Judicial Reforms
Of
the three pillars of a democracy, the judiciary is perhaps the only institution
which has the most respect. Courts are the last resort for any person to get
his problems redressed and in a democracy, the judicial system needs to be strong
to protect the rights of people. A free, fair and efficient judicial system can
ensure that justice is done in its true sense. For that, every country has to
make sure that all the problems of the judiciary are addressed in a timely
manner.
In
India, the judicial system, known to be one of the strongest judiciary in the
World, is facing a lot of problems. As the biggest democracy in the World, the
Indian courts have an enormous task to deliver fast and efficient justice to
lakhs of citizens. Apart from that, the legislature and the executive are known
for their inefficiency and problematic functioning. In such a case, the whole
burden is put on the judiciary to manage the affairs of the country. This means
that there are lakhs and lakhs of cases and very few judges to deliver justice.
The administration of justice takes decades in each case. Therefore, the most important problem is that
of judicial backlog. In this regard, there are many inter-connected reforms that
can be initiated. First of all there are multiple old and new laws on the same
subject that create confusion, loopholes and various reasons for litigation.
Poorly drafted legislations hamper the task of justice administration. The country should enact a Uniform Civil
Code, which is a long overdue reform.
Another
related problem is that the quality of lawyers and judges is not upto mark.
There are inexperienced judges, oversmart lawyers and inefficient public
prosecutors. The lawyers take advantage of the laws and mislead the courts to
delay the trials of cases. Lack of strictness on part of judges and government
lawyers adds to the fact that most of the cases are decided in years.
To
reform this, firstly, it is needed that the judicial infrastructure is
enhanced. There should be more number of lower court judges, staff and they
should be well qualified. The state of
affairs today is that the High Courts and the Supreme Court have widened their
powers so much that they are full of cases. It is estimated that a High Court
judge in High Court gets only 2-5 minutes to decide a case. This has serious
impact on the quality of judgments as well. Secondly, the Government is the
biggest litigator in India and therefore it should develop mechanism whereby
only important cases reach courts. There should be ways to solve the disputes
at the departmental level. If this is done, a lot of petty matters will be
solved quickly without waste of resources and time. Alternative Dispute
Mechanisms like mediation, conciliation, arbitration where the procedures are
relaxed should be encouraged. Such informal methods are speedy, efficient and
cost effective therefore poor and illiterate people would be more open to solve
disputes by such methods.
Another
problem area is that the common man does not have access to justice. The weaker
sections of the society, who are in need of justice the most, are left out of
the process due to the delays, costs and hassles. Courts are located at far off
places and this coupled with the fact that the complex procedures are out of the
understanding of common people, means that such people avoid courts. To reform
this, it is needed that there is focus on creation of rural courts. The
judiciary should focus on encouraging settlement of disputes via ADR methods.
There should be more stress on Legal Aid and the law schools, other NGOs should
also be encouraged to be involved in giving Legal Aid. This would ensure that the poor person also
has good representation in courts.
Judicial
Appointments is another important issue that has been in controversy lately.
Although the lower court appointments are with the respective State
Governments, the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court are appointed
by the collegium process. This opaque and secretive process means that the
judiciary is self-appointing and the executive has no say in the appointment of
the judges. The criticism is of favoritism and lack of transparency. One of the
suggestions for reform was the appointment of the National Judicial Commission,
which was recently struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the
ground that it violates the doctrine of judicial independence. However, the
independent commission which represents the executive, the judiciary and other
independent legal personalities could be a good method to ensure transparency
and merit in such appointments. This tussle between the judiciary and the
executive means that the judicial appointments are delayed and huge vacancies
are made in High Courts. At the lower level, the creation of Indian Judicial
Services can help in enhancing the quality of judges.
One
of the connected issue is that of Judicial accountability and there should be a
law to ensure that judges are made accountable for their actions and this would
also help curb down the corruption in the judicial system. An independent
commission can be formed to assess the accountability of judges.
There
are many other and connected issues like the proper crime investigation by
police, more powers to the public prosecutors, plea bargaing etc. that should
be looked into to ensure that justice is neither delayed and not denied. There
have been certain positive steps in this direction but a lot more needs to be
done.
- Dev Chaudhary
- Dev Chaudhary
