in the brutal killing of his mother and was struggling to describe the excruciating delays in criminal court proceedings. "It's beyond my comprehension," Goel, 61, told CBC News. "Files have disappeared. Files have been found months later." His mother, Dr. Asha Goel, a Canadian citizen, was visiting family in Mumbai when she was badly beaten and killed in 2003 in an attack allegedly ordered by two of her brothers. Her children initially thought the criminal case would be open and shut. They had a confession from one of the alleged assailants, as well as strong DNA evidence where the match is for one person out of 10 billion. But even all that evidence couldn't penetrate India's massively overburdened justice system, where more than 54 million cases, criminal and civil, are pending. Goel, his sisters and his elderly father are waiting for a verdict after hundreds of court hearings and oral proceedings, with some witnesses now deceased and others too old or impaired to testify. "It's like Groundhog Day," Goel said. "The judge has to dismiss or render a decision more than once on the same argument." Many lawyers and judges forced to navigate India's archaic judicial system are afflicted with an equal sense of hopelessness. 'Monumental' backlog "There is desperation," said Gautam Patel, a recently retired Bombay High Court judge. The backlog "has become so monumental, I think we're pretty much in panic mode." The numbers are staggering, even for a country of 1.4 billion. At last count, more than 54 million cases are pending across the country, according to the National Judicial Data Grid. The backlog has doubled in the past decade, with more than 5.5 million lawsuits...

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