DEMYSTIFYING THE JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN INDIA

BY: - MUKUL KUMAR & DEVJEET GAUTAM* **

ABSTRACT

The constitution of India guarantees the people of India” JUSTICE, social, economic, and political”.
For efficient functioning of any legal system in the country, the fundamental requisite is that such
system shall be built on the aspirations of the people, law or legal system. People always turn to the
judiciary in quest of justice. But, is our justice delivery system effective and efficient to provide justice
to the people? There are a tons of loopholes in our present judicial system. The ineffectiveness can
be observed by the data of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) that was launched by the committee of
Supreme Court, which informs about the 2.9 crore cases that are pending before the district courts
and surging day by day. There are almost 50 lakh cases pending in the high courts. These figure
certainly scream out that there is an urgent need for reforms in the justice delivery system. In the
words of Mahatma Gandhi, "I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better
side of human nature, and to enter men's hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer
was to unite parties given as under. The lesson was so indelibly burnt unto me that the large
part of my time, during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer, wasoccupied in bringing
about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing, thereby not even money, certainly not

my soul1".

*
** 2nd Year students of faculty of law, University of Allahabad, [Authored On 01/02/2021]
 DEMYSTIFYING THE JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN INDIA

“In a democracy, the court belongs not to the lawyer but to the citizen”

By: - Jerome Frank

INTRODUCTION
“Punishment should be inflicted on those who violate any rule of conduct. If any offender
goes unpunished, the guilt falls upon the King and the priest who are enjoined to practice
some penancesӠ. Justice Delivery in an effective and efficient manner is the basis of rule of law and
governance in a society. To combat any crime, especially a crime such as trafficking, which is
multifaceted and multidimensional, it is thus, extremely important to understand the justice delivery
system against it. As the preamble of the Indian constitution states, every citizen has the equal rights
and freedom of justice. The rule of law cannot exist without an effective judicial system, which is
capable of enforcing rights in a timely and proportionate manner in a way that inspires public
confidence in the administration of justice. The bulkiest constitution in the world that is the Indian
constitution ensures that every citizen of India should have the access of justice within the territory of
India. If we analyse upon geographic basis then India stands at 7 th position and if one analyses on
population basis then India stood at 2nd position. India is the accumulation of almost 130 crores of
public. Being a land of such gigantism amount of people, India is supposed to have a promising
judicial system which not only maintains the Law and order in the country but also guarantees a
standard of living with a promise of security to the citizens of India. India comprises of 28 states and 8
union territories, and among those states and union territories India has 672 District courts, 24 High
Courts and a Supreme Court. The courts are the judicial body which are solely responsible for
providing justice to citizens. But are these numbers are sufficient for providing justice to such a giant
population like India? Are people really enjoying their judicial rights in India?
The present scenario of justice delivery system in India speaks about lacunae in providing justice to
common people. How the judicial body has failed in ensuring the judicial rights of public? How the
ship of justice is sinking in the sea of inefficiency of judicial bodies. All the in capabilities and
inefficiencies are evident in the present scenario of justice delivery system in India. The criminal
Justice system of India is an old age practice which has been continued from the time of British
Empire. The Indian justice system is based on the penal provisions drafted by Britishers in 1860.
Since then courts are in tradition for providing justice to citizens.

CONTEMPORARY SCENARIO
†
Vasishta, XIX, 40-43
The current framework of Indian Justice System is designed by inefficiency and ineffectiveness. There
are a tons of reasons for this ineffectiveness of our judicial system. Here are some prominent reasons
listed below:-

1.According to a report, High level of vacancies in the judicial system are available ranging from
22% in police, 33-38.5% in prisons, and 20-40% in judiciary‡. These deficiencies on different post
of judicial bodies hampers the root of tree on which the fruit of justice sprout.

2. Prisons in our country are over occupied and 68% of the occupants are under trials,
awaiting investigation, inquiry or trial§. There are several such persons upon whom the criminal
charges are imposed but due the lack and delay in investigation their files are stacked with other
pending files and there are several instances where, when the file of a person is undisclosed for
investigation It is found that such person is already kicked the bucket.

3. Article 51 of Indian Constitution ensures the free legal aid to those citizens who are
incompetent to afford a lawyer. The legal aid mandates the 80% of the Indian population is
eligible to avail free legal services. But, according to a report out of 1.25 billion population
only 15 million have been able to avail its benefit**. So what about the rest of the population who
are untouched with their basic legal right? Do they ever get to taste the fruit of justice? No, because
neither they are aware with those hectic, lengthy procedure of judiciary not they are aware with their
basic legal right to get a free lawyer. So their case comes in front of judicial body and those cases are
used to fill up the spaces of Elmira inside the court.

4. According to a report, the per capita spend on legal aid was just 0.75 rs in 2017-18 and due
to this deficiency in funds the legal aid plagues.††

LACUNAE IN JUDICIARY

5. One of the primary issues with the Indian judicial system is the pendency of cases. If the vacancies
are filled, pendency would go down and make the justice delivery system efficient. According to a
report of 2015, there were close to 400 vacancies for the post of judges in the 24 High Courts
of the country. The pending number of cases in the Supreme Court has mounted to around

60,000. There are some 25-30 million cases in various courts. Budget allocation for the
judiciary is just 0.2 percent of the GDP. The judge-population ratio is 10.5-11 to one million,
which should be at least 50-55 to one million.‡‡

6. Like the other pillars of democracy, the executive and the legislative, the judiciary too (in some
instances) has been found to engage in corruption. There has not been established any system of
‡
Japnam Bindra, Gireesh Chandra Prasad, “Justice delivery system in India has serious gaps, shows analysis,” (07 November,
2019), https://www.livemint.com/news/india/justice-delivery-system-in-india-has-serious-gaps-shows-analysis-
11573149064907.html
§
“supra” ii
**
“supra”ii
††
PTI Feeds, “Per capita spending on legal aid in India is Rs 0.75,” (09 September, 2018, 8:49 PM),
https://www.india.com/news/agencies/per-capita-spending-on-legal-aid-in-india-is-rs-0-75-3316143/
‡‡
Sylvine, “Issue with the Indian Judicial System”, (05 July, 2016), https://blog.ipleaders.in/issues-indian-judicial-system/
accountability. In the case of judicial processes, even the media is unable to give a proper and clear
picture of the corruption scenario. The media seems to be more focused on exposing corruption in
other fields, especially the executive. As per the constitutional provision, there is no provision yet for
registering an FIR against a judge who has taken bribe without taking the permission of the Chief
Justice of India. But, there is an instance where a High Court judge was impeached by the Rajya
Sabha due to his misconduct and indulgence in corruption. In 2011, Soumitra Sen, a former judge at
the Calcutta High Court became the first judge in the India to be impeached by the Rajya
Sabha alleged for misappropriation of funds.§§

7. In the past, there have been many debates around all over the nation regarding the Collegium
system and the new system that the government wants to introduce for the appointment of judges, the
NJAC. Well, be it the collegium system or the NJAC, none seem to be transparent enough to make
the selection process of judges clear and understandable to the common public. All democracies are
swiftly moving toward an open government and a citizen’s right to know — an international trend
increasingly being supported by judicial decisions. Further, the right to know is a part of the freedom
of speech and expression and the present secretive system, as implemented by the collegium
system, violates this fundamental right. The principle of open trials and justice is highly essential for
the fair administration of justice. The current government led by Prime Minister Modi states that the
introduction of NJAC shall be more transparency in appointment of judges. The supreme court of
India, however, denied the fact and said there is a need for the even higher level of law for the
appointment of judges as NJAC is not “perfect.” According to the SC, the bar council was invited to
amend the NJAC saying that the committee must comprise of the Chief Justice of India and four
senior judges of the supreme court.

SOME IMPORTANT MEASURES

There are several steps being taken to curb these deficiency and inefficiency in our judicial system
and several reforms are being proposed by different committees constituted by govt. under the aeiges
of eminent judges such as Justice Malimath Committee (2000), Justice SR Das committee (1949) and
Justice GC Rankin committee (1925). One of the most evident lacunae in the justice system is the
poor strength of number of judges in the country. In the United States of America, there are 108

Judges per million citizens, compared with a mere 12 judges per million in India. *** A good start

to tackling this problem is the filling up of existing vacancies. As of 2012, there were 273 vacancies
in the High Court and 3670 vacancies in the Subordinate courts. In the Supreme Court itself, 3
vacancies remain. The process can be aided by measures like the consideration of the Parliament to
increase the Retirement age of High Court judges from 62 to 65. The constitution of an All India
Judicial Service is also a welcome move in this direct ion. As the National Legal Mission suggests,
§§
Srimoyee Pandit, “Calcutta High Court Judge Justice Soumitra Sen impeached by the Rajya Sabha”, (19 Aug, 2011, 17:58
IST), https://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/calcutta-high-court-judge-justice-soumitra-sen-impeached-by-the-rajya-sabha-
1313756898-1
***
Justice V. Gopala Gowda, Strengthening the justice delivery system: Tools and Techniques,
https://kjablr.kar.nic.in/sites/kjablr.kar.nic.in/files/02.%20Strengthening%20the%20Justice%20Delivery%20System%20-
%20Tools%20and%20Techniques.pdf
senior law students and trained law graduates can be appointed As Court Managers to improve the
efficiency of the system and to address the Woeful inadequacy of judicial staff. Several statutes like
The Penal Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Transfer of
Property Act, the Contract Act, the Sale of Goods Act, the Negotiable Instruments Act, etc.,
which contribute to more than 50% to 60% of the litigation in the trial courts are Central enactments
one of the great way to combat with the steady pace of courts is to adoption of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) at every level of the judiciary. Currently, most of the data systems
in subordinate courts, where 90% of the total litigation occurs, are still manually managed.†††

CONCLUSION

So, in a nutshell it can be said that our judicial system lacks a major reforms which if not implemented
the incoming future the citizens and the country might suffer more than anyone could imagine. It is
essential in a country governed by a rule of law that every decision must be made under the rule of
law. Like any other public institution, the judiciary can be subjected to fair criticism if and when
occasion demands but if the criticism is legitimate and irresponsible, it may leave to incalculable
damage to the institution of the judiciary. At last but not the least it can be said that “The true
conception of the administration of justice is that the lowly concerns of the least person is the highest
consideration of the state and court”.

†††
“supra”viii