India, Dec. 15 -- The role of infrastructural and personnel deficiencies in delaying justice delivery has been flagged again, this time by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. These problems are now a chronic affliction of the Indian judicial system, with the symptoms being trial delays, overcrowding in prisons with undertrials held for long periods, and even, in some cases, the matter reaching resolution long after the plaintiff or defendant is dead.

The personnel deficiency, including judges, has become a leitmotif of discussions about delayed justice in the country. Against a Supreme Court-set target of 50 judges per million population, as per a reply from the law ministry in the Lok Sabha in February last year, the actual strength stoo...