Improving access to justice

 Funds for Judicial Reforms

The Government has provided assistance to the State Governments for judicial reforms and for reducing the large number of pending cases in the courts by releasing funds awarded by the Thirteenth Finance Commission for the improvement of justice delivery as well as under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for development of infrastructure facilities for the subordinate judiciary and scheme for assistance for setting up of the Gram Nyayalayas. Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Law & Justice, said that under the Thirteenth Finance Commission a provision of Rs. 5,000 crore has been made for a period of five years (2010-15) for State Governments for the improvement of justice delivery. This grant is aimed at providing support to improve judicial outcomes and is allocated for the following initiatives:

(i) Increasing the number of court working hours using the existing infrastructure by holding morning/ evening/ shift courts;

(ii) Enhancing support to Lok Adalats to reduce the pressure on regular courts;

(iii) Providing additional funds to State Legal Services Authorities to enable them to enhance legal aid to the marginalized and empower them to access justice;

(iv) Promoting the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism to resolve part of the disputes outside the court system;

(v) Enhancing capacity of judicial officers and public prosecutors through training programmes;

(vi) Supporting creation or strengthening of a judicial academy in each state to facilitate such training;

(vii) Creation of the post of Court Managers in every judicial district to assist the judiciary in their administrative functions; and

(viii) Maintenance of heritage court buildings.

Now that Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir and the UPA government have finally decided to hold the conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts this weekend, there is hope that some long-pending issues in the country's judicial and justice delivery system will be resolved. Originally meant to be an annual affair, the conference was last held in August 2009. Rather than discussing the need for judicial reforms, which has been brought up so many times that one has lost count, the higher judiciary and the government would do well to use this year's conference to take stock of what has been achieved since the last conference.
The law ministry is suggesting that the issue of an All India Judicial Service would be discussed at this meeting. But wasn't it discussed almost four years ago too? And what about making appointments to higher judiciary more transparent? Successive law ministers, including the current one, have announced plans to replace the collegium system with a more transparent one. But since this requires a constitutional amendment, the chances of this happening any time soon are remote, what with the government and opposition divided on the composition of the proposed National Judicial Appointments Commission.

Both the judiciary and the government repeatedly talk of increasing the strength of the subordinate judiciary. CJI Kabir is reportedly aiming at increasing the number of judges manning subordinate courts from the current 18,871 to 30,000-plus in the next five years. Earlier this year, Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar had also asked all state governments to increase the strength of the subordinate judiciary. But what about first filling all vacant posts, both in the high courts and the lower courts? At last count, out of the sanctioned strength of 906 high court judges, a whopping 292 posts were vacant, that is, over 30 per cent. The picture is no different when it comes to lower courts. According to data for December 31, 2010, out of the sanctioned 17,151 posts in states and Union Territories, 3,170 were vacant.

At the last conference, the government and judiciary had also agreed to set up more morning/evening courts and also to reduce the states' financial burden to set up more gram nyayalayas. As of December 17, 2012, 168 gram nyayalayas were notified, while only 151 were operationalised. Five thousand gram nyayalayas had been planned in the 2008 Gram Nyayalayas Act.

About a year ago, the Supreme Court cleared the National Court Management System (NCMS), aimed at setting up a real-time system to keep a check on pendency and make the judicial system free of cases more than five years old, which would mean 26 per cent of all pending cases. Here is what the introduction to the action plan for the NCMS said: "It is manifest that many of the important recommendations made by the Law Commissions (on judicial reforms), from time to time, have not even been properly discussed, leave aside their implementation by the Government." The Supreme Court also acknowledged that many recommendations of the Law Commissions do not need to pass through legislative or executive channels and can be implemented straightaway by the judiciary. It also noted the urgent need to shorten the average life cycle of all cases, "not only time spent within each court, but also total time in the judicial system as a whole". It spoke of bringing the average down to "no more than about one year in each court". None of these issues has been dealt with effectively.

Jurists have said that courts should not grant adjournments at the drop of a hat, on flimsy excuses such as the lawyer who was supposed to appear in the matter had too much work on his hands. But this suggestion has not been taken seriously. Despite the infusion of hundreds of crores, the use of technology to track pendency remains minimal. Last year, the CJI had cleared the setting up of a National Framework of Court Excellence (NFCE), designed to put in place "measurable performance standards for Indian courts" by "addressing issues of quality, responsiveness and timeliness". There has been little progress on this front.

While it is a fact that India has one of the lowest judge-to-population ratios in the world, this statistic can no longer be an argument for the growing pendency of cases and the failure of our judicial system to deliver timely justice.

Also, while pitching for fast-track courts for certain kinds of offences, our policy-makers and judges should keep in mind what former CJI J S Verma has said on the subject: "Why fast-track courts for some offences? Shouldn't all litigants be assured fast-track decisions by the courts?"

maneesh.chhibber@expressindia.com
 

 Law minister Ashwani Kumar on Sunday said the government's plan to introduce an All-India Judicial Service (IJS) for recruitment of judges for subordinate courts had the support of most states.

In fact, the question was first put to Chief Justice Altamas Kabir who said some states had reservations on the framework of the IJS. "Some states feel it can't be implemented... no final decision has been taken on this," he said referring to the discussion on the issue earlier in the day during the chief ministers and chief justices conference. The CJI said it was still a concept which needed further discussion.

At this point, the law minister interrupted the CJI and said there was "wide ranging support for the all-India Judicial Service". He, however, said some fine tuning needed to be done. "In principle, there is wide ranging consensus on the issue," Kumar said referring to the support he had received on the IJS matter from the CMs.

The law minister and the CJI were jointly addressing a press conference after a day-long meeting with CMs of at least 12 states and chief justices of 24 high courts and judges of the apex court at Vigyan Bhawan in the Capital. Law secretaries of most states were in attendance.

For fast tracking recruitment of judges for subordinate courts, the government is working with the states and the higher judiciary to push through the All-India Judicial Service on the lines of IAS and IPS to fill up largescale vacancies. An apex court committee has set a target of recruiting more than 18,000 judges in the next five years taking the total strength of the judiciary to 37,000.

On appointments to the higher judiciary Justice Kabir defended the collegium system saying they are made after "intense deliberations". He was responding to a question on the need to replace the present collegium system. "I don't know what this criticism is about, the way judges are being appointed. Great deal of deliberation goes into the choice of the name of the judge," he said.

The CJI also stressed on the need for dialogue between the executive and the judiciary for a harmonious relationship. He concurred with the view that judges should not make unnecessary comments against other constitutional authorities in open court. "There is no need to make unnecessary observations in open court," he said.

Justice Kabir referred to low conviction rates in courts and blamed shoddy investigation for the state of affairs. He said a criminal trial was dependent on proper investigation. Issues related to witness protection and amenities to be provided to witnesses were discussed at the meeting earlier in the day, he added.

Sunday's conclave agreed on setting up of a sub-committee nominated by the CJI on securing protection against incarceration. Several cases of petty crimes are keeping people as undertrial prisoners for long periods of time depriving them of their liberty.