Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday emphasised on the need to reduce the burden on the Indian judiciary. Speaking at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Delhi High Court, he said, "As the [central] government is the biggest litigant in the country, we have to find more ways to bring down the backlog of cases." He added that the best way to serve justice was to draft better laws.

Also present at the event were Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Thakur said the justice system had a "mammoth task" of keeping pace with the barrage of cases that come to court on an everyday basis.

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Kejriwal, however, questioned why appointments had not been made even though a Supreme Court collegium had recommended names to fill the vacant posts for judges. He also alleged that justices feared that their phones were tapped, a claim that the law minister refuted. Prasad also said that both the government and judiciary were making all efforts to expedite the appointment of judges.

The comments on vacancies for judges come days after the Supreme Court rebuked the Centre for delaying the appointments. It had said that courtrooms across the country were being locked out because of lack of judges, and that "executive inaction was decimating the judiciary". The first batch of recommendations had been forwarded to the Centre in January. In September, the Centre had notified the appointment of 25 judges, while the Supreme Court collegium had recommended more than 100 appointments.

The collegium system was in the spotlight last year after the central government had asked for more transparency with regard to courts' decision-making and had tried to set up the National Judicial Appointments Commission, which included members of the executive. The top court, however, had restored the system that allows judges to select other judges.