Judiciary is one of the important pillars of democracy.
Judicial system or
the court system in India consist of Supreme Court, Highs Courts,
District Courts or subordinate courts, and constitutional courts. The
constitution is the supreme source of law in India and these laws are
enforced by the judicial system or these courts, which are considered as
the watchdog of the Indian Constitution. The court could make decisions
and these decisions are binding on the citizens as well as the
government. The judgements given by the courts are considered as the
law of the land.
The Constitution of India came into force from 26 th January, 1950 and it
declared Supreme court as the highest court of appeal in India retaining
the practices and characteristics of the company courts or the courts of
British India. Chapter 5 (articles 124-147) in Part V of the Indian
constitution deals with the Union Judiciary i.e. the Supreme Court and
chapter 5-6 (articles 214-237) in Part VI deals with state judiciary i.e.
High Courts and Subordinate Courts respectively. The Constitution
enumerates the working, powers, jurisdiction and appointments to the
court.
Our Constitution also provides for an independent judicial system which
means the other two branches i.e. the legislative and the executives do
not have any direct control over the judiciary. Independent judiciary
means that the judges and the institute of judiciary are free form any
kind of influence whether externally or internally. Independence of
judiciary is necessary to ensure a system of checks and balances within
different branches of government. People should have faith in justice
delivery system of their country and this faith could be reassured by way
of establishing a powerful and independent judicial system.
There is a defined hierarchy in the Indian judicial system each having its
own powers and jurisdictions as provided by the Constitution. This
hierarchy may be different for civil and criminal cases.
In this article we will be studying the hierarchy of criminal courts and
constitutional courts
1. Supreme Court: – The Supreme court is the highest and final
court of appeal under the Constitution of India.
The Apex Court has the following extensive powers: –
1. Article 32 of the Indian Constitution confers the power of issuing
writ to the Supreme Court
2. It is the court of Record.
3. It has power to punish for contempt under Article129;
4. The SC has original Jurisdiction under Article131;
5. It is the highest Court of Appeal under purview of Articles
132,133,134 & 136;
6. Law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts in
India according to article 141
7. It has advisory Jurisdiction under Article143 of the Indian
Constitution.
2. High Court: – In India, we have different High Courts in states and
union territories, which along with the Supreme Court, comprise India’s
judicial system. Each High Court has jurisdiction over a State, a Union
territory or a Group of States and Union territories. It is responsible for
the entire administration of justice in the State.
Following are the powers exercised by High Courts: –
1. It is the court of Record.
2. It has power to punish for contempt under Article 215 of the
Constitution;
3. High Court has original Jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters;
4. It has appellate jurisdiction in respect of criminal and civil cases
decided by Subordinate courts in the State;
5. It has revisional jurisdiction conferred under the Civil Procedure
Code,1908 and Criminal Procedure Code, 1973;
6. It has Writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution
as well as the administrative Jurisdiction over subordinate courts in
the State.
3. Court of Session: – In India, there are district courts under different
State governments in India for each and every district or for one or more
districts together taking into account the number of cases, population
distribution in the district. District Judges: – (I) District Judges; (ii)
Additional District Judge (iii) Principal Judge, Additional Principal
Judge and Judges of City Civil and Sessions Court, Mumbai. (iv) Chief
Judge and Additional Chief Judges of Court of Small Causes. Assistant
Session Judge: – Senior Civil Judges: – (I) Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate; (ii) Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrates; (iii) Judges
of Court of Small Causes and Metropolitan Magistrates; (iv) Civil
Judges, Senior Division.
At the district level, the District Judge or Additional District judge
exercises both original and appellate jurisdiction in both civil and
criminal matters. The territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction in civil
matters is usually set in concerned State enactments on the subject of
civil courts. On the criminal side, jurisdiction is exclusively derived
from the criminal procedure code, 1973. As per this code, the maximum
sentence a Sessions Judge may award to a convict is capital punishment.
4. Judicial Magistrate of First Class and in metropolitan
area – Metropolitan Magistrate; Chief Judicial Magistrate: –
Judicial Magistrates are appointed and controlled by the High Court and
discharge judicial functions. Under section 11 (3) of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973, the High Court may confer the powers of
judicial magistrate of the First Class or of the Second Class on any
member of the Judicial Service of the State, functioning as a Judge in a
Civil Court.
5. Judicial Magistrate of Second Class: – Judicial Magistrates are
appointed and controlled by the High Court and discharge judicial
functions.
Critical analysis:
This hierarchy of the court is necessary for the easy functioning of the
judiciary in a country like India, where there are millions of cases
pending before the court, to ensure speedy justice to the citizens.
However, this hierarchy has its own drawbacks which are
Unreasonable appeals to the higher courts: people can appeal to a
higher court if they are not convinced with the order of the
previous court. In such a case, even the offenders appeal to the
higher court just for pendency of suit and to decrease their
sentence. This may cause inappropriate burden upon the higher
courts, which may cause delayed justice.
Less faith in lower courts: when the upper court overrule the
decision given by the lower courts, people tend to lose faith in
them and they this may affect the lower courts adversely
Fault in appointments to the higher judiciary: appointment of
judges the higher judiciary from the lower ones receives lot of
contradictions. There is no proper and reliable procedure of
appointments. The appointing authority engages in corruption and
nepotism many times which results in flawed appointments
Corruption: The problem of corruption in judiciary has taken many
forms. It has to be taken a more serious note of, than in any other
branch, and cannot be excused on the grounds that judges are
bound to be affected sooner or later by general phenomenon.
Corruption works in insidious ways. Favoring the form of lawyers
which send briefs to the judges’ relatives, if they are practicing in
the same or other court or courts, favoring the juniors or other
associates of the Judges’ kith and kin, trying to be popular with the
dominant section of the bar to earn their praise, trying to favor
lawyers and law firms with a view to earn briefs or arbitration or
opinion work after retirement as some to the damaging modes of
corruption. This may happen because of their will to reach to the
apex court sooner.
Constitutional courts
Constitutional courts are the bodies established to review the
constitution and to check the constitutionality of the new legislations and
ordinances. This is an independent body assigned the work of reviewing
the existing legislation and the new ones. It could declare the laws
inconsistent with the constitution as null and void.
Austria was the first country to set up a different constitutional court in
1919. There are total 63 countries which have separate constitutional
court. Though in major countries such as the USA, they do not have
separate constitutional courts but instead delegated such authority to
their usual court system. In India too, Supreme court has been delegated
with the powers of reviewing the legislations and act as constitutional
court.
Conclusion
In India, the judicial system works in already established hierarchical
system, which has proved to be an efficient system over the years though
we may encounter some issues in it. These issues could be resolved over
time with appropriate legislations and rules and could not be regarded as
an impediment to the proper functioning of Indian judiciary.
