India's Justice System Is Failing
With corruption seeping into the legal system and long delays for court cases, is India’s justice system serving the nation well?
COURT DELAYS AND THE NUMBER OF JUDGES
The Times of India reported in July 2012 that more than 35 million cases are pending in courts across the country with 56,000 lakh and 4.3 million cases pending in the Supreme Court and the high courts respectively.
Some of the reasons given for the backlog of cases are:
- Insufficient infrastructure - a shortage of court buildings, support staff, libraries and technical equipment
- Archaic laws (many dating back to British rule)
- Inadequate number of judges
Source: Times of India
The ratio of judges to population in India is 10.5 per million. It compares to:
- 41.6 per million people in Australia
- 75.2 per million in Canada
- 50.9 per million people in the UK
A report on India by Freedom House in 2011 found that:
- The system is severely backlogged and understaffed, with millions of civil and criminal cases pending. This leads to lengthy pre-trial detention for a large number of suspects, many of whom remain in jail beyond the duration of any sentence they might receive if convicted. To help address the problem, the government has proposed establishing thousands of village courts to hear cases in rural areas.
- The judiciary is independent of the executive branch.
- Judges have displayed considerable activism in response to public interest litigation on official corruption, environmental issues, and other matters.
- In recent years judges have initiated several contempt-of-court cases against activists and journalists who expose judicial corruption or question verdicts. Contempt-of-court laws were reformed in 2006 to make truth a defense with respect to allegations against judges, provided the information is in the public and national interest.
- In 2009, following a public debate over judicial accountability, India’s 29 Supreme Court justices announced that they would disclose their assets publicly on the court’s website.
- Despite legal reforms in recent years, the criminal justice system still generally fails to provide equal protection to minorities, lower castes, and tribal members.
LAW REFORMS:
The government says it is committed to law reforms.
In March 2012, The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 was approved by the Union Cabinet. Under the new Bill, judges of the Supreme Court and high courts would be subject to the scrutiny of a high-level committee and those facing serious charges of misconduct may be asked to step down. The bill seeks to replace the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.
Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the bill aims at striking a balance between maximizing judicial independence and laying down accountability for members of the higher judiciary. "The passage of this bill shall be a major achievement in establishing systems and procedures which will be far superior and practicable to that provided for in the Judges Enquiry Act." - Source: The Times of India.
In August 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government was committed to implementing judicial reforms and help speed up disposal of cases in courts. “Our government stands committed to working with the judiciary to bring about improvements in the justice delivery system.” Source: Tribune India
To counter the backlog of cases, the government says it is working on a project to enable people to obtain certified copies of judgments online. The Times of India quoted a senior law ministry official saying the computerization of courtrooms is in progress and already more than 8,500 courts across the country have been networked and efforts are on to complete the process in the next few years.
JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
Judges have displayed considerable “activism” in response to public-interest litigation on official corruption, environmental issues, and other matters in recent years. In August 2012, the Supreme Court took away the constitutionally conferred power of the President of India to appoint judges after consultation with the Chief Justice, and appropriated this power in the Chief Justice of India and a collegium of four judges. Source: The Hindu