Justice Delayed Justice Denied

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I acknowledge that people are losing faith in judiciary. It is mainly because of long delays at all points, the reluctance of all the adjudicators to give the adjudications and the inevitable adjournments. That is why people are approaching the mafia which believes in out summary justice.

Law is a benevolent profession. Lawyers and Courts have always been the last refute for the helpless and the despoiled litigants. But of late there is attrition of people’s, trust and faith in the Indian judicial system. The main cause for such attrition is jobbery (corruption) and delays. The allegation of jobbery is the first cause for the deteriorating functioning of the judiciary.

The primaryreason of delay is corruptionamong the premier judges. A few days ago, the judges of the Allahabad High Court found themselves being described in less than flattering words. The criticism stung even more because it came from the Apex court. The Supreme Court on Nov 26, 2010 ordered the Allahabad High Court’s Chief Justice to check some of the corrupted judges. For several years there had been babbles of discontent with functioning of the superior judiciary. Even authoritative seats had been heard saying that. For citation, a formerreputed Chief Justice of India, Justice Venkataramiah, speaks of High Court adjudicators going to their wealthy friends or to embassies in search of drinks. Another former reputed judge of the country’s premier court, mentioned several ways of judicial jobbery and also it is raised that once in a mean while costly benefits are given to some of the premier judges and munificentparties are arranged for them.

One of the major reasons why these Parliamentarians don’t make amendments to the law is because each one of them has at least two to three cases in their name. For example, a Dalit girl from Banda was allegedly raped by a BSP MLA Purushottam Naresh Dwiwedi. Parliament’s inability to elucidate Adarsh scam involving former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, CWG scam involving MP Suresh Kalmadi, another land scam involving Honorable Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and the mother of all scams involving former telecom minister A Raja causing nearly loss of 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer was indirectly one more reason for the delay in the justice. Of late allegations of corruption have been raised against DinakaranHonorable Chief Justice of Karnataka HC on his elevation to the Apex Court has left many questions unanswered for those who raised the allegation.

Another cause for delay in adjudication is the code of conduct of judges. For example one of the judges of Gujarat HC once slapped on the face of one of his fellow workers after which Apex court had to intervene to resolve the issue by transferring one of the judges to some other states. In the recent times during Reliance case was going on one of the judges of the Apex Court showed his inability to sit on the bench with another judge when the hearing of the case was on the next date. A few years before furious attorneys danced on the tables in the Court room of the Chief Justice of Delhi HC, and interrupted the operations of all other judges. In the present situation, repeat of such thing cannot be ruled out and it cannot be expected the early delivery of the adjudications in these situations. It’s true that even Apex court’s best defense Contempt of court cannot prevent them from performing such activities again.

One more reason which causes the delay in adjudications is the century old modus operandi assumed by the judiciary of this country. That modus operandi resulted in thousands of pending cases. Gujarat Riots Case is an example of it. In Ruchika case, that poor girl Ruchika committedsuicide while awaiting justice as it took 19 long years after allto enter F.I.R.

One more cause of the delay in the justice is the approach of the lawyers towards the case. There should be LAW or Rule that the case cannot be postponed beyond three/four times. Lawyer asking for date extension on silly grounds (including chest pain or admitted to ICU) must be heftily penalized than only can one expect real justice

Over and over again shortage in the number of judges in the courts is seen as a cause for the delay in justice. Even the Law Commission did make many observations in this aspect which were also supported by the Chief Justice of India

PRESENT JUDICIARY

There is an immense feeling that when a person approach a court to seek justice and to get rid of his problem but as a result there is a immense delay in seeking justice, in spite of such delay remedy provide could not satisfy the need of such situation. This is because Justice is being delayed and curbed due to serious pendency of cases and workload in the Court. The ultimate reason for any type of judicial discipline is to maintain public confidence in the judiciary. The reason behind this principle is easy. A legal system can function only as long as the public accepts and abides by decisions rendered by the courts; the public will accept and abide by these decisions only if it is convinced that the judges are fair and impartial; anything that tends to weaken that conviction should be avoided. In other words, justice must not only be done, but must also appear to be done.

I just want to express the miserablecondition of affairs in India in regards to the law. The major problem is that our Indian law is too lenient and trials are taking too much time. I just can’t realize the cause as to why would any case take more than ten years to get over, this includes almost each and every case from the highest to the lowest ( example: the Mumbai bomb blast 1992; it took over 12 years to come to a transitory conclusion, because the accused can still plea).

If I am over fifty, I can go ahead and kill some person and can delay the case till I die of natural death. So by the time the verdict comes that I am guiltyI would have long gone to my death. So hypothetically I would go Scott free.

 

Why can’t we have more judges and why can’t a person get justice in a year or two. All thepoliticiansare busy with the quota and other useless things when they fail to realize that the JUSTICE is the most basic right of Indians. I bet Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab the lone surviving 26/11 terrorist’s trail is going to go on for at least a decade, no wonder we are such a soft state.

 

There are many people who are imprisoned for more than 10years for the simple reason that they can’t afford bail. Though they had done nothing wrong except some petty stealing they are being confined in the four walls for more than 10 years. So, the proverb “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” is proved as it is denied to the poorest of the poor.

 

Remedial measures:

So, I think that the Government should review the judicial system by making some of the following changes:

1] Fix trial and appellate limits to 1.5yrs and 0.5yrs maximum.

2] Increase penalties in IPC which are 60 years old and ridiculously low. For murder may be Rs 10,000 and for rape Rs 2000/. Isn’t it shameful? The fines have to be revised at least 10 times.

3]Minimum Rs 25000 fine where courts come to reasonable conclusion that case or complaint filed was malicious, malafied, vexatious, falsely filed as counter complaint. Besides this, Imprisonment for one month should also be sentenced A black mark to be added against counsel. When three blackmarks are accumulated, lawyer should beexpelled from bar for 3 years period and should be made to pay a fine of Rs 25,000.Today for large number of lawyers there is no difference between criminals and them. They misbehave with clients, don’t pay attention to case, overcharge and delay proceedings.

4] Makefinancial penalties main plank of criminal and civil jurisprudence like in USA so that people are afraid to do crimes and cheating. These should be recovered as land revenue arrears and jailing the convicts or decreed persons till they pay up. Concept of torts and damages should be made easy and included in judicial orders.

5]Change public servants rule to make dismissal easier by a 2 step higher officer or Governor/President as applicable on public complaints and poor honesty and efficiency record. Retire 25% government employees after 10 years of service and 50% thereafter every 5 years of service.

6]There should be LAW or Rule that the case cannot be postponed beyond three/four times. Lawyer asking for date extension on silly grounds (including chest pain or admitted to ICU) must be heftily penalized than only can one expect real justice.

7] Quality of the advocates practicing should be increased by increasing the range of the All India Bar Examination.

Conclusion:

While the problem of delay looks intimidating, it can be dealt by having additional fast track Courts, making legal services much more striking thereby drawing high-quality lawyers and filling up all available jobs at various Courts. We can conclude from the above dialogue that we should not route in extra-ordinary hurry-up of cases by whatever means. As justice delayed is justice denied, similarly, the saying, justice hurried is justice buried is evenly factual. Therefore, adequate, realistic and due hearing of every cases with consideration of its state of affairs is the necessary requirement of natural justice and balance of convenience.

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