Speedy justice from Civil Courts in India is possible?
Speedy justice from Civil Courts in India is possible
?
I am sure that in most of the cases, the litigants or the public are not interested in approaching the Civil Court and they are concerned at enormous delay, technicalities and costs involved in the course. Instead of approaching Civil Court, the litigant or the public may feel happy to approach some middle-men to get their work done illegally. In some cases, the people may approach the police in civil cases too and the police will be very happy to deal with these cases and get their commission at times as frequently alleged. With this situation, only rich gets the remedy and 'might becomes right' now and it is not good for the society. We have been establishing Fast Track Courts and continually talking about rendering quality justice and speedy justice, but, infact, there is no significant movement forward in this direction and its a fact. The Governments and the authorities may soon be forced to think at providing speedy remedy from Civil Courts at any cost. It is the responsibility of the government to provide speedy justice to the people. If some obsolete law is to be repealed and if the procedural law is to besimplified, then, only the Parliament or the competent law making authority can do this and Constitutional Courts too may not do enough to deal with this situation. What is that the Supreme Court can do as already 'right to legal aid' is been declared as Fundamental Right within the ambit of Article 21 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court too highlights importance of curtailing the delay in Civil Courts very often. Some may feel that dealing with the issue of delay in Civil Courts is a difficult thing and it will not happen. But, I strongly believe that nothing is impossible and the delay in Civil Courts can certainly be reduced and the people of this country can get their rights protected from the Civil Courts without much effort, cost, delay and technicalities.
We have 'Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996' now in the place of old Arbitration Law. Now almost all contracts or agreements contain an Arbitration clause even at the time of execution and the parties are forced to raise their grievances only before the Arbitrator. Certainly, the 'Arbitral Award' is a legally binding award and we all accept this. There is simple logical thing. Why can't we replace the Civil Procedure Code with the simple procedure followed by the Arbitrator under Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 with suitable changes and addressing the concerns of the professionals and public? People or the professionals did not oppose the Arbitration Mechanism and then, why can't we replace the Civil Procedure Code with the simple procedure as is being followed by the Arbitrator when the procedure is not agreed between the parties to the 'Arbitration Agreement'.
If we keep the administration of 'Criminal Justice Delivery Mechanism' apart, I strongly feel that our 'Civil Justice Delivery Mechanism' can be more effective with simple reforms. Without referring to any political parties or the Governments, I feel that this society, the noted professionals and we all collectively failed to bring simple reforms and we are unable to address the simple issue of delay in Civil Courts in this Country. I don't know as to why we can not deal with the issue of delay in Civil Courts. There legislature may be so busy with so many issues, but, the issue of legal reforms and unreasonable delay in Civil Courts too is very significant in this country. If we adjust with 'might becoming right', then, we can not claim that we are a functioning democracy. These are not radical words, but, a bare truth. If we reduce the delay in Civil Courts, public will get benefited, professionals too gets benefited with more litigation and it encourages even the industry. Why should there be a 'Second Appeal' in Civil Cases. Like the provision under Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, let there be a provision to get the decree set-aside and let there be a one appeal, which is 'First Appeal'. If we replace the Civil Procedure Code with some other special procedural law which is simple, initially, there can be confusion, but, soon everything will get settled. Look at the civil disputes disposed of by various High Courts and Supreme Courts; there will be enough discussion on technicalities and laying emphasis on some provision under Civil Procedure Code. Initially, we need not even touch other substantial laws requiring few reforms like 'Indian Evidence Act'.
The politicians may be worried if we deal with the 'Criminal Justice Delivery Mechanism' and we know the difficulties in reducing the delay in 'Criminal Justice Delivery Mechanism'. Because, it is closely connected to the Governments and the prosecution should be effective and we know how the prosecutions in this country are done and we know as to what the prosecution can do in important cases. So, we need not, for the time being, deal with 'Criminal Justice Delivery Mechanism' in this country.
Few simple reforms to reduce the delay in Civil Courts are as follows:
1. Make the filing mechanism simple and alsotransparent.
2. Computerize all Courts and let the official web-site of Courts provide all the required information to the public through on-line. It is unfortunate that we are not having an effective web-site even for a corporate dispute reddressel forum like 'Company Law Board'.
3. Change the procedure followed in Civil Courts and repeal the C.P.C and make a special law providing simple procedure to be followed by Civil Courts.
4. Let there be a committed and efficient supervisory committee headed by the acting judges of the High Court under the Supervision of Chief Justice in order to ensure systems in lower courts work properly.
I have exposed only few issues and can't we do this? India is aiming to be Super Power in the world and we are maintaining almost 9% growth rate and the world countries are referring about 'India' very frequently. With this development, can't we bring simple administrative reforms? We are doing well in the recent past with the enactments like RTI and on the same footing; we need to deal with the unacceptable and unreasonable delay in Civil Courts. Let the public feel that their rights are protected in a proper way in courts and thats good for the public and society and that will not, in any way hurt the professionals or the politicians.
I really expect the law ministry to focus on these important issues. This country can not move forward if we don't address certain simple issues. Its a shame on us and its a shame on all legal professionals that we interpret the provisions in Constitution of India, but, we can not deal with the issue of delay in Civil Courts in this Country. It is not enough if we talk about some noted Writ Petition, Litigation in some Constitutional Court and its very important to provide speedy justice to the common man in our Courts. We have a legal aid mechanism and for getting qualified for legal advice, there is lot of procedure and often, Courts direct the 'Free Legal AidCenter' to provide legal aid to the people in needy.
India should move forward and there are so many things we need to do in this country. We may definitely see significant changes in the mind-set of Indian Younger generation and there will definitely be a limit fortolerance.
I really don't understand as to why the law ministry of this country, law commission and other connected noted people are not guiding the people of this country in getting speedy justice from Civil Courts. Nobody gets affected if the common man gets the speedy justice in his civil dispute. An ordinary man may have a plot worth some 1 lakh and that is his great property and wealth and if there is some rowdy element encroaching on his land, then, he should get justice from Civil Court without much effort and technicality. This common man now may not be able to get the service of a qualified legal professional as he charges more with justification and as there is so much illogical work to be done in Courts. What about the fate of this common man and what about his legal rights and what is the point in talking about 'Human Rights' and getting a judgment from the High Court or the Supreme Court expanding the scope of Article 21 of Constitution of India. I don't understand all this.
I believe that there is an urgent need for reducing the delay in Civil Courts, I believe that we can easily reform our 'Civil Justice Delivery Mechanism' and I hope that the Government or the law-makers focus on these issue too apart from elections, election strategies, vote-bank politics and other issues. We know the complications in the system, there is no need to point fingers at any political party or politics, but, there is no justification in not doing the simple things which will produce great results and be useful to the common public or common man.
Note: the views expressed are my personal, a view point, no intention of showing disrespect to courts, politicians or the Government.
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