INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM—WHAT AILS IT???

Before the British arrived in India, the country had been following laws that were based on the Arthsastra (300 BC) and the Manusmriti (100 AD). This tradition continued despite the Muslim conquest of India. After the advent of the Muslims the Sharia or Islamic law was applied to them. This was superseded by a common law when India became a part of the British Empire.

The Supreme Court of India commenced operations in 1950. It presently has 30 judges apart from the Chief Justice of India. The procedure of the Supreme Court is conducted in English only.

There is a huge backlog of cases of which a large percentage is minor crimes belonging to the Motor Vehicle Act and petty crimes. It is criminal that the time of the courts be wasted on such petty issues. Prolonging the cases unduly by the litigants is a great problem in India and in this the advocates work hand in glove with the litigants.

If one takes a look at the number of cases pending in the Indian courts one would be shocked.

PENDING CASES:

Supreme Court ---- -39,780 Cases (Civil and Criminal)

High Courts--------- 39 Lakh Cases (7 Lakh Criminal, 32 Lakh civil)

Subordinate Courts- 2.63 Crore Cases

Undertrails---------- 2.5 lakh under-trails languishing in Jails

Judicial Strength----India has 14,576 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 17,641 including 630 High Court Judges and 31 SC judges.

India has --------------------10.5 judges/million persons.

Bangladesh has----------- 12 judges/million

USA has-------------------- 107 judges/ million.

This would mean a judge has to hear an average of 2100 cases per year. Considering that the court is open only around 225 days a year this would mean each judge hearing at least 10 cases a day which would result in only a single hearing of the case during the entire year. And all of us know that cases go in for dozens of hearings.

Despite all this backlog the courts enjoy the privileges of the British times. Does any office in the world close for Summer holidays and Dussehra holidays and so on?. Our courts do. If anyone questions them the courts would slap the contempt of court charges against them.

There is rampant corruption prevailing in Indian courts. As per Transparency International , delays in disposal , shortage of judges and complex procedures have made the Indian courts corruption prone.

The Supreme Court is showing its disinclination to allow the judiciary to come into the Lokpal bill.

The judges have become a law unto themselves. They have misused the powers given to them for protecting the law to protect the judges from the law.

The Supreme Court of India has ruled that no first information report (FIR) can be registered against a judge, nor, a criminal investigation initiated without prior approval of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Once appointed, a judge of the High Court or Supreme Court cannot be sacked except by 2/3 majority of the members present in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

In the 1990s, when the Congress was in power, there were charges of corruption against Justice V.Ramaswami of the Supreme Court. A a panel of 3 judges (2 from the Supreme Court and 1 from the High Court) found him guilty in 11 out of the 14 charges.

Despite this a motion seeking to impeach Justice V Ramaswami could not be passed by parliament as the Congress MP’s abstained from voting. Since it required a two third majority of the members present the motion could not be passed. There have been no other attempts at impeachment in India.

After retiring from service in 1994 Ramaswami sought election on an AIDMK ticket in 1999 but was thankfully defeated.

In order to have effective justice a restriction is to be placed on the number of hearings a case can be adjourned and a time frame has to be fixed. Petty cases should be given even less time to be finalized. The number of judges have to be raised to at least double that of today. It is ironic that a country like Bangladesh is having a better judge/population ratio than us.

Corruption in the judiciary will totally undermine the justice system and the Supreme Court has to wake up to this fact. The judiciary has to be brought under the Lokpal bill (this is easier said than done due to the opposition of the Supreme Court).