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A Survey was conducted Nationwide in around 300 District Courts across 24 States
during which 9,000 litigants were interviewed. It has brought to the fore some
shocking but interesting results.
At an average of about Rs 1,746 per case per day, it is roughly estimated that over Rs
50,000 crore a year is being spent by Litigants on the loss of wages and business
while attending lower court hearings.
If the cost incurred by litigants in a year on payment of legal fees and other court
related expenditure are added, and the figure jumps to in excess of Rs 80,000 crore
annually. This is about 0.70% of India's GDP (in Year 2015-16).
A Bengaluru based NGO named Daksh, conducted the 'Access to Justice Survey' by
engaged with Litigants and analysing the performance of the judiciary. It was
recently engaged by the Ministry of Law and Justice, GOI, to study pendency in High
Courts and District Courts in the Country.
NGO Daksh had partnered with National Law University, NLU, Delhi, while carrying
out this survey which was started in month of November 2015. It was concluded in
February this Year with the interviews of around 9,329 litigants who have both civil
and criminal matters in around 305 District Courts spread across 170 Districts in 24
different States.
The study , which is to be released on Saturday has given its findings on
several aspects, including the Ratio of male and female litigants engaged in
litigations in District Courts.
The survey also checked as to which religious group was having more litigation.
Also the Socio-economic profile of litigants was ascertained. Litigants were asked
about ease of access to the Justice Delivery system and the cost of judicial delays.
The Research found that civil litigants were spending Rs 497 each day on an average
on District court hearings. This is divided amongst legal fees and other misc.
expenditure. A loss of Rs 844 per day is encountered on account of wages and total
work time lost for appearing in court matters. All this add up to Rs 1,341 for every
day spending in court.

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In the criminal cases, this cost was found to be Rs 1,444 @ Rs 542 on expenses
involving attending the court hearings and Cost of legal fees. Rs 902 per day was due
to loss of pay or the business income.
In this manner, over Rs 50,000 crore was found to be spent on account of average
wage and business loss due to attending District court hearings, which comes
to almost 0.44% of GDP. The cost incurred by all the litigants in Courts towards legal
fees and other expenses added up to another Rs 30,000 crore.
The findings revealed that litigations in family matters and service cases
Jurisdictions spend more on each Court hearing than other litigants. Those Litigants
who hail from the lower income brackets incurred a higher cost as compared to
others.
It was found that the average daily expenses of plaintiffs who file cases was 21% less
than the accused who defend themselves, according to the study .
On an average, it was found that a complainant/petitioner in civil cases have to
spend Rs 20,000 per case till it is decided. This is more than the accused who
incurred only Rs 15,000 cost on defense.
Likewise in criminal cases, the accused were found to spending more, Rs 20,000
compared to Rs 10,000 by the plaintiff.
Survey concludes that the complex judicial system is more dear some to the low
income group of Society with annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh. About 44% of
litigants surveyed spoke about expenses as a major deterring factor for not filing
appeals in the higher court if their cases were not decided in their favour, the study
said.
One startling factor found is that many as 15% litigants had to travel between 50 km
and 300 km in order to reach their courts for hearings. TNN