TIMELY JUSTICE IN INDIA

Introduction

• India is the largest Democracy in the world this not only gives us great strength but also provides many challenges.

• Untimely justice is one major factors in the slow progress of our country.

• It is often said that “Justice delayed is Justice denied”. It also means that delay in dispensing legal justice amounts denial of guarantee to ensure remedy.

• Legal justice may be defined as the process for the protection of rights and punishment for violation of legally recognized rights.

Introduction

• The existing laws may be responsible for reshaping the State in future. If laws are reasonable and implementation prompt net result will be a strong state.

• If justice is not punctual it will cause disregard to legal system and no faith in the administration of justice by Government.

Introduction

• It encourages wrong doer to take chance of escape and ensure fruitful results of their wrongful actions. The opponent who is comparatively weaker will either compromise in terms dictated by the wrong doer or will loose all remedies.

• The Justice Delivery System (JDS) basically involves judges, lawyers, police officers, forensic experts and also executive officers of other wings.

Challenges in legal system

• The biggest challenge that the justice delivery system faces in India is the problem of huge backlog of pending cases.

• As on March 2012, 59,368 matters were pending in the Supreme Court

• Number of judges in the courts are very less in comparison to the number of cases.

• As on March 15, 2012, the Supreme Court had six posts of judges vacant against sanctioned strength of 31 posts. The number of posts of judges vacant in country’s high courts was 270 against sanctioned posts of 895

Challenges in legal system

• Number of judges in India per Million population is about 12-13 judges. Corresponding figures available for USA is 107, for U.K is 51, for Canada is 75 and for Australia was about 41 about 12 years ago.

• Lack of latest technological equipment in courts and reliability on old and outdated systems.

• The per head load in terms of average number of cases for disposal per judge per year in the high court was determined at 2324.

• A notorious problem in the functioning of the courts, particularly in the trial courts is the granting of frequent adjournments, mostly on flimsy grounds.

Challenges in legal system

• Poor people cannot afford the fees of lawyers and hence are not able to get to justice.

• The legal procedure is so lengthy that it cannot dispose of a case early.

• Corruption is rampant in the courts, judges and lawyers are bribed.

• Use of political influence to ward off the cases of high ranking officials

Governments action

• A National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms has been set up.

• Fast track courts set up under recommendation of the 11th Finance commission disposed 33 lakhs cases over a period of eleven years.

• The Gram Nyayalaya Act, 2008 has been enacted for establishing Gram Nyayalayas at the grass-root level

• Establishment of Lokayukta and Lokpals

Governments action

• Plan to set to set up All India Judicial Services Examination to on the same lines as IAS and IPS exams.

• Crime against women Bill (Prevention, Prohibition and redressal) 2013 passed by the union government.

• National Legal literacy mission was launched by the National Legal Service Authority for benefit of millions of poor and disadvantaged sections of the society.

Suggestions for improvements

• Benches should be according to specialization and not state wise.

• Holding special night courts to clear backlog and improve efficiency.

• Improvement in the Lokpall Bill to incorporate even the prime minister to summon to the courts.

• Independent Investigating agencies must be provided with state of the art equipment and training to carry out investigations more precisely.

Suggestions for improvements

• Agencies like CBI must be given independent control and relieved from government influence.

• Providing precise training to lawyers and senior judges in their field of specialization.

• Government appoint a Presidential Commission under the Constitution to review the functioning of the Criminal Justice System.

• Stringent punishment should be provided for false registration of cases and false complaints

Suggestions for improvements

• Use of Retired and additional sessions judges instead of employing new one’s(Shift system in subordinate courts).

• More fast track courts must be set up to reduce the backlog of cases.

• Mobile courts must be created which can access Villages and rural areas.

• Application of the U.S Criminal justice system(Plea bargaining) where in pleading guilty to a crime awards a lesser punishment to accused than if proved guilty.

Facts and figures

• Eleventh Finance Commission recommended and sanctioned the setting up of 1,734 Fast Track Courts (FTCs)

• During(2000-05) FTCs have disposed of 800,000 cases, compared to the 500,000 cases that they were expected to dispose of in a single year.

• Gujarat has introduced a shift system in subordinate courts from November 2006. 60 evening courts have been held and 57,834 cases disposed of in over four months.

Facts and figures

• Up to 31st December 2007 more than 6,98,000 lokadalats have been held in various parts of the country wherein 1,86,00,000 cases have been settled .

• The Law Commission stated that the number of judges per million population should increase from 10 to 50.If 50 target is accepted, this works out to an additional 98,000 judges.

• Orissa has a staggering figure of 13,568 judges and Madhya Pradesh, Allahabad and Chhattisgarh also have numbers more than 9000.

Conclusion

• That the present state of dispute resolution is unsatisfactory.

• Society changes, so do its values. Crimes are increasing especially with changes in technology. Ad hoc policy making and piecemeal legislation is not the answer.

• Legal system of a country is one of the most important Pillars that supports it hence it must be strong, unbiased and entrust the citizens in the meaning of democracy.

Thank You

• From team ‘mu’

– Stuti Pandit

– Hardik Vora

– Navneet Kaur

– Mala Bose.

– Hardik Makrubiya.