Few books in recent memory have challenged India’s judicial conscience as provocatively as Justice on Sale: A.D.R. System — A Broken Promise to India. Written by Advocate Yogesh Sethi, this work is both reportage and rebellion — a blistering critique of how India’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism has transformed from a reformative tool into a statistical performance exercise.
From the first chapter, Fake Figures, Sethi sets the tone: unflinching, factual, and morally outraged. He dissects the data manipulation practices of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), exposing how non-judicial cases like Aadhaar and ration card updates are passed off as “disposals” to inflate success metrics. Through this lens, the book reveals how an entire legal system is incentivized to look efficient while remaining profoundly unjust.
The most powerful aspect of Sethi’s narrative is his empathy for the litigant. His analogies — a widow forced to settle, a citizen denied the court’s hearing, a system that celebrates closure over correctness — bring humanity to what could have been dry legal critique. His line “justice in India is hard to pin down, but harassment is almost guaranteed” summarizes decades of public sentiment in one sentence.
Sethi’s legal erudition is impressive, but what makes the book compelling is its emotional candor. He doesn’t merely present statistics — he interrogates their meaning. He doesn’t stop at exposing post-retirement judicial sinecures; he interprets them as moral decay. Each chapter builds like a legal case, leading the reader to a verdict that is as personal as it is systemic: justice has been commodified.
However, the book’s intensity can overwhelm. Its relentless critique leaves little space for nuance — there are few acknowledgments of those within the system striving for reform. Yet that omission may be deliberate; Sethi’s aim is not balance but awakening. His writing channels frustration into civic urgency, making the book a manifesto for judicial accountability.
As India experiments with mediation laws and pre-litigation frameworks, Justice on Sale arrives as a timely caution. It warns that without integrity, reform mechanisms will only deepen the rot they were meant to cure.
Verdict: A searing, data-backed, and conscience-driven exposé that redefines how we view justice in modern India — not as a process, but as a responsibility we’ve all neglected.
Book Title: Justice On Sale
Author: Adv. Yogesh Sethi
Publisher: Evincepub Publishing
