Its 'Just' a mechanism

Everything but divinity is flawed. The foundations on which the human rationale rests is also infirm but mere affirmation of the fact is not of any help. We need to calculate the ruse that hits the right quarter and helps humanity to come out from the abysmal pit of ignorance.

The framework of law is one of the most respected set of rules .As a student of law i have been coming across various opinions about law. Some people maintain a general hostility towards the profession alleging it to be boring and cumbersome and some take it to be the foyer to logic and reasoning.

To a lay man law seems to be a complex phenomenon (i never did a formal survey but i was always showered with questions like “how does your law profession brings stability in the society?”, “how do the courts functions?” and words to that effect, hence i conclude the above). My answer to them is that law is in you and that your brain is a miniature high court in itself which makes the decision on this and that. Coming to more exalted levels of public curiosity, comes the question of the ailing judiciary. In the hearts of hearts we know there is something wrong but we don’t know exactly what. There are times when we fill our plates with insipid food and upon tasting it even on the third time we still are behind by miles in telling exactly which spice is amiss......!

While the executive having a hold on bureaucracy saunters in strides of efficiency , the judiciary is limping its boulevard of the so called reverie.

Being a very populated country (though not the most litigious like USA ), we have a lot of cases pending before the high court and supreme court. This super delayed justice is not just bad, its fatal. Justice is rendering to each his/her due and it appears that India will devour some couple of epochs in doing so.

The relatively more prudent mind would always maintain that a hasty decision has more probability of being wrong, I would slam it back by saying that its only a probability not surety we are not 100% sure that a decision if given earlier than 17 or 16 years will be wrong or are we really sure of the fact that a verdict announced some 20 years later will be correct. Whether or not a decision is correct depends upon the jury, its capability and experience. I would not quote any case in particular here in but its tacitly conveyed to us that its not the time that matters but principle which forms the basis of the verdict that matters.

As I proceed further in this article i would make it clear that i am not in the lot who just crib and cringe on the shortcomings of the judiciary but do something worthwhile for it. Now neither am i a renowned lawyer nor a policy maker to bring about “radical changes”.(I am dubious about the policy–makers-bringing- radical-changes theory because only thing they can change is volume of the exchequer which keeps on shrinking on whims of the former, still a handful of the saving graces have motivated me to employ the clause in the article). All what I can do is to make suggestions regardless to the fact that they are heeded to or not. In the following paragraphs I have conveyed my ideas.

We  see the state of judiciary today in our country and deduce that there are some inherent flaws in the system  which have perpetuated only to become stronger. Endless proceedings, hearings ,dates, paperwork is  on, years change into decades and all the efforts are wasted with the result we hardly care for the verdict, whatever it is as we have lost more than what we could get. Apparently on  the lines of the daily soaps which have continuous victory of evil over the good, the courts can give a couple of bisques to Ekta Kapoor because at least in the soaps justice is delivered in a years time or so. The following are the changes that i suggest. Some may sound weird  but what is weird if it helps in easy dispatch of justice.

1) THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE CRIME MUST DECIDE THE DURATION FOR WHICH THE CASE IS SUB JUDICE - The case which deals with petty thefts and small compensation should not be allowed to be heard after a month of the filing of the plaint or the appeal .A chart to the same effect must be made in consultation with the bar council.

2) ISSUANCE OF VALIDITY CARDS - These cards are issued to the parties of a case once the plaint or charge sheet is filed. This card will have its number written on it and hearings will be fixed and written on it. It will also contain its validity period. The case has to be solved in the given number of hearings and time period unless in very rare cases the synchronisation can be discarded. The courts are in a way bound to announce the judgement in the given time, If it does not the case becomes invalidated and queued up for re-registration ,each re –registration number will act like a demerit of the court. If a court has too many demerits it can fall in rankings of efficiency.

3) RANKING OF THE COURTS AND AWARDS TO MOST EFFECIENT COURT - We all know that sanctions are the methods of social control and same can be employed  to make the courts more efficient. Right from the lower court  to the apex there should always be a competition for efficiency. However this ranking does not intervene anyway in the hierarchy of the court neither increases or decreases the power of any.

4) TARGET BASED CASE DISPOSAL - In order to decrease the existing burden of pending cases ,each judge must be given a yearly or monthly target, this will ensure pressure is cut down by volumes. Once a constancy is reached the target based approach can be made functional in courts on the desire of the jury or made optional .

5) PROMOTION OF JUDGES - the promotion of judges should not be only made on the basis of the number of cases he decides but also on the frequency of the his judgement upheld by the superior court when it is rebutted(in cases of appeal if the lower court judges’ verdict is upheld, it acts as a merit.

These are just a handful of the changes that have been proposed. Pragmatically viable or not I believe that they are worth a second thought. At the least they may be the crutches to the crippled judiciary(though not of a really good quality).I hope to see in future ,these raw attempts of mine flowering into establishment of success. Generating the itch of curiosity I hope I have humbly replenished the fuel to human rationale. These are my strides of ascending tendency.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

NASHRAH HAIDER RIZVI