I am very very happy to know that we are trying to address the very important issues pertaining to our legal system and the judiciary. We have tried to address the issue of corruption in Higher Judiciary by making them accountable through disclosure of their assets etc. Despite the uproar from public against the view of Judiciary that they are immune from public scrutiny when they disclose their assets, we have tried to pass Judges Accountability Bill and very laudably it was opposed in Rajyasabha. Now, I have read a statement in news paper where our Chief Justice of India has given a statement that the judiciary will accept any law on judges’ accountability. Its a great change in stand and the collective victory of people with social consciousness. The only stand that has been advocated by Higher Judiciary and the government later while seeking immunity from public scrutiny is that our constitutional judges need protection from vexatious litigation. But, the view could not stand as logically no one dares to give a false complaint against the judge of Constitutional Court. Infact, we yet to find the effective ways to make the public and the vigilant lawyers to raise their voice against the corruption in Judiciary and especially in Higher Judiciary. It is being discussed at the Higher Level as everybody knows.
Apart from our concentration on corruption in Judiciary, we have been concentrating on delay in justice delivery too. This time, it appears that we are serious at the delay in justice delivery. When it comes to pendency of litigation before various courts in the country and the delay, we often point at lack of infrastructure and filling the vacancies. To address the issue of infrastructure matching our population, we have been mooting constitution of village courts in close co-ordination and co-operation with all State Governments. I do believe that constitution of Village Courts and coming to a conclusion on its functioning consumes lot of time and it requires good amount of public spending too. While it is laudable to look at the seriousness with which the issue of delay in justice delivery is dealwith this time, I believe that the constitution of village courts may not solve the problem or even may not reduce the delay. I believe that we may have to witness many more other problems if this concept of Village Courts is given effect to.
I don't think that the issue of delay in justice delivery can be addressed in a year or two and I believe that it will take longer time and it can be achieved only with proper planning. Before going to look at the issue of usefulness of constitution of Village Courts, I would like to mention certain issues which cause delay in justice delivery. The issues are like:
1. At times, the presiding officers are not able to even read the case with patience and speed and understand the case. This point at lack of quality in judicial officers. I have seen where the people laugh at the way in which the proceedings are conducted in courts. I have seen many cases. So, we need to concentrate on the issue of judicial officer appointments and there should not be any compromise with quality and performance in this regard.
2. Some cases, the judges had to read all the papers on their own and had to get the needed information through probing while adjudicating a case. This happens, despite the presence of lawyers and I have seen many such cases. What happens is that, when a judge had to read all the papers on his own and lawyers don’t offer the required assistance, then, it consumes lot of valuable time in the course and it causes delay. This point at lack of standards in the profession. We need to address this issue and at least we must be able to restore the standards in legal profession within some 10 to 20 years. The lost dignity of judiciary as a result of lack of standards can be achieved again only with proper plan and it certainly consumes lot of time. But, there is no issue except to address this.
3. The other important issue is about the delay tactics. When there is no good case for a party, then the lawyer tries to drag the matter in one way or other. The known route to drag a case is to file as many applications as he can and preferring appeals on each and every order passed in those applications. Its a dangerous trend. The judicial officers should be well trained as to how to avoid the delay tactics. They must pass reasoned orders whenever they feel that the delay tactics are being played and the appellate courts should be very cautious while entertaining applications on interim orders.
Though, there are many issues to dealwith when we look at the issue of delay in justice delivery, I strongly feel that we need to address the above three issues first. I feel that the inefficient judicial officer is more harmful to the society than a corrupt judicial officer.
The orderliness in the society will get disturbed if we don't establish an efficient and trustworthy legal system. We must have a legal mechanism where the grievances of public are redressed in least possible time. Again, the delay in justice delivery will have an impact on our economic growth too. Our industry too is a victim of this delay. What happens if a case between two companies is pending for a long time? It affects the growth of those two companies or at least one company. It is happening and we are seeing all this cases. Apart from the issues like quality and infrastructure, we have established in Alternative Dispute Redressel Mechanism like Arbitration through Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The Arbitration exercise is very costly. I have seen an Arbitration Claim where the claim is some 1 crore and I know that the parties have collectively spent some 50 lacks on expenses and the case is still pending before the Arbitrator. We are seeing these things. Only, an efficient legal system will address all the issues connected to people and the commercial world.
When we examine the issue of constitution of Village Courts, I don't think that the purpose will be solved with that. Because, we are not addressing the issue of quality and even then trying to by-pass the established civil procedure. Many may criticize the Civil Procedure Code, but, I do strongly feel that it is one of the finest laws we have. There is so much logic behind each and every provision. I think that it is not right to criticize our established procedures intoto for the delay in justice delivery. In implementation of laws, we are failing and its true.
In the course of establishing this Village Courts, our state machinery will be spending its valuable time and also public money. When the public raise the issue of delay in justice delivery, the state machinery will say for sometime that the steps are being taken like establishment of Village Courts and ultimately if it doesn't work, then, the public should suffer. I know that the great intellectuals like Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan of loksattaparty are also supporting the constitution of Village Courts to solve the issue of delay. But, I disagree with them. We can point out so many issues and can establish that the Village Courts may not be a solution to the delay in justice delivery.
The judicial reforms are a serious issue in India and unless we establish an efficient and trustworthy judicial system, we can never claim that we are developed.
Note:
1. I have only expressed my views on the issue and I may be wrong too.
2. I request the readers to post their comments and valuable suggestions on reducing the delay in delivery of justice.
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