RASTA: Local Research, Local Solutions: Sludge and Dead Capital, Volume Xiv

This study was undertaken to analyse the revenue court system of Pakistan, which is arguably a neglected segment of the countrys justice system. As opposed to the civil courts, which deal with civil disputes involving (mostly urban) property, the revenue courts, although the term is a misnomer, deal with rural and agricultural property-related cases. Using Cass R. Sunsteins concept of “sludge†, the research focussed on the economic impact of the debilitating legal and institutional structure of these courts at the individual as well as the collective levels. At the individual level, the focus was on the economic costs of litigation to the individual litigant such as the direct expenses like court fees, indirect costs such as travelling, and, finally, the psychological costs to them due to the stress and strain of prolonged litigation. At the macro level, the collective costs of the sludge in revenue courts were calculated to ascertain how much of a drag it is on the national gross domestic product (GDP). This entailed quantifying all those issues that make it difficult for litigants, possessing agricultural property, to achieve their desired outcome of an early adjudication and secure property rights. “Sludge†is any excessive friction that makes it harder for people to do what they want to do. In economic terms, sludge was calculated by measuring avoidable costs that the litigants had to endure. The current study has built upon the pioneering study on sludge audits in Pakistan undertaken by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) by Haque et al. (2022) by focussing on sludge audits of another sector, i.e., the revenue courts. The study found that if a person gets involved in litigation related to agricultural property, it may cost up to four-fifths of their annual income in litigation-related costs, at least in the year the case was instituted. The value of disputed land held up in litigation comes to nearly one-fifth of the rural GDP. Much of this sludge is avoidable through smart governance, such as digitisation initiatives. Deriving from best practices across Asia, the study concluded with making recommendations for sludge minimisation in revenue case adjudication by proposing integrated solutions through enhanced digitisation and simplified procedures, incentivisation of judicial work for administrative officers and institution of mandatory training for officers working in the subordinate judiciary.