The pile-up of pending cases in courts is an old annoying problem everyone is familiar with and none cares. But an emotional touch by Chief Justice TS Thakur has brought the issue to the national centre stage. Even Prime Minister Modi appeared moved enough to offer a closed-door meeting to sort out the manpower problem. The real sufferers continue to be the litigant public and undertrials languishing in jails as their cases linger for years due to, apart from the shortage of judges,  infrastructural inadequacies, dilatory judicial procedures and non-cooperative advocates who sometimes have a vested interest in seeking repeated adjournments. The PM recalled having offered a solution as the Gujarat Chief Minister: reduce the vacation period of courts and increase the daily working hours. India needs at least 50 judges for every 10 lakh people but has only 15-16 now. Ways can be found to tackle the backlog problem provided the Centre and states make earnest efforts. The Union government is sitting over 170 names recommended by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment as high court judges and this despite the fact that high courts work with 50 per cent of their sanctioned staff strength. The collegium, the CJI said, was ready to make amends, if needed. The real problem, perhaps, lies elsewhere. There is a government-judiciary standoff over the issue of National Judicial Appointments Commission. The executive is not delaying the judges’ appointments without a reason. It is miffed at the idea of judges appointing judges.  As is evident from his recent speeches at Jammu and Allahabad, Chief Justice Thakur has been raising the problems of judicial delays and an overworked judiciary for quite some time. At Sunday’s meeting he pleaded for action. He even requested the government not to link the issue of filling HC vacancies to the new Memorandum of Procedure for the appointment of judges that is pending approval of the CJI. However, the NJAC stalemate is only indicative of an institutional tussle. A haughty Modi government is unwilling to appreciate the importance of an independent judiciary. This is one of a piece with the Indira Gandhi days. A wayward executive did not serve the nation then; nor will it now.