Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'The state of our judiciary today' that was published in Newsband

The state of our judiciary today

Shortage of judges, inadequate infrastructure and resource constraints are perennial problems of the judiciary. Too much of Supreme Court’s valuable time is consumed by mundane cases. There is a large number of civil and criminal cases, apart from appeals from various tribunals and authorities. Routine appeals may result in the obstruction of the constitutional role assigned to the highest court.

In India it is found that maximum politicians get the judgement on time but not the common people. Are there special rights for these politicians which make their cases never pending. Actually the country is run by politician.

 Criminals are on the rise. Lawyers are on the rise. Less judges, less courts, less infrastructure facilities ensure postponement of sentences for the criminals, an assure livelihood for the lawyers for a longer time. Haven't we heard of politicians-goondas nexus? It is foolish to expect the criminals to take initiative to improve court needs. Only public outcry or agitation might bring a solution.

In fact SC is nothing but champion of bails, adjournments, stays and notices. It is not dealing with the case it is meant to, but useless cases of rival parties, which consume its maximum time. These cases be left to HC and lower courts and SC should only take up the cases connected with the constitution. This way there will be no shortage of judges and the present staff will be found more than enough.

It is not only the Litigant Public but also the so called Advocates/Lawyers who are misrepresenting their client and also suggesting to go for appeals, and also the erred Judgement pronounced by the lower courts. The Advocates also claim separate fees right from filing of the case, verdict, and if the Opponent goes for Appeal again to pay up fees whereas for the Litigant it is the single case but he or she has to keep on spending for fees and till such time when the court renders justice who is responsible for all the expenditures?

The Entire Judicial system is tilted towards the Lawyers and enables them to literally mint money. Cases can take 20 years and for petty crimes poor people are jailed because they cannot afford bail or to hire lawyers while the Rich get away with murder and mayhem, killing humans and blackbucks with total contempt for the consequences. All of us should think about what is happening and shudder.

From the Lower Court to the Apex Court, it’s a tale lack of infrastructure, staff, furniture, technology upgradation and proper training to the lower Judiciary, middle rung judges. The poor quality of judgements at all levels is because of political tinkering and interference. Non-loyalty to the Constitution on the part of aberrant judges, poor understanding of law, history, economics, sociology, political science are other reasons. And above all the big-time boss attitude of the Executive and the Legislature.

For Finance, the Judiciary is dependent on the Executive, which is a plaything in the hands of Politicians. Political class must be clear about the kind of society it desires. As of date it's a criminal Nexus - politicians-business-criminals-police. Which politician, business, criminal, police would like an efficient Judiciary handing down punishment quickly? But one cannot deny that many a times the honest citizens are ultimately rescued by the Judiciary.

In the United States, for the Supreme Court to agree to hear a case is a big deal, a high bar must be crossed to invoke its authority. That is also the way forward for India, where the government invariably drives each case it loses to the last court of appeal.