“Where Struggle Never Ends”

More than 26.4 million number of cases are pending in the Indian Subordinate courts. 38.7 lakh cases (as on 1/1/09) are pending in High Courts while 2.64 crore are there in the Trial courts.  On the other hand Supreme Court, the highest court of appeal in India has more than 52 K (as on March, 09) cases pending. Yes I know that this figure has taken you aback as it did to me but it is just one aspect of the laziness of the Indian judiciary. Meanwhile we are also short of 234 HC and 2998 lower court judges as on October, 09.

Now as a common man I don’t know about the salaries of the judges (HC & SC), I am unaware about the working of all types of courts in India, what it takes to be a lawyer and how a lawyer becomes a judge, how a judge is decided for a specific case and etc etc etc………n items.

I just want to ask these black and white people that what’s going on? Is it a joke? Are you guys on a holiday? Why you all are not working and if working then why work like a bullock cart and having brakes of a Hayabusa.

In today’s India of Google chrome, nuclear deal, a non-left government, 3G, worlds cheapest car and our 3 Oscars why justice even after 62^nd independent year is like a battle to be won? Why it takes not months not years but several decades to solve a court case? And if you are still lucky then only you can attain justice.

Frankly speaking, I find Indian judicial system the most corrupt and most lethargic in the world. It has turned itself into a fixture for powerful people. Undoubtedly it lacks accountability, infrastructure, speed (infact sprint), competition, compassion, pledge, rewards and suffers ineptitude and corruption. In a nutshell it lacks revolution.

Before going further let’s take a few examples. A father is fighting for the justice for his daughter who was ragged to death for 10 years now. Every week this man travels from Kerala to Supreme Court. A case of a land being illegally used by government authorities during partition for refugees is still on. Lets not forget the infamous Bombay blast 1993 case (14 years and the longest running trial in Indian history), the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case (25 years), Uphaar cinema fire case 1997 (4 accused died in the first 7 years of trial, with 344 hearings the case ran for almost a decade), BMW case 1999 (9 years), Bhopal gas tragedy 1984, the world’s worst industrial disaster ever (25 years) and many more.

Ok let’s take a fresh one. We all know who Ajmal Kasaab is and what he did to India on 26/11. There are several videos showing him carrying a gun and firing like anything. The only terrorist who was nabbed after 26/11 had confessed his crime and we all know that he has no chance of escaping and a punishment of less than a death sentence will not be accepted to any Indian. But the case is still on to punish a barbarian like him.

A charge sheet of 11,000 pages was made for his trial. I can’t believe it that in a milieu of global warming and a stress on conserving trees our judiciary wasted precious 11,000 pages in just writing what he did and under what section he can be punished.  Even a car was hired for bringing that charge sheet to the court. I am again repeating, every one knows what he did so can’t we put it in a simple way. Like a single file or a CD. Our court is still finding the witnesses to identify Kasab for the massacre which was witnessed by the whole world. But we can’t do anything, in actual our system lacks. Why there is not a single judge appointed for every case and why he is not accountable to solve the case? In some cases 35 different judges presided over a single case in different hearings.

Why there is not an expense fixed for every case? Victims have complained of spending even crores in a single case. It means the poor doesn’t have the right to justice.

Why there is not a time period for a case to be solved within every level of court (HC, SC, district etc)? Like in some cases 5^th generation is fighting for the justice.

That’s why our politicians commit crimes so frequently and easily. Infact many cases pending, are, of politicians. Till the case is solved (if any) the politician is too old or have died. Ruchikas case is a recent example.

The fact that a country of more than a billion has only 1 Supreme Court bewilders me. Under which act this unintelligent rule is incorporated? For God’s sake, one SC means that a person living (says Assam) will have to travel every week or month to Delhi in case he has appealed in SC. And we all know that how fast our cases are solved.

On one hand the person is victimised and on the other he faces tribulations of an inferior service. This will continue till he decides to give in his towel. This is the sole reason Indians are scared of the world of courts. No one wants to be stucked up in the “court-Khechari ke Chakkar”. That’s why no one willingly comes forward to help the injured in road accidents, no one wants to be a witness in any court case. Because they know that they will be sucked up by courts endless hearings.

According to my point of view, there should be 1 SC in every state and capital territory or the least there should be 1 SC in every 4 zones of India. All 4 of them should have equal rights. Once the verdict passed by any SC will be accepted by other 3 as unswerving. At least it will be convenient for a person who is traveling from Kerala to Delhi every week.

Hitherto, I am constantly castigating the Indian judiciary but there are some other reasons also for the tardy results. The philosophy/ideology of our judiciary is that that it treats the accused as innocent till proven guilty. It hears both the parties very carefully and gives equal opportunity to both to prove their point. And it’s fine also that a death sentence or other punishment cannot be handed till the judiciary acclimatize itself to the case and circumspect before taking any decision.

But in this entire cycle, the lawyers/ solicitors are the real culprits who keep on extending the case as they are paid by their respective parties for every single hearing. It’s a shady business. Its archetype can be seen in the famous TV program “office-office” in which lawyers of both the parties were in unison and didn’t let the case to finish in order to fill their pockets.

Till now whatever I have vehemently said is only from the perspective of the common man. I don’t know and neither am I interested in the amendments, acts, sections, resolutions and jurisprudence of the Indian judiciary. I am only concerned about the delivery mechanism of justice. What interests me is the quality of service, so that I am not scared of entering the world of black and white. Any country is regarded successful or developed on the basis of the quality of justice it delivers in a constrained time frame to its citizens. As justice is the right to every citizen!!!


"The article was written at authors home"


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