“Reforming the Legal and Judicial System in India”

Legal and Judicial System in India

Background
Some of the laws made in the British era are still prevalent. People think that the legal system of our country is for the riches only. A common man is scared to seek help from the system as he is scared of the unknown. The 173,000+ strong “Transform India with Narendra Modi” online community has come together to collectively identify the key issues, root causes and solutions for the Legal and Judicial System in India and the community expects that the Government will work towards implementing the identified solutions.

Issues Identified:
1. The legal process is too long and Cases are dragged for years
2. In some cases, the accused is made to serve a sentence for months before the court pronounces him ‘not-guilty’
3. Too many holidays for the court
4. A huge number of pending cases in the courts
5. There is a lot of corruption in the judiciary
6. Archaic laws which do not have any meaning now
7. Tremendous delays in delivery of justice due to a lethargic judicial system
8. The legal proceedings turn out to be very costly today
9. A lot of unhealthy tactics used by lawyers to delay cases
10. Loop holes are easily found in our existing legal system which is used by lawyers
11. Shortage of judges
12. Gram Adalat and Lok Adalat do not have enough powers
13. The legal curriculum is outdated
14. There is no limit to the adjournment of the cases
15. Most of the time, strict punishment is not given for grave crimes
16. Management of documents is not efficient
17. Filing an FIR is a difficult process
18. General public is afraid to go to the police

Root Causes Identified:
1. Over-burdened lower Judiciary
2. Non-implementation of judicial reforms
3. Lack of technological interventions in the process
4. Unavailability of alternative dispute redressal mechanism
5. Lack of proper infrastructure
6. No legal frame work for time bound justice deliverability
7. A large number of pending cases are against the Government itself
8. Large number of obsolete laws
9. Lower conviction rate due to non-professional investigation and prosecution
10. Computerisation of the system hasn’t been done fully yet
11. The reputation of the police department is not good in the eyes of general public
12. Police doesn’t want to file FIRs because then they become accountable
13. Lack of awareness about the judicial system among people
14. Law breakers are allowed to become politicians and they influence judiciary later
15. No limitation to the number of cases taken up per day in lower courts
16. The law is many a times misused by guardians of law
17. A lot of times the judiciary does not have sector expertise related to the cases which hampers/ delays the verdict
18. The accused always has the option of appealing in the higher court
19. Low literacy rate doesn’t allow a lot of people to understand the judicial system
20. Laws are very complex
21. Corrupt nexus between lawyers and judiciary in the lower courts
22. Delay in filing well prepared charge sheet in courts by Police

Solutions Identified:
1. More courts should be opened and more judges appointed
2. There should be defined rules for conduct of Judges
3. Adjournments for flimsy and false reasons should be punishable....both for the Judges and Lawyers
4. Information technology should be used to ease the processes and bring transparency/reduce coruption
5. The case files should be all computerised
6. All court proceedings should be video recorded
7. Filing of online FIRs should be implemented
8. More authority to be given to lower courts to close cases
9. Cases should be put into different categories and every category should have a time limit in which each case is to be closed
10. Media campaigns should be done to make people aware about the judicial system and its implications
11. People having criminal cases against them should not be allowed to contest elections
12. A set number of cases should be taken up by the lower courts everyday
13. Leaves for the judiciary system should be reduced
14. Judicial categories with sector expertise could be developed so that the cases could be closed quickly
15. The system of appealing in higher courts should be relooked at
16. Time limits should be specified for filing a charge sheet by police
17. Laws must be framed with absolute clarity and should have no room for misinterpretation
18. Laws need to be made comprehensive in nature and simpler in the process
19. Old laws should be changed according to 21st century
20. Like IAS and IFS, another wing called IIS (Indian Investigative Services) should be launched
21. Some of the retired judges should be allotted responsibility of overseeing the lower courts and help in quick closure of cases
22. A separate tribunal should be created for the property cases since quick redressal is impossible
23. Release all under trials who have spent more time in jail than required by the committed crime
24. Amend law to punish and penalize all those who lie and change statement and use system to their advantage
25. Lok Adalats should be made standing, regular, full-fledged courts with their procedures being fast, simple and short and aimed primarily at mediation and conciliation
26. Institute fast tracking Courts for females and children related cases
27. The Indian Central Jail system should be completely re-looked

Legal and Judicial system – A few citizen posts and comments:
1. Another root cause is need to travel to taluka or district offices instead of possibility of filing a legal case through online system or simple letter on prescribed form sent through post – Ashok Saraf

2. Getting justice is very expensive. At times, it is better to lose the case – Jayaprakash Tabjul

3. Basic roots for all the above is improper education. There is no value based education, only marks based are existent. No proper culture is being taught. There everything is missed out – Sivakumar Acharya

4. Judges are not held accountable for their time, work, or quality of work – Vineet Goyal

5. Appointment system requires being re looked. Over the years we have seen generation after generation serving higher judiciary. As if the family has got inbuilt knowledge to do so. It should be freed from particular caste and community - Basant Jalan<

6. Corrupt nexus not only between the lawyers and judiciary, but also between the politicians, builders and the judiciary – Sonia Udhwani

7. At first information about the procedure and work flow to be made public and easily accessible. The police and Judicial procedures are made purposefully complicated. That becomes a barrier for many to keep away from all complications at the cost of justice. Local police insist on local languages which adds to the problem – Kumaraswamy Honnavali

8. Time lag is very high, even it takes 10 to 15 years and also people want to spent huge amount. That's why people don't want to move to court, New Government should take steps to reduce time for every case, amount should be fixed by Government transparently. Nowadays court is a place for criminals, police should behave politely. Police should behave people friendly rather than Politician's, Rich people friendly – Selvi Sel

9. Fast speed Courts for females and children will solve a lot of problems – Ashwini Kale

10. Intranet integration of courts with other Govt. departments across country especially State police, Anti-Corruption Bureau, CBI, Intelligence, Customs, Airport, Border security, state check posts – Suresh N

11. It is important to first of all audit the performance of our existing set up/ mechanism in this context i.e. whether the existing human resource is optimally utilised and there is adequate scope for up gradation and equipping oneself in the field for judges and lawyers while dealing with new challenges in the legal field. Review the training curriculum of judges/practicing lawyers regularly. This will help curbing the burden of pending cases – Sujata Roy

12. Lay down a time frame for filing affidavits, counter affidavits, presenting evidence, cross examination etc., to see that cases are disposed-off within a period of one year. Too complex, cumbersome and open ended laws should be dispensed with. Judges should be made accountable by appraising their performance by way of the number of cases disposed off each month and the correctness of the judgments delivered – Muralidharan PP

13. Where is the need for long vacation when everybody else is asked to work throughout the year? – Ramamurthy Gopal

14. The overall judicial system has become a money making system... monies are paid to both side of lawyers for each sitting...the bribes are paid to Babus to sign files/summons/affidavits in the court, which basically means everyone in judicial system is happy till the time the case is not closed. Why can’t we put time bound or limit on number of sittings in which the judgement needs to be given – Prashant Verma

15. In my opinion, conciliation and arbitration in specified type of cases should be encouraged, particularly, family disputes, divorce, domestic violence, parental claims, minor commercial disputes etc. Even higher commercial and cooperative societies disputes should first be tried in conciliation and arbitration. For Conciliation and Arbitration, services of respected knowledgeable citizens, senior retired officials of Govt. and public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies should be utilized to ease the judiciary. In civil and to some extent in criminal small causes cases, conciliation and arbitration by such officials should be made a pre-condition. In Mohalla, local level resident’s disputes, honourable Local Sr. Citizens should be nominated by Government or can be mutually elected/nominated by local community. In this way, huge Burdon of judiciary can be reduced – A. K. Thukral

16. The cases filed by senior citizens are pending the courts for years though there are directions from the Ministry and the Judges that such cases need to be taken up on priority. There is no mechanism for the senior citizens that they can remind the courts for an early hearing. If we can't respect our elders in the society, this is the failure of the system – Mohindar Kumar

17. Things must improve. Laws enacted during British rule in and after 1881 should be revised and changed in the light of present position and circumstances – Madhu Sudan Rajvenshi

18. Giving false evidence and knowingly making a false allegation is the order of the day as lying in court is a totally risk less. Courts must take cognisance of lying in court and impose heavy penalty or punishment to indicate zero tolerance for lying and ensure respect for the courts. This will eliminate false cases and impart true justice – Rajendra Singh