Lawyers overfaced with mountains of files and a backlog of work might not be too common at the moment (they might even be considered lucky). The legal sector is suffering a contraction along with the rest of the economy, however, Delhi judges might not agree with the general sentiment.

The Times reported this week that it will take at least 466 years for the Delhi High Court to clear its backlog of cases, even if it continues at its current average of spending less than five minutes on each one. How’s that for access to justice…

According to a report by Chief Justice A.P. Shah, the Court heard 332,141 cases between April 2007 and March 2008. In that period the court worked for only 213 days of the year and for five hours and 15 minutes of each of those days. Averaging that out, it means the judges spent a super-slick 4 minutes and 55 seconds per case!

Even at that speed the backlog would take 466 years to clear up so to help to reduce the backlog those conscientious judges agreed last year to prolong their work day — from four and a half hours a day to five and a half!

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