What ails the Indian judicial system?
Few would disagree that the Indian judicial process needs urgent reforms. The immediacy of this need has never been more acutely felt than now, as India grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in significant socio-economic changes in the country.
In this article, we attempt to look at the issue through a wider lens as applied to across the entire ecosystem including the courts, quasi-judicial tribunals, as well as the administrative, regulatory, and investigative framework of our country. The ideal judicial system should work for the following broad goals, all within reasonable timelines: The innocent are exonerated; The guilty are punished; The rights of the justifiably aggrieved are upheld; and, Parties in breach of contracts or their civil obligations suffer appropriate consequences, including by paying compensation to aggrieved parties;.
If the foundations of a judicial system are weak, it is bound to burst at the seams.
To support these objectives: The laws must be fair, clear, and contemporary, and their application and implementation should be reasonable, transparent, and non-discriminatory; Punishment for non-compliance should be proportionate to the offence and have a reasonable deterrent effect; A significant majority of people should obey the law – a premium should be placed on compliance with the law particularly those concerned with life, safety, health, environment, and economic matters; and, Adjudication of disputes should not entail prohibitive costs for the general citizenry.
It requires coordination and cooperation between the government, the Judiciary, the Bar, and the general public.
Even before the various High Courts, the total number of pending cases is 41,47,518 (29,55,942 civil cases and 11,91,576 criminal cases), with approximately 83.46% of the cases being more than one year old. There are a total number of 3,33,17,006 cases (91,97,386 civil cases and 2,41,19,620 criminal cases), which are pending before the District and Taluka courts of India. The result is an over-burdened and sub-optimal judicial system. It is also not uncommon that the same matter is under investigation by multiple agencies, often resulting in undue harassment.
Indeed, the current pendency of cases before Indian Courts, as per the data available on July 17, 2020 is mind-boggling. At the same time, Indian law-makers often make laws and regulations that are onerous, cumbersome, and give regulatory and investigative agencies wide and arbitrary powers.
Introduce, publicize, and promote settlement and mediation mechanisms under various statutes, including methods such as deferred prosecution arrangements. Increase use of technology and digitization of the judicial process. Consider the oft-quoted example of compliance with traffic regulations in India. Prosecution and punishment should be prompt and proportional, and aimed at key offenders. Commercial disputes and contract enforcement also become casualties other than at the interim order stage. These structural problems are further compounded on account of a general disregard for basic laws in India. No matter how laudable that objective may be, this approach assumes that some justice needs precedence over others, which, in an Indian environment, is a flawed approach. Additionally, data on matters pending before investigative agencies and regulators, which are also likely to find their way into the judicial system, is also extremely tardy and difficult to access.
The way forward Keeping in mind the principles enunciated above, a possible way forward to address some of the shortcomings is outlined below: A comprehensive strategy for data collection and analysis at courts, tribunals, and investigative agencies needs to be developed. Even this limited analysis showed that the five tribunals, as per the data available till July 2017, had approximately 3.5 lakh pending cases.
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