A new study on access to justice in India has found that 70% of those who have faced disputes in the past five years have turned to the courts, but the formal justice system is still not the preferred form of conflict resolution by most Indians. Justice is a fundamental goal of any civilization. Therefore, it is imperative that the judicial system do its duty with due diligence so that society can aspire to peace, harmony and progress. Section 39A of the Constitution of India highlights the concept of free legal aid for the poor and weaker sections of society, but in view of the current situation, it has not gained prominence. Judges are considered equal to God, so it is their duty to ensure that no culprit gets away with it. Since our independence, we have suffered greatly from the atrocious slowness, but the time has come to reform India`s judicial system. “Delaying justice is deprived of justice” should be a primary objective of any judicial authority. If not, it doesn`t matter how economically or technologically we develop, because we will never be a developed nation. The Dastra report, which will be released alongside the Daksh report on 24 January, stresses that India urgently needs to invest capital to fill these gaps and problems with the justice system to ensure universal access to justice. Recommendations include improving access to legal empowerment laws, ensuring affordable, high-quality legal aid, streamlining processes for handling cases before the courts, and improving police and prison support and accountability. There are other reasons for the inefficiency of the work of our judicial system, such as many Supreme Court and Supreme Court justices, who are forced to study various reports and recommendations of the Commission, which impedes the work of our courts. Political affiliations and slow tactics of judges also destroy the true nature of the judicial system.
One of the main reasons for the delay in our courts is the diversity of culture, language, religious feelings, customs and practices of our country, which are a troubling issue before our courts, namely: When a case is dealt with by a court, the rule to be applied is subject to hundreds and thousands of interpretations, This prevents the judge from making a simple and quick decision on less complicated issues. The criminal justice system has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of pending cases and is also distorted against the poor or disadvantaged segments of society. Although justice is being done, it still takes several years, which shows the shortcomings of the judicial authority. The Indian Constitution grants every citizen certain basic rights, the violation of which may have legal consequences, but there are nevertheless thousands of cases of rape that are never investigated because it is believed that the court can take 8 to 10 years to decide the issue. This is the current state of Indian justice. For example, in the Nirbhaya rape case, even after the entire nation knew that these six people were guilty of rape and should be punished, it still took the court 8 precious years of the victim`s mother`s life to decide whether she was guilty or not. The case of Mohammad Harris Nalapad in Bengaluru took into account the fact that indictments are never filed within the 60-day deadline. The evidence has also been manipulated in several cases due to political pressure, or sometimes due to insensitivity.
When asked why they opted for alternative dispute resolution methods, the majority of respondents said it was a decision of their opponents, and 26.8% attributed this to the high cost of litigation. They also pointed out that India`s legal system is too complex and cases take too long to resolve. For example, the 2017 Finance Act reorganized and streamlined the judicial system, focusing mainly on merging the courts and the conditions of service of court members, but neglecting the administrative structure of the courts. Fortunately, Chief Justice N.V. Ramana clearly articulated the idea of a national judicial infrastructure company, thus focusing on the administrative functions of the judiciary. The legal expert also said that judicial delays are also a reality that occurs for several reasons. The evils of corruption have crept into the system. With so much corruption in the legal profession; All processes are shrinking.
People need to wake up and get out of this corruption. Managing the congestion crisis in India`s criminal justice system requires more resources for the police and judiciary as India faces a severe shortage of police and judges. High vacancy rates exacerbate the staffing problem. As of January 1, 2017, the vacancy rate among police officers (civilian and armed) across the country was 22%. Uttar Pradesh has the highest vacancy rate, with more than half of sanctioned posts vacant, according to figures submitted to parliament on Tuesday. For example, Her Majesty`s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) in the UK provides an integrated support system – including infrastructure and financial resources – for court administration in England and Wales, as well as for most courts in the UK. HMCTS is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice, but is structured as a body operating on the basis of a partnership between the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice.3 The two partners do not interfere directly or indirectly in the day-to-day management of the Authority. The agency is focused on the Board of Directors and its Executive Director is responsible for day-to-day operations and administration. It is regrettable that, despite the many successes, the Indian judicial system suffers from several structural problems that hamper the effective and efficient administration of justice. Unlike in the past, this structural disorder can be better understood and analyzed today through better data availability. The reasons for the delay and ineffectiveness of the law are numerous. The insufficient number of judges and courts in the country is one of the main causes of the backlog of cases.
In 2000, compared to 107 judges per million in the United States and 75 in Canada, India had only 10.5 per million. The incompetence and inefficiency of judges is another reason. In Indian courts, it is easy to see that there is a habit of adjournment of the majority of lawyers for their own benefit. This is one of the main reasons for the large number of pending cases in India. The legal fees and all the costs a person has to incur to sue even for a small claim are so high that it`s worth making every possible claim. The procedure and formalities are so complex and full of technical details that they hinder litigants at every stage. A lot of time is wasted on jurisdictional arguments, enough communications, pleadings and other procedural issues. And even after the court has issued the first judgments, the number of counter-appeals to the higher courts is also one of the reasons for the delay in legal mediation.
Proactive measures are needed to eliminate the huge backlog of cases in Indian courts, according to legal experts. The idea of creating a specialized agency to manage the administrative functions of the judiciary has also been repeatedly proposed by committees and advisers of the Indian government. In 2015, the Department of Finance`s Financial Sector Appeals Tribunal Task Force recommended the creation of a specialized court administration body to support the administrative functions of the proposed tribunal. In 2019, the ministry`s annual economic survey included a recommendation to create “. a specialized service called the Indian Courts and Tribunals Service. which focuses on the administrative aspects of the legal system. The main tasks envisaged for this specialized unit included providing the necessary administrative support functions to the judiciary, identifying process inefficiencies and advising the judiciary on legal reforms, as well as rethinking some inefficient processes. “The quality of judges is another issue. In lower courts, the selection process may not be able to judge the actual insight that a judge should generally possess. The quality of the candidate is rarely tested in the recruitment process existing in the lower courts.
Therefore, you don`t have quality judges in the subordinate judicial system,” he said. “In higher justice, we have a collegiate system in India.” The Indian judicial system as we know it today includes the Supreme Court, Supreme Courts and various other subordinate courts. It was commissioned on 28 January 1950. Since then, our judicial system has been able to prove that it is the moral conscience of the nation, defending the rights of all citizens regardless of class, gender, status and religion, and repeatedly saving the democratically established government itself. While our country`s judiciary has accomplished remarkable feats in just 70 years, the gap between ideal and reality has widened and become clearer over the years.
