INDIA: Justice Delay is Justice Denied ! Why?

Often when Some Person A mess with Person B for some reason or no reason, the next thing you would hear that I WILL SEE YOU IN COURT. But here the question arises for the reason that person knocked the door of The Court, Is getting what he deserve?, There should be checks and balances that how many times one gets the Justice Done!

I am not raising any question on the credibility of Indian judicial Capacity, My very concern is that Due to lack of Infrastructure and the working staff the accountability of Judicial System is not up to the mark. A person can end up all his life in the hearings of his case but still not able to get to the Justice. Is this system we need for our citizens? or we need to add up some reforms to make it more convenient and accessible even to lower strata of our society. Our Preamble of the constitution advocates for Justice which is Social, Economic and Political.

Lack of Infrastructure and Number of Judges in India is increasing the existing backlog of cases, Judges present in the system are not able to give his time to every case. On the other hand the cases which get the hearing dates then trials get decades to complete.

At present there are about 3 Crore cases pending with the Indian Judiciary Department where 0.2% in Supreme Court, 13.8% in High Courts and 86% in Sub ordinate courts. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the most number of cases pending and judges vacancy. There is 19 judges/million people, where as 120th report of Law Commission suggests for 50 judges/million and if we count the required number of judges for the disposal of pending cases we need 70000 judges.

Increase in the cases have weakened the capacity of Judicial System, This leads to delays in redressal of cases on time. There is various concerns related to this scenario because Some of the appellate and under trial prisoners lost their lives in hope for Justice. If someone being Undertrial Prisoner gets the justice after a long time then some of them loose their confidence in themselves at that age to start their lives from scratch, Ultimately they end up with some pathetic and illegal ways to live their further life.

Here question comes which is my Thumbnail “ Justice Delay is Justice Deniel ?” The whole system creates the picture for Injustice to many. So in the modern world where everything is instant and on your finger’s tip, here a pizza can reach you by 30 minutes, but of course justice is not a Pizza. The demand for Instant Justice increases but this is absolutely true that very nature of justice can’t be instant because You have to hear two sides and look into the proofs submitted by them and then only A judge can announce his/her verdict. As there is guiding principle in our system that “Let a hundred guilty be acquitted, but one innocent should not be convicted.” But the conviction does not come easily of course, It takes time and hearings. During the hearing there are multiple loops which needs to be managed and i.e. Intentions/medical conditions of judges, medical condition refers here to temporary illness but the amount of work bestowed upon them is not letting them a needed rest, existing backlogs and incoming workload, the quality of lawyers and the appointment mechanism. There are instances where sometimes prosecutor is not present and on another hearing victim’s lawyer is not present and sometimes lawyers deliberately demands for more and more hearings to make money out of every hearing so this leads to delay in trials ultimately Delay in Justice.

Delay in Justice is sometimes injustice to the Victim because what someone will make with getting justice after giving whole of his life in the proceedings of courts. This leads to the some of drawbacks which are
1- Feeling of Injustice prevail
2- Leads to anarchism
3- Mistrust on Judiciary
4- People cheers to Police encounters( FAKE/REAL) i.e. because it is very example of instant justice which they seeks and this cheering motivates Police for encounter and it leads to fake encounters sometimes
5- Negative effects on Rule of Law

Our infrastructure which needs to strong and strengthen if we do not wish to see any prevalence of upper written drawbacks. And There are some facts published in India Justice Report-2019 which listed below:
A- India spends just 0.08% of its GDP for Judicial Department
B- Delhi is only state which is spending 1% where as all other states using in the range of 0.2% to 0.96%.
C- There is states like TamilNadu, Gujrat, Orissa, Maharashtra and West Bengal which have been working significantly when it comes to disposal of pending cases and judicial reforms.
D- Not a single High Court or State’s Subordinate Court had reached its complete complement of sanctioned judicial posts.
E- Shortfall of 4071 courts, If sanctioned strength of judges in each state were met, the only four states would have court rooms.
At an average of 5 years, a case remains pending at Subordinate Courts.

This report clearly suggests the reasons for delays in disposal of cases. Judicial inadequacy of judicial strength as the prime cause for delay in justice. These delays needs to be addressed and there should be time frame for disposal of Cases. And in case of miscarriage of justice resulting in wrongful prosecution, there should transparent and a certain mechanism for compensation of victim which is currently very complex and remain uncertain. There is some ways to overcome some these issues and for better redressal of Grievances are:
• Improved quality of law graduates
• Use of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence
• Scientific Temper
• Plea Bargaining
• Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanism before filing the case, and ask for mediation then court should allow the same
• Establishment of more and more fast track courts

Indian Judicial System is in need of Judicial Reforms urgently because people tolerance level is decreasing which will increase negative effects on Rule of Law. I want specially mention here that Fake encounters are also a type of injustice not only to victim but also to the society but in moment of anger we cheer it as A Instant Justice and this motivates the Police which can end up to Police RAJ so we must be aware about What is Justice and What is Injustice ? And delay in justice is also a very less but kind of injustice to victim. Justice can not prevail on the foundation of Injustice.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

• Martin Luther King Jr.

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