Jurists have voiced concern on judges allegedly sitting over verdicts long after the conclusion of the arguments and said the practice violated the right to speedy justice guaranteed by the constitution.
Former attorney general of India Soli Sorabjee observed: “You are creating, may be out of necessity, the mafia culture” and the former chief justice of India J.S. Verma supported his view by adding that “extra legal remedies have surfaced because of judicial delays”
Delivering at a talk on ‘Judicial Reforms’ organised by the IC Centre for Governance here Saturday, Verma said: “There is an urgent need to translate rhetoric into action. Article 21 of the constitution provides for right to life and speedy justice.”
Verma chided the judges who sit over the judgments for years together and don’t pronounce them. In a tongue and cheek observation, he said perhaps these judges are too knowledgeable and find it difficult to decide either way.
He wondered if there could be any justification of a judgment not being delivered three years after the conclusion of arguments.
Recalling his days as the chief justice of India, Verma said that there were couple of judges who would not pronounce judgments after the conclusion of the arguments.
He said to tackle the problem he asked the registrar general to release a monthly report card on all the judges, citing the cases each one of them heard on the bench and the number of judgments pronounced by them.
Understandably, there were murmurs by some but eventually everything fell in place, said Verma.
He said that he told one judge that he would not be assigned any fresh matter and cause list will show him delivering judgment and he would sit in the court dictating them.
Sorabjee who chaired the meeting said that in Philippines there was a constitutional binding that every judgment should be delivered within three months and if that did not happen then the judge had to give reasons for the delay.
The senior counsel, who is also the president of the India International Centre here, said that ideally a judge, after the conclusion of the arguments, should not take more than a month to pronounce the judgment.
It is nice that Justice Verma recognized the realities of judicial delay. Today common man shudder to think of going to court. Our judicial system renders so many land mines which a honest litigant confronts. Many feel justice is a chance and court birds have a field time with our system.