‘Judiciary more outdated than bureaucracy’: Sanjeev Sanyal says this ‘medieval guild’ stalling growth

India’s legal ecosystem is the single biggest constraint to India’s growth, and even more behind the times than the bureaucracy, says Sanjeev Sanyal, economist and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC). He called for a fundamental overhaul of the country’s judiciary and legal ecosystem. 

“This (judiciary) is in some ways the single biggest constraint to India’s growth. It is now more behind the times than the bureaucracy,” Sanyal said in a podcast conversation with Sangam Talks. “It needs huge change — and I’m not only going to blame the judiciary, as in the judges — there’s a whole ecosystem and in fact many cases it’s the upper echelons of the lawyers and the senior advocates, bar councils, etc. that are actually stopping progress.”

He criticised the lack of internal accountability in the judicial system. “That entire ecosystem needs to get out of this self-congratulatory tone that they are doing a good job. They aren’t. And I think people need to speak up and there has to be a public debate about the fact that they are really letting down the side now.”

Sanyal said every time someone raises even minor issues, the response from the legal community is defensive. “This entire ecosystem is very convinced that it’s doing a good job. They’ll criticise at the edges but serious criticism of the judicial system internally does not exist. It’s a very self-serving, self-feeding system today,” he said.

Referring to the legal profession’s elite circles, he said: “You see greater criticism of it outside, but inside the system I’m afraid there’s very little criticism of the judiciary — as I said, the legal system, not just the judiciary. Actually, the senior advocates, the whole system of sort of medieval guilds that they have all created – that has to be unwound.”

Sanyal, who has been advising the government on economic and administrative reforms, last year said the judiciary must be modernised – and if not done, it will be the biggest obstacle to the country’s economic progress. He also called for a change in the collegium system. “We will have to change the justice system. Think about this ‘tareekh pe tareekh’ system. What is this? This is from the colonial times. For seventy-five years, we have the same system.”  

He also questioned the extended breaks taken by the courts: “High Courts and Supreme Court take leave in summer and then take leave again in Dussehra. What is this system? They work for a few hours. All these old systems will have to be changed, and modernise it. The government can contribute to this to some extent. But in the end, the justice system will have to do it on its own.” 

Turning to the bureaucracy, Sanyal said the top levels have begun to embrace change, but a similar transformation is now urgently needed at the ground level. “Everybody loves to have long conversations about trying to fix UPSC and I have strong views on that, but they are no more than 3–4%. The bulk of the 95% of the bureaucracy is somewhere else. And that is really what needs to be fixed.”

He added that the lower levels are often “dispirited and those are environments that create all the corruption and inefficiency everybody complains about.” Instead of placing blame, Sanyal said the focus must shift to creating careers, leadership, and clarity of role, especially in municipal bodies and at the state level. “We need to begin to pay attention to these things. I mean the municipal bodies for example – we need good leadership to go to municipal bodies,” he said.

Sanyal recalled how, when he joined the government, the bureaucratic mood was one of resistance. “The general mood in the bureaucracy was – we are doing a good job. Who are you? But today I think the bureaucracy has begun to internalise the fact that change is inevitable.”