M J Antony: Delayed justice: who's responsible?

OUT OF COURT

With many facing trials themselves, little wonder that those in power don't help people get justice early.

Although most people yearn for a speedy trial and an early decision, those who hold political and financial powers seem to have a stake in slowing down the mills of justice.

They deny the judiciary adequate funds, personnel and service conditions. There are 12,400 courts in the country. According to a recent study, 10,000 more are required in the next two years to clear the backlog of more than three crore cases.

However, many of the existing courts are unmanned. For instance, 11 district courts in Tamil Nadu are without judges and the story of subordinate courts is worse. The pattern of vacancies in other states is similar.

The struggle being put up by the judiciary to persuade and sometimes compel the Central and state governments to provide basic facilities and service conditions can be seen in the orders passed by the Supreme Court in the on-going proceedings in All-India Judges Association vs Union of India.

For the past 16 years, the petition was pending in the court. It raised a number of issues affecting the judiciary. Several expert committee reports and recommendations were examined over the years.

The Supreme Court had asked the state governments to implement the suggestions. However, few states have fully complied with the court's directions.

This month, the court will again monitor the progress of implementation of the schemes and directions.

At the last hearing, the Supreme Court had given a warning to the delinquent states to meet the terms of the earlier orders.

In the case of Maharashtra, for instance, the state has not even filed an affidavit regarding compliance. The court said: "A last opportunity for reporting full compliance is allowed. Let the compliance affidavit be filed on or before June 30, failing which the chief secretary of the state has to remain present in the court on the next date of hearing."

A similar warning has been sent to Haryana, too. There are some states such as Kerala and Manipur who put forward financial stringency as a reason for not implementing the orders.

In the case of Kerala, the Supreme Court remarked: "The only plea taken by the state is that there is a financial crunch and the possibility of similar demand being raised by employees of other departments. But such pleas have no substance and such pleas have been rejected earlier."

The court asked the state to issue a notification complying with its orders and file an affidavit declaring that it has been done. The court has again set the deadline on June 30.

Punjab, Rajasthan and Tripura governments have told the court that they have agreed to comply with the Shetty Commission recommendations and they would be notified within a few weeks.

The court will examine whether this promise has been fulfilled. There are several big states that have not fully complied with the directions of the court. Among them are Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat.

These orders refer to the conditions in the ordinary civil and criminal courts. The situation in the quasi-judicial tribunals, such as consumer forums and motor accident claims tribunals, are no better and need to be corrected.

There are some petitions pending in the Supreme Court highlighting their plight and the court would have to deal with them too in the coming days.

While filling up of vacancies and improving the working conditions of the judiciary is one important aspect, the facilities provided for the consumers of justice is another vital aspect crying for reforms.

The Chief Justice of India recently announced a Rs 670-crore, five-year action plan to put into operation an information and communication technology scheme for the judiciary.

This package is envisaged to speed up the justice delivery system.

One of the main reasons for this docket explosion, according to the Chief Justice, is the reluctance of the governments to provide financial support to the judicial system.

He complained that the other arms of governments were getting generous funds since independence. But the judiciary is the Cinderella amongst all.

Suggestions to improve the situation have come from the Law Commission, the Malimath Committee and the Indian Institute of Management.

However, all these are gathering dust in the government departments.

The only conclusion one can arrive at is that the people in power are not interested in helping the people get justice early. With many of them facing trials themselves, there is a dark logic behind this attitude.

Last week, one of them consoled himself thus: "The case has been going on for years; it will go on for some more time."