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In a democratic society the concept of justice is not confined to judiciary alone. But an efficient and effective Judiciary is an essential foundation of good governance. If people lose faith in the justice dispensed to them, the entire democratic set up may crumble down. It is the trust and confidence of the people in the responsiveness and ability of every organ of State to deliver true, fearless and impartial justice, which is the foundation of democracy and the bedrock of every civilized society.
The seekers of justice approach the courts of justice with pain and anguish in their hearts on having faced legal problems and having suffered physically or psychologically. They do not take law into their own hands with a hope to get justice from the courts. The judiciary owes an obligation to them to deliver quick and inexpensive justice shorn of complexities of procedure. Justice must not be delayed. But also it cannot be hurried to be buried. Sheer quantum justice without quality would be disastrous.
Global Order
The recently held Conference ‘Envisioning Justice in the 21st Century" at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi emphasised on the challenges faced by the judiciary in the present scenario. Globalism is the order of the day. Being party to international agreements and treaties like the the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and WTO, new trends in litigation, such as those related to Intellectual Property Rights, crimes, environment, money-laundering, competition and international arbitration so on need expertise. The Chief Justice of India, Shri R.C.Lahoti has rightly put, "the secret of survival lies not in keeping away but in joining the race and competing so as to achieve excellence by international norms. This cannot be an isolated effort. It shall have to be effort of the nation as a whole".
He further added, "Indian judiciary is held in very high esteem in all the developing as well as the developed countries of the World. It is not now uncommon to hear from time to time, encomiums showered by eminent jurists and judges on the quality of the decisions delivered and the hard work incessantly done by the members of Indian Judiciary. But at times question marks have been placed on the credibility of the judiciary on account of some aberrations which are not the product of the system but are individual in nature and are isolated cases".
Towards Betterment
Inaugurating the conference of the Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, outlined several measures for its betterment. The measures include a combination of reducing the load on courts and judges, by improving the productivity and efficiency of courts so that they can process more cases at a faster pace, reduce the quantum of cases that come to courts and making efforts to reduce the incidence of litigation. A sample survey conducted in Karnataka has found that in 65 per cent of civil cases, the Government was a litigant. The Government litigation crowds out the private citizen from the court system. The Government is committed to ensure the effective implementation of the 1994 decision of Law Ministers and Law Secretaries. This has effected , "disputes between the government and public sector undertakings (PSUs), and one PSU and another PSU ought not to go to courts or tribunals, and that such disputes should be settled between the parties amicably". Dr. Manmohan Singh suggested alternate dispute resolution systems also to reduce the quantum of cases coming to courts. He has reiterated the Government’s commitment to provide support to cut delays in High Courts and at the lower levels of judiciary. In regard to the tax-related cases, a harmonized and rationalized tax structure is on the reform agenda. Once this is done, the causes for adjudication would diminish. The operationalisation of the proposed Tax Tribunals, would reduce tax-related litigation.
The Prime Minister pointed out that information technology has not been used as an effective tool to administer justice. Dr. Singh underlined the need to invest in the training and capacity building of all judicial officers to make them more effective in case management and disposal of cases. He also emphasized the need to increase the number of working days and cutting down long vacation.
The country has the largest available reservoir of talent and human resource for developing and advantageously exploiting information technology to modernize the justice delivery system. For optimum benefits, a proactive thrust has to be given so that courts may adopt professional managerial skills not only in their day-to-day administration but also in the judicial sphere, so as to make access to justice a reality for the poor and needy.
The vision of justice in the 21st century requires to be embodied in the modernization of courts, particularly in the context of a judicial system, which draws its core qualities from the past. Courts in India, therefore, need to professionalise their administrative staff and system and in doing so, they need to optimize their use of resource, such as judicial numbers, staff funds, technology and capital resources.
Initiatives
The National Common Minimum Programme exhorts the Government to take the leadership role to drastically cut delays in High Courts and lower levels of the judiciary. Needless to say, this specific mandate links up the issues of legal and judicial reforms with the larger perspective of good governance. Since the judicial system encompasses enforcement mechanism for the rights and obligations of any individual or entity, and such rights underpin the socio-economic activities of the polity, an effective judiciary therefore remains essential to governance.
The Government and the judiciary have taken a number of initiatives for elimination of arrears. These, include amendment of the Civil Procedure Code, provision of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), establishment of Fast Track Courts and computerisation in the aid of judiciary.
Earlier, the Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices, held in December 1993, acknowledged that courts were not in a position to bear the entire burden of the justice delivery system and, therefore, emphasized the need for ADR by strengthening of arbitration, mediation and negotiation. Since then, the Code of Civil Procedure has been amended incorporating provisions to refer disputes for settlement by way of arbitration, conciliation and mediation or through the Lok Adalats. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 consolidates laws relating to domestic and international arbitration as well as enforcement of arbitral awards. There are proposals to amend the aforesaid Act to provide for measures recommended by the Law Commission of India in its 176th Report.
The Constitution has tried to insulate the judiciary both from the Executive and the Legislature. Supreme Court has held that the Judicial Service is not a service in the sense of employment. Members of the judiciary exercise sovereign judicial power and hold public office.
The salaries and service conditions of the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are governed by specific Acts and rules. Majority of the State governments have granted higher pay scales to the subordinate judicial officers, in tune with the recommendations of the First National Judicial Pay Commission.
An efficient judiciary manned by judges with vision, wisdom and compassion can do more for justice and the welfare of the underprivileged, than all the laws and policies one can think of. Towards this goal, the judiciary and the executive need to work in tandem to ensure quick and inexpensive quality justice.
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