Indian judiciary has been lately on media’s billboard germane to the bustling activities going on in the court lobbies. Albeit, the internal crisis imperiling the judiciary is bountiful, yet what’s more harrowing is the patchy judicial delivery system and the dawdling of cases till sheer ad nauseaum.
According to recent statistics, a colossal 2.8 crore cases are pending in India’s district courts and moreover, the dearth of judges to combat this deluge is exacerbating the condition. As per the numbers, Indian courts are in need of more than 15,000 more arbitrators to even come close to fighting the backlog. Some more vexing numbers are: More than 2 million cases have been stuck in district courts for more than 10 years, around 2.3 million cases are pending in High Courts for more than 10 years.
Certainly, we are not in the shining years of our judiciary. The internal power tussle, paucity of judges, lackadaisical court systems, and an overwhelming backlog of cases is indeed a pellucid tocsin of how our system is currently osculating the nadir. Though all this may seem aggrandized and inordinately cynical and pessimistic look, however, the grass-roots condition is exactly the worst. A demotic legal maxim avows, “Justice delayed is justice denied” and if we base our extant scenario on the apothegm, then certainly we have bungled up in dispensing justice to those who confide in the system. The preposterously dilatory system of ours is not only obliterating the lives of millions of law-abiding denizens but is also mulcting so many taxpayers. The ginormous amount of cases is bamboozling the national treasure, as the cost of financially supporting the courts for running cases which should have been arbitrated years before, is also highly exorbitant.
All in all, we are in a quagmire of problems that have blighted our system. And out of this catch-22, there is only one way out- addressing the problem in the apposite manner. Though addressing this mammoth issue is in itself a formidable task, yet Judicial Impact Assessment (JIA) can unequivocally ensure a better and promising future.
When new laws are promulgated, all the practical technicalities are by no means kept in mind. The putative reason is the lack of opportune coordination between the legislature and the judiciary. This, in turn, leads to an augmented onus on the shoulders of the judiciary, as the court system is left with meager resources to take into account the excessive burden. For instance, the amendment in Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in the year 2005 generated more than 25 lakh new criminal cases. JIA focuses on centering on such exigent issues.
One of the prime reasons behind our faltering judicial system is the lack of requisite data even at the levels of the subordinate courts. For there has been no judicial assay hitherto, there are no official figures which talk about the working of our judicial system. We still have been unable to decipher the primary causes for the delay in sloughing off the cases (besides the shortage of judges), we are also not aware of the costs that are accrued in the proceeding of various cases and our system also lacks any mechanism to calculate such expenses. The budgeting mechanism is obsolete, and investment of Judiciary has not even exceeded more than 0.1% of the total outlay under the plan “Administration of Justice: constitution and organization of all courts, except the Supreme Court and the High Courts,” mentioned in the Concurrent List. The budget making procedures are obviously outdated and aloofness between the judiciary and the legislature in budget allocation corral to compound matters further.
The underlying principle behind the JIA is the constitution of a body consisting of statisticians, legal advisors and economists who would collaborate with the judicial department, CJI of India, Chief Justices of the High Courts and officials of the Home Ministry and Law Ministry to effect reforms in the legislature-judiciary-executive coordination and also to formulate better budgeting procedures for our courts.
With certitude, being au courant with the statistics of the current scenario is a strong need for the success of any such constitutional body and JIA would provide that pedestal of support. On one hand, the assessment will work towards devising strategies to estimate the judicial workload resulting from new laws and the cost of various services like judge-time and support services involved to carry on with the burden, and on the other hand, it will also focus on a deep lacuna in the central funding of our courts.
Over 90% of the judicial cases are processed in our subordinate courts which have been ‘forced’ to deal with both central as well as state laws. Though Article 247 requires the Central government to constitute additional courts to deal with matters appurtenant to the laws enacted by the parliament, yet the Union government circumambulates this requirement by citing that the executive powers guaranteed to it by the constitution doesn’t allow it establish courts in states. JIA will accentuate this issue and raise the concerns regarding the adequate funding of the subordinate courts for tackling the cases arising due to the Central laws.
The pain and the suffering of so many litigants behooves us take this enormously pivotal step since justice that is not delivered timely is in itself a repulsive injustice to our citizens.
JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT
JAI MA BHARTI
