[Assam] More About Indian Justice--From Indian Justices

[Chan Mahanta]

You are right about being a big mess Ram. But it is even worse, when 
you consider the ramification of this failed leg of governance that 
has pretensions about being a modern democratic state.

Some of the ramifications:

	*** Most significant and crucial one, in my mind anyway, is 
the inability  to serve as the
	      protector of the Constitution, the foundation of a 
democratic state. Add to that the
	      importance of being able to make thoughtful and 
constructive interpretation of significant
	      issues in a timely and judicious manner.

	      This void has been a singular cause of the many 
disaffections that have led to the
	      conflicts raging for over half a century across the land.

	I don't know if you saw the report of a couple of weeks back, 
in which the CJ of the SCI  was
	lamenting of the fact that their rulings are routinely 
ignored by the govt. and that they can't do
	anything about it.

	Now if THAT is not the epitome of anarchy, what is, I 
wouldn't know. Would you?


	*** The fact that the SCI takes up these enormous loads of 
mundane cases, leaving them
	little time to deliberate on adequately and deliver wise 
verdicts, obviously is one of the
	reasons for such rulings as upholding the right to 'Bandhs' 
or the ruling on Interlinking
	of Rivers that are travesties to put them mildly.  And to 
make matters worse, the fact that they
	do not or cannot or do not have the luxury of spending the 
time on  writing opinions with
	their rulings has very ill served the cause of justice in 
India, leaving more questions in
	their wake than answers.

	*** It is also telling that the SCI takes up all these cases, 
because the lower courts are either
	incompetent or are unavailable to serve.  That it has taken 
these upon themselves, like the
	myriads of PILs , BECAUSE, otherwise the lowest rungs of 
society would be left at the
	mercy of the dysfunctional state without any recourse at all. 
How is that for the state of
	the State?


	*** Absence of timely and dependable justice leaves society 
with no TOOLS for holding
	their governments ACCOUNTABLE.  And that has been the singular cause of
	corruption  going completely out of control in every sphere of life.



One can go on and on.  But nothing will change, because those who are 
capable of making the changes are too busy with their own interests 
and this is the class that also can get things taken care of
if they get embroiled in some conflict. They have access to private justice.

So, there it is, India, the freest country in the world, where if you 
have money and connections you can
getaway with anything. And for the rest--find an appropriate label to 
devalue them or make them disappear from one's consciousness.










At 9:05 AM -0600 2/13/09, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>C'da
>
>This is just down right appalling.
>
>Some solutions may be:
>
>Discard all cases (irrespective of their importance or influence) which have
>been pending for over 5 years. Older than those have no chance of being
>heard in any case. Start afresh - with new judges, and employees of all
>these courts.
>
>India needs ten times the courts it has. I'm not sure if there are separate
>civil & criminal courts - just know there are District, High, and Supreme
>courts in India. Maybe there ought to be far more jurisdictional courts (no
>pun here).
>
>In short... what a mess!
>
>--Ram
>
>
>
>On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>  The following in US News papers today ( St. Louis Post Dispatch, Los
>>  Angeles Times, etc.)
>>  cm
>>
>>  Indian court will take 466 years to clear its backlog, chief justice says
>>  in damning report
>>
>>
>> 
>>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-as-india-delayed-justice,1,2555110.story
>>
>>  NEW DELHI (AP) - The High Court in New Delhi is so behind in its work that
>>  it could take up to 466 years to clear the enormous backlog, the court's
>  > chief justice said in a damning report that illustrates the decrepitude of
>>  India's judicial system.
>>
>>  The Delhi High Court races through each case in an average of 4 minutes and
>>  55 seconds but still has tens of thousands of cases pending, including
>>  upward of 600 that are more than 20 years old, according to the report.
>>
>>
>>  The problems of the Delhi High Court, which hears civil, criminal, and
>>  constitutional cases, is more the standard than the exception in India. The
>>  country's creaky judicial system has long been plagued by corruption,
>>  inefficiency and lack of accountability, often making the rule of law
>>  unattainable for all but the wealthy and the well-connected.
>>
>>  The United Nations Development Program says some 20 million legal cases are
>>  pending in India.
>>
>>  "It's a completely collapsed system," said Prashant Bhushan, a well-known
>>  lawyer in New Delhi. "This country only lives under the illusion that there
>>  is a judicial system."
>>
>>  One reason for the delays is that there aren't enough sitting judges. India
>>  - a country of 1.1 billion people - has approximately 11 judges for every
>>  million people compared with roughly 110 per million in the United States.
>>  India's Justice Ministry last year called for an increase of 50 judges per
>>  million people by 2013, but it was unclear how the government would pay for
>>  such a massive overhaul.
>>
>>  The Delhi High Court, the state's top court, had 32 judges in 2007 and 2008
>>  instead of the allotted 48, according to the chief justice's annual report,
>>  released Tuesday.
>>
>>  The court had at least 629 civil cases and 17 criminal cases pending that
>  > were more than 20 years old as of March 2008. Although, that's an
>>  improvement from April 2007 when the court had 882 civil and 428 criminal
>>  cases pending that were that old.
>>
>>  Chief Justice A.P. Shah said in the report that "it would take the court
>>  approximately 466 years" to clear the pending 2,300 criminal appeals cases
>>  alone.
>>
>>  Critics say another major problem is corruption, a plague throughout every
>>  layer of Indian government.
>>
>>  "Of course corruption is there," said J.S. Verma, a retired Supreme Court
>>  justice. "The people who man the courts and the court system come from the
>>  society" where corruption is commonplace.
>>
>>  Last year, the Delhi High Court convicted two senior lawyers for trying to
>>  influence a key witness to change his testimony in a high-profile case
>>  involving a hit-and-run that left six people dead. The lawyers, who were
>>  busted in a sting by a television news channel, received what some called a
>>  light punishment: They were barred from appearing in court for four months
>>  and fined 2,000 rupees ($50).
>>
>>  The corruption in the case was only notable because one of the lawyers had
>>  defended important political figures, said Bhushan
>>
>>  "There are plenty of lawyers who are engaged in this business of bribing
>>  judges," he said. "It's a lucrative business."
>>
>>  The hit-and-run case was another example of the long lag between crime and
>>  conviction: the accident occurred in 1999, but the driver was not found
>>  guilty until 2008.
>>
>>  Critics say other problems include the strict formalities that slow down
>>  every step of the legal process and are common across India's vast
>>  bureaucracy.
>>
>>  Bhushan says the Herculean task of simply registering a case wastes time
>>  and denies ordinary citizens access to the court.
>>
>>  "All kinds of objections are raised - the copies are dim, the margins are
>>  not wide enough, it's single-spaced instead of being double-spaced," he
>>  said. "For a layperson, it's impossible."
>>
>>  Verma, the retired Supreme Court judge, said extending working hours would
>>  be a major step toward clearing the backlog.
>>
>>  The Delhi High Court hears cases for five hours and 15 minutes a day, and
>>  is open for 213 working days a year, according to the report. Verma and
>>  others said the court could easily work longer hours.
>>
>>  "A commitment and proper work culture can solve at least half the problems,
>>  if not more," Verma said. "I don't think you would have to wait four
>  > centuries to have a case decided."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>**********************************************************************************************************************************************
>>
>>
>>
>>  124 years to clear all the pending cases in the Indian courts
>>
>>
>> 
>>http://www.nowpublic.com/world/124-years-clear-all-pending-cases-indian-courts
>>
>>
>>
>>  by Sanjay Jha | April 20, 2008 at 07:26 pm
>>  490 views | 2 Recommendations | 3 comments
>>  Backlog of cases has become a big problem for the Indian judiciary - from
>>  the Supreme Court to the subordinate courts. At the current speed, the lower
>>  courts, may take 124 years for clearing 2,50,000 cases.
>>  In the last seven years, the disposal rate has increased by 48 per cent in
>>  the high courts and by 28 per cent in the subordinate courts, but the
>>  pendency has increased. Thus, it is the system (and not the judges) which is
>>  at fault. Unless the disposal rate improves, the backlog will keep mounting.
>>  To make rule of law a reality, the arrears will have to be reduced.
>>  Hopefully this move will help in faster judicial delivery
>>
>>
>>  The Chief Justices' Conference has recommended increasing in the working
>>  hours of high courts to clear the huge backlog of cases.
>>
>>  At the end of the two-day conference, Chief Justice of India KG
>>  Balakrishnan said the working hours could be increased by 30 minutes each
>>  day or one more working day be added to the calendar. Most high courts work
>>  for 210 days in a year and it has been recommended to increase it up to 215
>>  or 220, he said. "Some... high courts are already working up to 220 days,"
>>  he added.
>>  Giving details of the decisions taken at the meet, the chief justice told a
>  > gathering of lawyers the conference has also recommended setting up 463
>>  family courts, one in each district, to deal with matrimonial cases. The
>>  conference has recommended setting up one CBI court in each state. There
>>  were about 13,000 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act pending in
>>  various high courts out of which 6,100 were CBI cases, he added.
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  assam mailing list
>>  assam at assamnet.org
>>  http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
>>
>_______________________________________________
>assam mailing list
>assam at assamnet.org
>http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org