Digital Adjudication Infrastructure and Procedural Delay: A Systems-Architecture Analysis of Recursive Administrative Obstruction

This paper develops a systems-architecture framework for analyzing procedural delay in digital adjudication infrastructures. It introduces three analytical constructs—Recursive Administrative Obstruction (RAO), Registry-Induced Infructuosity (RII), and the Hope–Latency Gap (HLG)—to explain how recursive administrative cycles within digital registry workflows can progressively reduce the practical probability of effective adjudicatory relief while formal procedural access persists. The study integrates insights from digital governance research, organizational behavior, and institutional systems analysis. Drawing on procedural workflow observations from matters before the Supreme Court of India, the paper models the time-dependent decline in the probability of effective relief as an asymptotic process. Version 2 reflects a substantially revised and complete manuscript submitted to Government Information Quarterly (March 2026). The earlier version represented a preliminary outline of the conceptual framework.