JUDICIARY: AWAITING REFORMS

JUDICIARY: AWAITING REFORMS

   January 23, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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"JUSTICE अर्थात न्याय"... Today let's just walk through an important institution of this country that is responsible for upholding justice i.e the JUDICIARY. Indian Judiciary has shown some exceptional character by giving certain landmark historical judgements like the Basic structure doctrine, decriminalization of section 377 and 497, office of CJI under the ambit of RTI and many more.

No doubt it truly has been the guardian of the constitution and the saviour of the common people since ages but now, its in dire need of reforms. Reforms for reducing the huge number of cases pending, eradicating the corruption, timely filling of vacancies of judges and advocates, gender sensitization of judges and improving women participation in the judiciary, clear criteria and transparency for the appointment of the judges, strengthening the technological infrastructure, and apparently an internal reform to acknowledge the constructive criticism positively.

Just like we have three levels of government( centre, state, local), similarly, we have lower courts which are Subordinate courts, Session/District courts, High courts, and the topmost in the hierarchy, the Supreme court. Talking about the number of judges, a report by the law ministry states that India has 19 judges per 10 lakh people on average, which means 1 judge is responsible for giving justice to 52,600 people. Isn't it unfair? The supreme court of India currently has 34 judges including the Chief Justice of India(CJI) of which only two are women. Also, there have been only 8 women who were appointed as a judge to the Supreme court whereas there hasn't been a single woman CJI until now. Filtering down to the high court, only 7.2% of the judges are women whereas the high court of 6 states(Manipur, Meghalaya, Telangana, Tripura, Uttrakhand, Patna[Bihar]) don't even have sitting women judges. Something which is always in talks is the Collegium system of judiciary. The collegium consists of the CJI and four seniormost judges of the Supreme court, which is responsible for the appointment and transfers of the judges. The decision of the collegium is final and there are no other set criteria as such. This brings out the opaqueness in the appointment system of the Indian judiciary.

A few months back, an RTI application towards the famous PM CARES fund was rejected by the government stating that the fund does not come under the ambit of RTI. People fairly criticized this move saying that it was their right to know how and where their money was spent. When people start using tools like RTI to keep a check on the government, indeed the country is developing. But parallelly, don't you think, it's our right to have information about our judicial system too? Since, the RTI has come into force, except for the recent judgement( wherein SC quoted that office of CJI is a public authority and it does come under the ambit of RTI), Judiciary has tried to immune itself from the act, quoting it as a threat to its independence. Often it's transparency is questioned when the collegium system is talked about. The judiciary must understand that there does exist a state between transparency and opaqueness i.e translucency, at least towards which it must start the journey. And we must understand that as much as the politicians, bureaucrats and other government officials are answerable to the common citizens of this country, so is the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary has to be respected but indeed it must not forget that its there to serve the people of this country. 

The history is witness that the people of this country belonging to different sections have come together to stand against many rules and regulations of multiple governments which they feel won't be in their or country's favour. May it be India against corruption campaign led by Anna Hazare, the controversial citizenship amendment act or even the current farm laws, people have come forward to show their support to multiple protests that have taken place( or basically let governments know that हमे फर्क पड़ता है). There's a possibility that either of us might also have been a part of a protest too. But, have you ever heard about people protesting to see some changes in our judicial system? Try googling, it's possible that even google would let you down this time. Fact is that people who have come forward are some of the lawyers or few activists but there has never been a protest at a huge level.

Democracy runs on 3+1 organs viz Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the most important public participation. The fathers of our constitution added a basic right to assemble and protest peacefully to the big book. Because even they knew, public participation is one of the most vital aspects of decision making. The right to protest acts as a mechanism for checks and balances towards the governmental decisions and we the people of this nation have used this tool very effectively towards both Executive and Legislature except for the fact, somehow we forgot that Judiciary is also an important organ of the government. One must not forget that not everyone commits a crime but most of us are the victims many times. And we must not forget that a judge hears both the accused and the victim wherein you will also be a part of the judicial cycle. So avoiding it and moving ahead is not a solution. 

A phrase which our parents and grandparents usually said to us, "बेटा कोर्ट कचहरी से जितना दूर रहो उतना फायदा", is a harsh truth but we must not forget that just like every human has flaws, the people sitting in our courts are also the humans. The system indeed will overhaul someday. In spite of everything, don't forget few words from one of my favourite movie Jolly LLB 2, "आज भी हिंदुस्तान में जब कहीं दो लोगो के बीच झगड़ा होता है या विवाद होता है, तो एक दूसरे से क्या कहते है पता है?  I will see you in court".