In the new India, access to justice is the privilege of the powerful and rich people. Poor people are still suffering from the quantum of injustice which begins with a traffic constable up to the Supreme Court.
It is the society at large that is bearing the consequences despite knowing the facts well but keeping its eyes shut. This reflects the enslaved mindset of the people which has been intertwined within their genes. It is so painful to hear that the young generation is having thoughts in their mind that the Indian judicial system is unfair, non-arbitrary, and biased.
The people are gradually losing their trust and confidence in the judicial system. They feel disregarded and eluded while running from pillar to post in want of justice and on time. The delayed justice has forced these people to choose a dangerous path of crime & terrorism or to end their life by self-immolation or suicide. No human being should be forced to take these extreme steps, especially the youth of today who is the future of our country.
In the eyes of law, everyone is equal and has right to justice which is protected by the Constitution of India. Unfortunately, despite all the safeguards, the impoverished does not get justice as compared to the rich and the affluent class.
Without an efficient justice delivery system and a subsisting rule of law, a country’s development would be a utopian thought only. With the adaptability of the global system in the field of technology, businesses, etc., thought of advancement in the justice delivery system is farfetched.
Many judicial & police reforms have been recommended and suggested by the ‘Justice V.S. Malimath’ and ‘Justice Verma Committee’ which are yet to be incorporated and are rotting in the record room. We are following the same century old law Cr.P.C. & I.P.C. in particular, which are not equipped to deal with the modern-day problems faced by the Courts. After passing of several decades, we still have not been able to ascertain the law and keep giving new interpretations again and again.
Judicial Infrastructure of our country has not improved & paced up to achieve the desired level since the British period. For example, to date, even the old records could not get digitalized and are consistently fading & decaying in the record rooms.
Although 11,00,476 number of files have been scanned/digitalized and around 6,64,96,340 scanned/digitized pages were verified at various High Courts but around 2700 Cr. documents are yet to be digitized as per report. Similarly there are 24291 sanctioned strengths of judicial officers in the country and only 20115 Court halls are available.
The judicial infrastructure seems to be the last priority of the government since independence which categorically reflects in the day-to-day observation of the common man. The pendency and backlog of cases are no doubt a very big hurdle in the timely delivery of justice which curtails the right of the people to seek justice at the required time, hence it leads to a repudiation of justice.
This evidently indicates that it is high time to think and restrain the liberty and privilege being enjoyed with respect to the working hours under the judicial system. To manage the problem of pendency of cases and delivering timely justice, the working hours of the judiciary need to be reformed wherein unnecessary holidays need to be reduced, Saturdays should be made working, the working hours to be extended and a proper time frame needs to be prepared for the disposal of the pending as well as fresh cases.
The demand for justice and change in the justice delivery system cannot be suppressed or ignored in the manner it is perverting in India. It needs to be enhanced with technology for curtailing the cost and the barrier of language in the Indian judicial system.
Paramount change in the existing law and adequate judicial infrastructure is required to accelerate the judicial system, to deliver qualitative, speedy justice to the citizens of India by saving millions of lives from being frustrated with the judicial system and the process of access to justice.
It is a stigma to the judicial system of the country that people are coming to the gates of the Supreme Court, going live and talking about the delayed justice and self-immolating themselves as being reported time and again by the media. It is very sad to see that to get justice, self-immolation is the last resort left before people. The level of insensitivity has reached the level where the loss of human life in demand for justice has no value.
Many incidents of self-immolation have been reported which have occurred outside of the Supreme Court, High Courts & their Subordinate courts. In a span of six months, two such incidents have occurred outside of the Supreme Court. In one incident a 50-year-old man set himself on fire and attempted to commit suicide outside the Supreme Court building. In another incident, a young man and woman in their 20s poured kerosene on themselves and set themselves on fire. Before the incident, the woman went live on facebook and accused one Member of Parliament and an SSP from Uttar Pradesh of harassing her and framing false cases against the man.
There are a sizable number of suicides in the total suicide cases reported by NCRB (on Suicides in India), during the years 2015-19 which occurred because of the non-delivery of cost-effective and timely delivery of justice by the administration, authority, and the court which includes the Police also. In a nutshell, the total administrative and judicial system is responsible to deliver justice to the common people which they claim and propagate as a routine to develop a sense of security amongst the masses which has always been an unfulfilled dream for the people.
In a democracy, a strong judicial system is a mandatory pillar contrived from iron and concrete ensuring stability & security for creating faith in the people. Unfortunately, in our democratic set up entire judicial infrastructure is not sufficient for those who are fighting for justice, let alone the fight against injustice.
Though technology is there to transform up to a level that is not sufficient to fulfill the demand of the required judicial reforms in India. The country’s judicial system has to arrive at a level by way of urgent reform from were cost-effective speedy justice in vernacular language could be provided for both the category of people of India, one who is fighting for justice and another who is fighting for injustice, it would be a needless allusion that our judicial system is not sufficient to satisfy the first category.
While we are celebrating 75 years of our independence, unfortunately, the idea of access to justice and a qualitative speedy justice delivery system is a farfetched dream for poor people. Without strengthening the judiciary, all other alternative remedies for settling the grievances of the citizens would be a big failure. The old colonial system is being dragged at the cost of life, limb, and liberty of the citizens of India with the colonial mindset of the justice delivery system.
(The author is Deputy Advocate General of Uttarakhand in the Supreme Court of India, views expressed are personal)