Efficiency of Courts and Criminal Justice System
EFFICIENCY OF COURTS AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
- Srutee Priyadarshini
When former Chief Justice of the Honourable Supreme Court of India,Tirath Singh Thakur broke down while addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the terrible condition of the judiciary; it was not the Chief Justice breaking down rather, it was the whole judiciary crying and asking for help. When he lamented over the government inaction over judicial inaction and failing to appoint new judges when the backlog of cases is growing, he pointed out some of the important issues the judiciary is facing in the current scenario.
With a backlog of 3.5 crore cases pending across the courts of the country, it would take decades to clear the backlog of cases. Moreover, India has the worst ratio of judge to citizens; with only 13 judges per million people, it is not a surprise that we have such a huge backlog of cases . In most developed countries, the ratio is usually 50, and in some countries as high as 100 or more. If we consider the estimate of Scheme of the National Court Management System, then the number of new cases filed will shoot up to 15 crores in the next three decades, due to increase in population as well as literacy. If the judiciary has to handle the upcoming surge of cases, then there should be an appointment of at least new 75,000 judges. Even though in August 2019, the number of Supreme Court judges was increased from 30 to 33(excluding the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India) it is not sufficient given the rise in cases. In just 13 years, that is from 2006 to 2019 there has been a 22% rise of backlog of case, which is an exceptional rise in backlog of cases. If we consider the opinion of critics then it is because of the reason that the number of new cases filed every year has outpaced the number of old cases, but according to a survey, conducted by a research agency Daksh, there is a huge pendency in cases due to the slow working of the judges as said by 62% of the population, 27% feel that it is because of the laziness of the litigants and their non-seriousness that causes them not to turn up on the scheduled hearing date, 8% feel that the other party influence the judge which causes the delay, whereas 10% of them feel that there is no delay at all.
While we discuss about the delay of judgements, it is important to look at other factors as well. According to Daksh only, the average time for one case in Patna High Court is 2.5 minutes. As we know, that if justice delayed is justice denied, then justice given in haste is no justice as well. Judiciary is a very important part of any country, if it walks with the help of crutches, then it is not possible for the country to thrive. To establish a rule of law it is necessary that an efficient judiciary is established, which neither delays nor hastens any case. When we see the situation of India, the High Courts of India, hear 20 to 150 cases a day, which makes 70 cases a day as an average hearing of any High Court. Considering the working hours of the High Courts, judges spend 5 to 5.5 hours a day listening to cases per day, which amounts to 300-350 minutes. If we consider all these factors, and perform a simple division then the most relaxed High Courts have 15-20 minutes to hear a case, whereas the busy ones like that of Patna High Court has around 2.5 minutes for each case. Thus, on an average a judge has 5-6 minutes to hear a case. Moreover, no judge can hear a judgement without going through the case thoroughly. This causes an excessive workload on the judges which is not in resonance with the salary they are getting. Moreover, due to several reasons such as stressful work hours, low salary and excessive work load; advocacy is a more sought career choice than judiciary.
Moreover, the litigants lose productivity due to loss of wages, work time and business losses. According to Daksh, the loss is extremely high, as high as Rs 837 per litigant. If we use the same method which is used to calculate the cost for one litigant to calculate the productivity losses then the figure is enormous. It comes to near about Rs. 50,387 crore per year, which is 0.48% of the total GDP.
Thus when Alok Prasanna, an analyst from the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, a think-tank, said that “I always tell people who approach me for legal advice not to go through the courts, because you may win or lose the case, but you will definitely lose both your money and your sanity.” maybe it was not an exaggeration.
Furthermore, when we talk about the efficiency of the criminal justice system of India, then we need to address the issue of under-trials (accused awaiting trails) as well. They are true examples of justice delayed is justice denied. With prisons running on over-capacity of 114% with an estimate of 4 lakh prisoners, it is difficult to ignore this issue. With two-thirds(2.8 lakhs) of the total figure being under-trials, it is important to discuss the topic in detail. Most of them are accused of non-bailable offence or are not enough well-off to afford bail. If we look closer then we would find that 70% of them come under the category of illiterate, out of which 53% are Muslims, dalit or Tribals. Thus the situation of under-trials do make us realize about the disparity prevalent in society. Moreover. 60% of the police arrests are reported “unnecessary or unjustified” which draws attention to the burning topic of police atrocities.
One might think, that if there is such amount of hue and cry then why has something substantial not being done? But, then even though everyone is crying about the Indian judiciary system, little is being done. Not only does it lacks efficiency but also, funds to improve the status of infrastructure and the growing backlog of case. Even though it is such a vital part, the annual budget of 2020-21 reduced the amount allotted to the judiciary. This is not a new thing, if we see the cumulative of the budgets presented till date then the amount allotted to judiciary is around 0.2% of the whole budget. The Cinderella treatment is not a new thing for the judiciary after all.
The seemingly never-ending cases are forming the basis of crisis of faith in the legal system.Two-thirds of the ongoing cases are criminal rather than civil cases, which suggests that India’s judicial system more than six decades after independence is not much different from the one inherited from the British Raj, where rulers used the legal system as a means of maintaining order and criminalising agitators, while the majority of civil disputes were settled outside court.
Even though initiatives such as fast courts and hearings through online video conferencing have been introduced, but it doesn’t seem to even dent the pile of backlog cases. For an efficient judicial system, stricter measures are required. Adjournments should not be given just like that, those witnesses who don’t appear on the given hearing date should be fined. The current need of the hour is a total overhaul of the judicial system. Laws need to be re-written. Lawyers who delay the case without any substantial reason should be penalized. The judicial system needs to be streamlined. This is not possible with the reluctant attitude shown by the politicians and bureaucrats towards to the want of a strong judiciary.
It is high time that judiciary is given the attention it deserves, and streamline it with the modern times; or else it might turn into a black hole of despair and disappointment soon.
References -
1. Vidhi Doshi,‘India\'s long wait for justice: 27m court cases trapped in legal logjam’(The Guardian, 5 May 2016)<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/05/indias-long-wait-for-justice-27-million-court-cases-trapped-in-a-legal-logjam>accessed 14 April 2020
2. Harish Narasappa,‘The long, expensive road to justice’(India Today, 27 April 2017)<https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20160509-judicial-system-judiciary-cji-law-cases-the-long-expensive-road-to-justice-828810-2016-04-27> accessed 14 April 2020.
3.T K Arun,‘Why there is an urgent need to reform India’s judicial system’(The Economic Times, 6 February 2018)<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/cursor/why-there-is-an-urgent-need-to-reform-indias-judicial-system/> accessed 14 April 2020.
4. Vrinda Bhandari,‘India’s criminal justice system: An example of justice delayed, justice denied’(First Post)<https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/indias-criminal-justice-system-an-example-of-justice-delayed-justice-denied-3475630.html> accessed 14 April 2020.
