The social activists, the legal experts, the entrepreneurs, and all those who’ve ever came in direct contact with Indian judiciary have always been craving the need of a clearly legal and regulatory framework for dispatch of cases. Clearly, the legal mechanism and infrastructure have failed to keep pace with the rising population, changing societal structure and increasing technological activities. The Indian Judiciary is in strong need of speedy and effectual reforms.
Is Our Judiciary Corrupted?
Just like any evolving nation, India's judicial system does have many legal escapes that hide the corrupted nature of the keepers of the law. One of the major loopholes is that there is no provision in the constitution to register a case against a judge accused of corruption without the permission of the CJI(Chief Justice of India ). The Supreme Court has also compounded the matter by removing judges even from the ambit of criminal investigation. Hence, one cannot even register an FIR against a judge taking bribes without the prior permission of the Chief Justice of India. Thus, the judiciary has become highly self- protective and taken the form of a closed case.
How Does Indian Judiciary Work?
The Court, the Judges and the Magistrates form the bench or the core of the judiciary system.
The court has the power to make decisions, enforce the law and solve disputes.
The Indian Judicial system, as we know today, incorporates the Supreme Court, high courts, and various other subordinate judiciaries. It began functioning on January 28, 1950. Since then, our judicial system has been able to prove itself as the nation’s moral conscience, upholding the rights of all citizens irrespective of their class, gender, status, religion.
On several occasions, it has also saved the democratically established government itself. Even though our nation’s judiciary has achieved remarkable feats in a span of just 70 years, a gap between ideal and reality is becoming wider and clearer over the years. Slow delivery of justice, the appointment of judges enmeshed in controversies, ineffective disciplinary mechanisms are some of the major problems which the system is facing.
The question of delay in the administration of justice has been addressed in the past, but even now, there has been no considerable change. And the irony is that, today in all the other avenues of this modern civilization, speed and efficiency are of great significance. “Delayed Justice, if Justice at all” has become the basic premise of the Indian Judicial system. There are almost 25 million pending cases all over the country and according to experts, these numbers are likely to grow with the growing population unless and until something is done to tackle this.
The objective of this article is to identify and study the gridlocks leading to such delay and inefficiency and to suggest effective measures to correct them.
How to Improve Indian Judiciary?
It is high time that we come out of this dormant state and something effective needs to be done to make the Indian judiciary rapid and effective. Some of the suggested measures are :
Increase the Strength of the Judiciary: The first thing is to increase the number of judges. This is not an easy process. It requires intervention at every step. The investment must be done to increase the number of students taking up law as a major field of study. There should be a number of national law schools and also private law colleges.
Keep Courts Open Throughout the Year: Times have changed and today people are active round the clock. But the Indian judiciary still works in outmoded ways. They have summer vacations, winter vacations and a lot of other leaves. It is just not acceptable when we are carrying the baggage of three crore pending cases. In fact, the special night shift magistrate needs to be implemented so that people need not have to wait till the courts open. Undoubtedly, Indian Judicial system should have emergency services.
Proper Modernization of Courts: Today India dreams of becoming a completely digitized country. In fact, we have been successful to a large extent. But strangely, the Indian judiciary is far behind. This should not be the scenario. The Indian law system should be completely digitized right from the beginning till the end. This will help in saving a lot of time.
Introduction of Fast Track Courts: There are many cases that almost everyone knows will go through the session’s court, the lower court, the High court and finally the Supreme Court. So when the destination of the case is known, there is no need of wasting time by presenting the case in the sessions and the lower court. Rather, a fast track court needs to be introduced so that a case can be directly sent to the Supreme Court.
Non-acceptance of Flippant Cases: Many times, it is seen that a powerful political figure gets any sort of case admitted in the court of law. The case may be dismissed at a later stage, but it wastes valuable time of the judiciary. Therefore, judges should have clear instructions about the kind of cases they can accept in the court of law.
Last but not the least, along with the Indian Judicial system, it is also the responsibility of the Indian citizens, not to waste the time of law with false cases for personal gains. It is a collective responsibility of all not to deny justice to anybody. And the citizens should always lower their expectation of bribing the judiciary just to get their work done.
It would help in growth of Indian judiciary in a healthy and better way.
Written by - Jesvin Joseph
Edited by - Prachi Raheja
How to Improve Indian Judiciary?
It is high time that we come out of this dormant state and something effective needs to be done to make the Indian judiciary rapid and effective. Some of the suggested measures are :
Increase the Strength of the Judiciary: The first thing is to increase the number of judges. This is not an easy process. It requires intervention at every step. The investment must be done to increase the number of students taking up law as a major field of study. There should be a number of national law schools and also private law colleges.
Keep Courts Open Throughout the Year: Times have changed and today people are active round the clock. But the Indian judiciary still works in outmoded ways. They have summer vacations, winter vacations and a lot of other leaves. It is just not acceptable when we are carrying the baggage of three crore pending cases. In fact, the special night shift magistrate needs to be implemented so that people need not have to wait till the courts open. Undoubtedly, Indian Judicial system should have emergency services.
Proper Modernization of Courts: Today India dreams of becoming a completely digitized country. In fact, we have been successful to a large extent. But strangely, the Indian judiciary is far behind. This should not be the scenario. The Indian law system should be completely digitized right from the beginning till the end. This will help in saving a lot of time.
Introduction of Fast Track Courts: There are many cases that almost everyone knows will go through the session’s court, the lower court, the High court and finally the Supreme Court. So when the destination of the case is known, there is no need of wasting time by presenting the case in the sessions and the lower court. Rather, a fast track court needs to be introduced so that a case can be directly sent to the Supreme Court.
Non-acceptance of Flippant Cases: Many times, it is seen that a powerful political figure gets any sort of case admitted in the court of law. The case may be dismissed at a later stage, but it wastes valuable time of the judiciary. Therefore, judges should have clear instructions about the kind of cases they can accept in the court of law.
Last but not the least, along with the Indian Judicial system, it is also the responsibility of the Indian citizens, not to waste the time of law with false cases for personal gains. It is a collective responsibility of all not to deny justice to anybody. And the citizens should always lower their expectation of bribing the judiciary just to get their work done.
It would help in growth of Indian judiciary in a healthy and better way.
Written by - Jesvin Joseph
Edited by - Prachi Raheja
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