This text will discuss and explore the topic of Reforms in the Indian Judicial System. This text will be constrained and concentrated on the Indian Judicial System.
It is well known that the changes and reforms in anything make it last longer. That’s why it is often said that change is the law of life.
No generation has the monopoly over wisdom nor has the right to restrict the upcoming generations from reforms and growth. Everything demands a reform with the change of time and that change protects that particular thing from its demise.
Likewise, the Judicial System, one of the most noble and vital organs of government also needs reform.
There are several challenges faced by the Indian Judicial System and in order to eliminate them, this pious system really needs a few reforms.
In today’s scenario, it became the moral duty of legal luminaries to work on it and try to introduce the necessary reforms and modifications.
Need for Judicial Reforms
Reforms are necessary for each and every field as it is an ongoing process needed to make everything going on. Reforms are a kind of repair to any machine or organization in order to protect that from being ruined.
If on-time repairs are not done with the machine then it would not run in a proper manner and may get destroyed.
That is why reforms and repairs are necessary for the machine as well as structural organizations. Reforms make them last long and efficient and hence they are necessary for their existence.
Moreover, even the most pious and most noble document of India, The Constitution of India also has the provision of reforms by way of amendment procedure.
In the same manner, the judiciary, the protector of the Constitution of India also needs reforms as it is suffering from many deformities and irregularities in it.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Keshvananda Bharti v. State of Kerala it was quoted that ‘No generation has monopoly over wisdom nor it has a right to place fetters on future generation to mould the machinery of government according to their requirements.
Likewise, highlighting the importance and necessity of flexibility in any organization Dr. B.R. Ambedker had quoted that ‘one can, therefore say that the Indian federation will not suffer from the fault of rigidity of legalism. Flexibility is the important feature of Indian federation’.
Therefore, it can be concluded that nothing can be preserved for a long time if no reforms are made in it. That’s why reforms are of foremost importance and are very much necessary for the development of any system.
Major Problems With Indian Judicial System
The following are the major problems in the field of the judicial system of India, which needs to be eliminated as soon as possible.
1. Slow Procedures and Inaccessibility of Justice: The one of the major problems of Indian Judicial System is its slow and time taking procedure. Due to this slow procedure, the accessibility of justice to a lower fraction of society is adversely affected.
Basically, the root of this problem is our old procedural laws. Our Indian Courts are functioning under procedural Laws which are old and to some extent outdated.
The Code of Civil Procedure is a century old. The new Code of Criminal Procedure is more than 40 years old and it is only a revision of an earlier Code which was a century old. The Evidence Act is also of the year 1872.
Moreover, these laws were made by Englishmen when there was very less number of cases and hence these laws were having time taking and lengthy procedures. But now these laws are creating hurdles in speedy justice and accessibility of justice to the general public.
2. Difficult and Prolonged Execution of Final Decisions: There is also a difficult and prolonged execution of final decisions. A large number of options to appeal give birth to this problem.
The decree of the lower court before came to execution, the opposite party files an appeal against it and execution remains pending. This happens many times and is a very hurdle in speedy justice.
3. Overburdened courts: The one of the biggest problems in Indian Judiciary is the overburdened Courts. There is a huge backlog and delay in the disposal of cases.
By 2016 there are 49,468 cases pending in Supreme Court and by 2014 there are more than 40 lack pending cases in High Courts and more than 2.5 crore pending cases in subordinate Courts.
4. Erroneous Judge-Population Ratio: Indian Judiciary presently consists of around 30 Supreme Court Judges, 700 High Court Judges, and 15,000 Trial Judges for a population of more than 125 crores.
This leads to a Judge-Population Ratio of 13 judges per million. This is nothing compared to the US, the UK and Australia which have a judge-population ratio of 107, 51 and 41 respectively.
5. Ostracized ADR System: The ADR system i.e. the alternative dispute resolution system was introduced for the purpose of providing alternate ways and speedy justice. But this system is still unpopular among the litigants.
Litigants are not using it or one can say they do not rely on this system. This is sometimes due to the reluctance of litigants and sometimes due to the reluctance of lawyers.
Litigants ignore it as they feel that they will get a larger relief by prosecuting or contesting the litigation and there is no need to settle the matter by agreeing to a lesser relief.
Advocates avoid it as they feel that settling cases by ADR methods, stems from their fear that they may not be able to charge or receive the full fee if the case is settled.
6. Miscellaneous Problems:
a) Insufficient coordination between the Supreme Court, state judicial council and the ministry of justice which results in financial instability and its proper utilization.
b) Insufficiently skilled human resources, in professional and ethical terms in the judicial system as well as in advocates.
c) Incompetence and unconscious behavior and corruption in the judicial body.
d) Losing the credibility of the judiciary.
Reforms Which Need to be Introduced
The following are the measures which should be taken in order to eliminate the above-discussed problems and make the judiciary more efficient:
1. Financial Aid and Legal Awareness: Providing financial aid to the judicial administration for the purpose of increasing and propagating legal awareness among the general public. This will provide easy access to justice to the general public, particularly to the downtrodden section of society.
2. Use of Information Technology in Management: The use of information technology in case flow management is the only means to introduce efficiency and remove pendency from the Indian Judicial System.
However, the status of cases of Supreme Court and High Courts and some trial courts are now web-hosted and this has provided great efficiency in providing certified copies, listing cases, tracing files, etc.
This will also make the system quite transparent and help the litigants and the advocates to get all information about the status of their cases and ultimately reduce the pendency and delay problems.
3. Encouraging ADR Process: Alternative Dispute Resolution process is the only method to reduce the number of minor cases and provide easy access to justice to general public. This system encourages the settlement between the parties and this avoids many minor litigations.
In that way, it helps both the judicial system as well as the litigants. However, in doing this the courts, as well as the lawyers, must come forward and propagates this among the litigants.
4. Improvement in Judicial Appointment Policy: However, the Supreme Court has strengthened the higher judicial appointment by removing the political interference from it by striking down the 99th Constitutional Amendment which provided for the National Judicial Appointment Commission in the case of Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association v. Union of India.
But the appointment policy of subordinate Court judges still needs an improvement. For this, the best option is to establish an All India Judicial Service and create a Judicial Management Cadre to manage the administration of the judiciary at all levels.
5. Simplifying the Procedural Laws- The procedural laws should be amended and made simple in order to provide efficiency in the hearing and disposition of cases. The procedure must be simple, easy and favorable to the litigants.
6. Avoiding or Posting Judges to Non-Judicial Work: The judges should not be engaged in any other work except judicial work.
7. Maintaining Ethical Standards and Values: Ethics are of foremost importance in the law field. Therefore the ethical standard and values should be maintained in order to maintain the trust of the general public in the judiciary.
Conclusion
Therefore, this is high time to introduce the reforms in the Indian Judiciary in order to maintain its standard and high pride. Judiciary is the guardian of the Indian Constitution and reforms in it are very necessary.
November 21, 2022 - BY SIFS India