Who Is Damaging Democracy: Media Or Judiciary?

In recent times, the honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court N. V. Ramanna has been going hammer and tongs at the media

Yet, even as Justice Ramanna excoriates the media, news comes that the number of cases pending in various courts in India is poised to exceed 50 million by the end of this year. That is equal to or more than the population of most European countries. At the rate at which the judiciary is disposing off cases even now, it will take more than 400 years to clear the backlog. Even more shocking is the fact that three out of every person in jail s an under trial. A majority are languishing in jail as the cases drag on because they simply do not have access to either lawyers or money for bail bonds. Many Indians who follow the Indian judiciary lament that no serious effort is being made either by the government or by the top judiciary to speed up the justice delivery mechanism.

Given this backdrop, C Voter-India Tracker conducted a nationwide survey of ordinary Indians to find out their opinion on the issue. They were asked a simple question: The number of pending cases will cross 5 crore by end of the year. In your opinion, what is more dangerous for democracy; pending cases or irresponsible media? The answers were illuminating. Overall, 47.6% of the respondents stated that pending cases are more dangerous for democracy while 52.4% of Indians singled out irresponsible media. Interestingly, while 51% of male respondents rated pending cases as more dangerous for Indian democracy, 54.6% of female respondents thought the blame lies with irresponsible media. The category that holds the pending cases as dangerous with the most “votes” is OBC (57.9%). The category that holds irresponsible media as dangerous with the most votes is Muslim (74.6%). Most intriguingly, while 54.8% of NDA supporters felt pending cases were more dangerous for Indian democracy, 58% of opposition supporters singled out irresponsible media. The fact is, neither Indian judiciary nor the media seems to be trusted a lot by ordinary Indians.