JUSTICE + DELAY = JUDICIAL ATYACHAAR...

“Setting up more courts so that people have easier access to justice may be a good idea, but it would be meaning less unless 80-85% of the population had at least high school level education…”
- Supreme Court

Justice delayed is justice denied. More than the delay and the denial of justice, what is unbearable for a citizen is judicial torture. This is something that has to be personally experienced by one to believe it.
A citizen cannot afford or dare to express the pain of judicial torture as that expression can be treated as disrespect/contempt of court and that can lead him behind the bars or in other words more delay. Mental and Physical torture as well as Police torture and Judicial torture too. Where will one go for remedy against judicial torture?
2.5 crores cases pending - the worst thing of Indian judiciary. Though for a pride, we have longest written constitution in the world, but for its enactment we are the least in the world. Citizens are now afraid of judicial circle and blaming and naming it as a ‘never ending vicious circle’.
At the heart of current controversy (always been a part of judiciary) of pending cases, the question is arising, ‘how could we overcome this problem?’
According to the Supreme Court, “To tackle the pendency of 2.5 crore cases, there is an urgent need for an additional 10,000 courts…”. ‘But establishing these courts alone will not give the desired result and to approach these courts for speedy redressel there has to be awareness, which will only come when there is a rise in the education level among people. The large number of pending cases are not a major problem in front of our judiciary, but the main root problem is that needy have no knowledge of how to approach courts, and it could only be tackled through proper education…’
I think to tackle this problem Lawyers played a vital role in solving of pending cases and ensuring speedy justice. The lawyers don’t think of their own capital gains but think of the pain and misery it causes to the affected clients.
India has the largest number of Lawyers after the U.S, but again the problem is, we Indians always concentrated on the quantity rather than the quality of Justice, which only can be achieved through the quality of Lawyers.
Minor changes in the existing laws can also give large amount of relief, like the order to close all the civil cases which are more than 5 years. Once our Ex. Chief Justice of India passed an order to close all the civil cases that were more that 10 years, but again the strike problem, our intelligent lawyers went on strike and that order became a history.
I think, 5 years is enough for any case, if anybody don’t get justice in five years, then its again the problem of Judicial torture for him and he loses all his hopes in next 5 years and the case become a pending case.
Still in our judiciary, we have a case which has been continue from 1984 and till date it is on a pending list. This is the condition of our most trustworthy organ of our constitution.
Our lawmakers i.e. the legislative and the executive organs, they just have to pass and sign the bill and no onus they have except the cheap politics. Our politicians never become a part of any solution.
To give education to the lower class about the judiciary and to solve small cases, we should again start the concept of village court. This will give the minimum awareness as well as justice to all the small pending cases.
The burden goes to Law commission; it should have formed the extra organ to work only on these pending cases. Though we have Lok Adalat but only on paper it appears a progressive in clearing pending cases. The Supreme Court should have to provide more specific guidelines and checks on the working of Lok Adalat.
The solution to the ever increasing volume of pending cases lies in identifying the cause and addressing it. For lingering parties, there is no difference between Lok Adalat and the normal court process. Causes for the ever piling pending cases are obvious and easy to identify.
Instead of tripling he salary of a judges, it should have been increased only 50% of the existing one. At the same time, the strength of the judiciary should have been doubled. The more benches of High Court should have been formed, like in Mumbai High Court, Delhi High Court, Allahabad High Court (already having a bench in Lucknow), Punjab & Harayana High Court, where the cases are in bulk. It will decrease the work load and improve the quality of justice without any further expense. This step would have taken the judicial system closed to a solution.
Judiciary is the only foundation and hope of Indian citizens, which give them a power to control over the justice. So it must be preserved and treated as a Supreme authority and for that we all have to owe a duty to work and give a efficient suggestion for “Judicial Reforms”.

- MOHAMMED FARHAN KHAN