The legal system in India and the judiciary has reached a stage now where the public openly criticise the judiciary and the News Channels debate even the judgments delivered by the Constitutional Courts. It is an open fact in my opinion that the public opinion at the legal system in India and as to how the judiciary is not able to deliver results meeting the expectations of the public, has taken away the caution to be exercised while referring to the judiciary or the legal system. The respect can never forcibly be received and the respect should come voluntarily. If there are no allegations of corruption in judiciary, the procedures are simple in courts, there are no allegations of political interference and when clean and efficient people are made as judges of constitutional courts, then, the legal system in India and the judiciary will automatically be respected by the public. It is also true that we have so many eminent judges now. The functioning of judiciary or the legal system has a direct impact on the society and the rights of the people. If a criminal could manage a magistrate or court dealing with his case, then, who will protect the society from evil forces? We can not expect the government to be very clean and responsive given the complications in the Indian political system. As such, the Judiciary or the legal system has a big role to play in protecting the rights of the people, ensuring orderlyness in the system and even making a judgment on the executive actions when those are not in conformity with the public interest. Many Senior Advocates, responsible citizens, professionals and eminent judges have spoken about the need of judicial reforms and they had even the courage to criticize the judiciary openly when required. There are critics on the allegations of corruption and lack of transparency in the Judiciary. In fact, Indian judiciary has done an excellent job in the past and we have seen so many landmark judgments on the issues touching public interest. In my opinion, many people talk about the judiciary and the judicial reforms only because people have the hope that Judiciary can protect their rights and ensure ‘right to life’ as guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution of India and further expanded.
In my opinion, the people of this country, wants legal or the judicial reforms on the issues like:
1. Speedy justice not amounting to justice buried.
2. Simplistic procedures where even a common man with basic knowledge can directly approach the court.
3. Transparency in the system and reduction of corruption to a great extent.
4. Appointment of efficient and clean professionals as judges.
5. Ensuring the required standards in the legal professional or the person concerned.
When we talk about the speedy justice, there are people who say that we need lot of infrastructure in order to match to the pendency of litigation or the rate of litigation. We only talk about establishment of more courts and the appointment of judges. I personally believe that establishment of more courts and the appointment of judges will not ensure the speedy disposal of cases. I don’t think that the speedy disposal of cases is an impossible exercise and it is not even difficult. Commitment is required to bring reforms in this regard and the commitment never looks at the problems, but, focuses on the ways to solve the problems. The problem with judicial reforms in India is that we lack clarity as to who is ultimately responsible to the citizens. With a very good objective, the executive interference is reduced when it comes to appointment of judges to the Constitutional Courts. But, with experience, the collegium system has invited so much criticism and the executive do not bother to address the issue showing judicial independence and they will say that they can do nothing given the legal position in this regard. Likewise, the problem is where to start and whose responsibility it is to address the issue of delay in disposal of cases before various courts in this country. In my personal opinion, the Government or the concerned government is ultimately responsible to the citizens and the judges are just appointed and not elected by the public though the Constitution cast some responsibilities including the power of judicial review on Courts. It is for sure that we can certainly curtail the delay in justice delivery and can ensure speedy justice to the citizens. For which what we need is commitment from Government and the concerned ministry. We have so many eminent judges with vast experience who also command great respect among the professionals and people. We need to utilize their services and get their guidance as to how to cure the system and make the speedy disposal of cases a reality. Judicial reforms will transform this country to a great extent and we can see lot of change in the things in the society if we are able to bring the judicial reforms. There will not be any illegality in the society or atleast we can see substantial reduction in illegal activities in the society if there is an effective judicial system in place. This is the impact of effective judicial system in the Country.
We have many legal luminaries in this country, still, we can not make the procedures in court simple or the expert knowledge is not being properly utilized for making the procedures in court simple to the extent possible. The problem with the procedure part, in my opinion, can not be easily solved. Because, there are legislations made by the parliament and also by the states in their domain of power as enshrined in Constitution of India. But, the parliament has a say on important procedural laws used in Court regularly and this issues to be looked into by the concerned ministry and we have a Law Commission in place and I don’t want to comment on law commission which has expressed its opinion on certain important issues very frankly and made the recommendations. When it comes to judicial reforms, all the parties concerned should act fast as we are reaching a dangerous stage and the executive should take a lead role in this regard. State litigation is also not a concern for delay in fact as the efficient judicial system will be able to face any situation and as such, we need an efficient judicial system and we need many reforms in this regard.
Alleged corruption in Judiciary and particularly lower judiciary is a matter of grave concern. We need to address the issue of corruption in Higher Judiciary first and we need to concentrate on the issue of judicial appointments. In my personal opinion and given the experience, the responsibility of appointing judges to be given to the executive with a directive that consultation is mandatory. Because, political parties go for elections and they should answer to the people. Contra, the judges may not go for elections and also the accountability is a serious issue as options are less to deal with the judge who is not accountable or who is corrupt. So, the responsibility of appointing efficient and clean judges is to be given to executive and they should not be allowed to take a defence that they are not concerned with the appointments and as such they can do nothing when it comes to corruption in judiciary. This country is really facing a serious problem with the allegations of corruption in judiciary and the public are slowly loosing their faith in judiciary or finding the ways to get relief by adopting unethical means. When we make the system very transparent, then, there is a chance of reducing the corruption to a great extent and such the executive should concentrate as to how to make the entire judicial system in the country transparent.
The delay in justice, the issue of corruption etc. can very well be addressed with commitment and by using the expert knowledge and taking the guidance from the experienced judges with a very good track record. But, the issue of standards in profession is far more serious and I believe that corrective steps are being taken now to ensure required standards in the profession, but, we need to still go a very long way in this direction. Many talk as if the speedy disposal of cases in Courts is impossible and as if the corruption can not be reduced. But, its not true and it can be done with proper vision and by using the required guidance and expert knowledge. We need to focus on judicial reforms and India can never afford to be slow on this issue as we aspire to become a dominating force in the world. The Government may have so many problems, but, the issue of judicial reforms is a major problem and the public is affected with lack of good system in place day-in and day-out.
All my respect to the eminent judges and professionals in the Country and deserved are always respected by the society. In support of my feeling that the judicial reforms is not an issue which is very difficult, I would like the concerned, to listen to Hon’ble Justice A.P.Shah (retired) through the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdaJ_mBGTvw&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY8eVW6j7cA&feature=channel
Note: It has never been my intention to insult any one or institution and I have great respect to the judges and the Courts. My endeavor is to stress on the importance of legal reforms and change the perception about judiciary or the legal system in India. Judiciary is to be respected by the public and the public should think many times before criticising the judiciary and we need to gain such situation soon.
AUTHOR:
V.Durga Rao, Advocate, Madras High Court.
Email: vdrao_attorney@yahoo.co.in
In the name of social upliftment, the vote bank politicians have introduced the reservations basing on the religion, caste, sub-caste, region, etc., not basing on the merit and moreover this has been made to use as eternal right by them. Thus ‘reserved 35% non-merited candidate’ is equal ‘non-reserved 95% merited candidate’. Intellectuals are getting are not elected and all elected are not intellectuals. So until the merit and honesty are not considered, this goes on.
Mr. Rao,
I have gone through your above write-up and like it upto a certain extent. I want to say and admit that there is transparency in our judicial system, but what about the accountability of the judiciary towards socio-legal three tier system.Please add some thing, if you wish in write up. Thanks
Dear Sir,
With most humbleness, respect to one and all, am requesting you to kindly look into the judgements rendered on taxation laws.
When the judgement is against the Revenue, the law is amended retrospectively instead of taking the cue from the judgment for the prospective implementation.
You can see a lot of retrospective amendements from 2000 starting from the decision of the Laghu Udyog Bharati Case every year.
this cause undue burden on the assessee. The assessee is so sceptic that even if he is sure that he is on the right side of the law,somewhere corner of his mind, he feels threatened because of retrospective amendments nullifying the judgment.
So, it is humbly submitted that the retrospective amendment should be for clarifications and not cause any hardship to the tax payer.
The opinion is personal.
Good approach of Author. Transparency in Judicial system is needed. 100% Computerization is required in judicial system.