by Col LK Anand Retd
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A budding lawyer working with his lawyer dad, exclaimed to his father. “Dad, Dad you must congratulate me on the first major success of my career, because today I have finally settled your 28 years old case, pending since, even before my birth”. The shocked father rebuked his happy son saying, you are a fool. This is the case which helped me, to bring you up from your childhood, and made you a lawyer. This case would have now helped me, to get you suitably married too. In my view you still need to learn a lot, to truly acquire the wisdom, intelligence and the system of functioning of a lawyer.
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Perhaps, this is the spirit with which the judicial system functions in India. A very important proverb in the field of judiciary is “justice delayed is justice denied”. In India this proverb is only meant to be taught, but never followed or implemented. It would be difficult to recount cases which have gone on and on and on, without their results ever being in sight. Many times you yourself feel ashamed, to read about legal battles not being settled for of over 60, 50 or 40 years and so on. God only knows whether there is any possibility of getting any legal cases redressed in a reasonable time frame in this country. My mother from the age of 70, at the advice of a lawyer, went through a case of cheque bouncing for over ten years, till she finally left for her heavenly abode at the age of 81, without the case being settled. No one knows, what finally happened to that case. There would be lakhs and lakhs of similarly unsolved cases in India with victims having gone to the other world.
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Unfortunately, the profession connected with judiciary ie of lawyers or judges seems unable to feel and realise the sentiments of these millions of victims, although the directive principles of the state policy define that “The State shall provide free legal aid to ensure that equal opportunities for securing justice is ensured to all, and is not denied by reason of economic or other disabilities”. Unfortunately, all classes of individuals connected with the organs of the government viz our legislature, executive and judiciary, take the oath, to owe allegiance to the constitution, but to the horror of all the Indian commoners/citizens, either they are not aware of these provisions or they all forget these, the moment they are snug and comfortable in their respective chairs. They only then make sure that their own chair and prosperity is utmost in their minds.
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Undoubtedly, the judiciary today is comparatively and hopefully much less tainted, and still commands more respect as compared to the legislature and the executive, whose cases of low integrity are being unfolded from day to day, resulting in a new low in their credibility as well as dependability. Their images have been tarnished to such a low level that the public at large does not trust them anymore and sees a very dark future for the country, if the trend is not reversed sooner than later. Unfortunately, lately, even some big bosses of defence forces have joined this band wagon, to bring bad name to their erstwhile cleaner image. Our highest judiciary, also feels that only God can save this country, from the mess created by the politicians and the bureaucracy, who have reached the nadir of shamelessness in their dealings and functioning.
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In the recent times, a number of fingers have also started being raised against the judiciary even at the highest level. There was a case in South India, where a union minister was said to have tried to influence a judge of the high court in a criminal case. No information was revealed then, but now the same judge has pointed fingers at the former Chief Justice of India (CJI), that he had informed him about the name of the minister, but the former CJI has now vehemently denied this fact. Eminent Supreme Court advocate, Mr Shanti Bhushan’s disclosure, that out of the sixteen CJsI, India has had so far, eight were definitely corrupt, has sent shock waves, not only among the judiciary but also amongst the Indian citizens. A Supreme Court Justice’s reference of “Uncle Judges” in the Allahabad High Court, and later saying that everyone knows who is corrupt and who is not, has also raised a furore in the country’s judiciary.
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In the context of the above, and before the judiciary also publicly or universally appears to be stooping to such low levels, there is a need for a serious and drastic action to be taken by the judiciary itself. First and foremost is a need for thorough introspection within its own folds, to see whether it is, in the true spirit upholding the reputation, dignity, culture and the tradition, with which the judiciary is expected and required to conduct itself. It must put its own house fully in order, to stand upto any adverse criticism or publicity against its functioning. It has to be totally upright to command the respect of the entire population of the country. If required, a thorough cleansing operation be still carried out to uphold and sustain its image of being incorruptible.
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The next part is to find a solution to the saying “justice delayed is justice denied”. Perhaps, it may be difficult to lay down a time frame for settlement of legal cases, not because of the time availability with the judicatory authorities, but is mainly caused by the rogue lawyers, accused persons and the lower level administrative functionaries or the court staff. Unfortunately, a lot of delay is usually attributed to corrupt practices at lower levels. To presume that corruption is nonexistent in lower judiciary is a million dollar question.
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Irrespective, of difficulty in laying down time limits, the Apex Court in consultation with the Law Ministry, must carry out a thorough introspection of the issue and lay down guidelines for settlement of various types of criminal and civil cases within a practicable time frame. Sufficient pressure must be brought to bear upon the judicatory authorities, to finalise cases within the specified guidelines. All Cases must be monitored at all levels to ascertain whether the delays are really justified or not. In case of unjustified delays, there should be provision of punitive action like fines, reprimands, deprivation of promotions or even termination of service. If such conditions are imposed, the results would certainly be visible. No harm trying.
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The Indian population since the Independence has increased at least four folds. However, the quantum of enforcement agencies as well as judicatory authorities has not maintained a corresponding increase in their respective numbers, which is presumably, much, much below the required strength. Obviously, graph of criminal cases as well as pending court cases has gone northwards unabatedly, without any visible signs of improvement. General feeling is that, even if their strength is now increased, the results would not change substantially, in view of the world of change in their attitudes now. The public seriously thinks now, that the Government services are no more public services, but have now become public lords, worried only about their personal well being and amassing disproportionate wealth for themselves. One wonders, where after all, will they take their unlimited wealth. Their selfish attitude is visible from the lowest rung to the highest bureaucratic and ministerial levels. Even the vigilance authorities themselves seem to be involved in such practices, and look helpless in front of the deeply rooted cancer of corruption within the country.
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It is also very often seen that a number of decisions of High Courts and Supreme Court are not implimented in letter or spirit or are challenged by lowly placed officers in ministries just for the heck of it, by filing frivolous review or recall petitions back into the courts. They only cause more and more delays in administration of justice to the affected victims. The Supreme Court and the High Courts must monitor implementation of the orders issued by them, and where applicable initiate severe punitive action, against such frivolous petitioners, to check misuse of such authority to stop this uncalled for practice. These courts should also not hesitate, in instituting contempt proceedings, on those functionaries for not implementing the orders within the laid down time frame. In view of lack seriousness of the concerned authorities, as also of lack of regular monitoring and inaction by the respective courts, the judicial authority of these courts also seems to have become questionable.
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Lastly, would it be acceptable to the Apex Court to increase the number of courts at various levels, on the basis of requirement of each district, depending upon the number of pending cases existing there. The courts need not necessarily be in one complex, but be distributed in the entire district/city divided in various zones, to look into the legal cases of that particular area.
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The Collector or the Deputy Commissioner of a district should only perform the executive functions, and be totally divested and relieved of the judicial duties. They would thus be able to concentrate better on their administrative functions, and perform them better than before.
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Similarly, there could be more district level courts, established within the district and each tehsil or sub division for performing the functions of district judge or review functions.
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It is felt that even within a district, there should be a bench or two or more of the high court. These benches of high court, would only supplement the existing high courts and their benches existing in some districts within the State.
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It is further suggested that each State capital, should also have a few or at least one bench of the Supreme Court, depending upon the population. These benches would be representatives of the Supreme Court in Delhi. Further, the Supreme Court benches located in Delhi, could perform the review functions of the State level Supreme Court benches, or handle cases pertaining to the central government or interstate cases.
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The above suggestion, should not be stalled due to authoritarian tendencies of higher level judiciary, or due to any prevailing ego problems. If tried out, these steps could certainly help in not only speeding up administration of justice to the ever increasing population of India, but also would facilitate settlement of millions of cases pending in the country since ages. Long pending, say over 5 to 10 years old cases, should be specifically monitored and listed at the appropriate courts for expeditious settlement, within a specified time frame. There is also a need for computerisation of information pertaining to all pending cases at every level, so that their progress can be monitored at every level and by everyone.
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Col LK Anand Retd
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