Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'New beginning in Executive-Judiciary relationship' that was published in Newsband

New beginning in Executive-Judiciary relationship

Only cooperation between the executive and the judiciary can enable one to tackle high number of pending cases in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured to the Chief Justice of India, J.S. Khehar, that his government would contribute its share in reducing the judiciary’s burden. Modi gave the assurance after observing the pain behind the words of Justice Khehar over the increasing backlog of cases. It will surely represent a new beginning in the executive-judiciary relationship.

Modi also spoke of the use of technology and digitalisation in the judicial system. But paying lip service is one thing and doing what is needed to be done to make Judiciary efficient is another. No Democratic country can progress in case its judicial and executive system are at loggerheads. The issue of judicial appointment needs to be settled quickly and vacancy should be filled without any delay so that the common citizen gets justice, it will also help in restoring the faith of common people in judiciary.

A justiceful life is also a basic need or basic right of everyone. So, it is necessary for each country to provide a better judicial system to their citizens. Both the Prime minster and chief justice are 100% right. We are really outnumbered in term of judges in India and there are many cases pending since a long time.

Government is the biggest litigant in courts. Being so, it is expected to act as a "model litigant". This encompasses refraining from unwarranted litigation, and taking up litigation only after thorough filtering of the matter. Strict adherence to litigation policies, both national and state is very much needed. Even if this much is seriously implemented by the government, it will greatly contribute in unburdening the courts.

It would definitely be great for this democracy if the standoff between the two most powerful organs of the state who have always locked horns with each other since independence gets resolved and mere assurances by the executive neither solves the problem of pending cases nor the problem of pending vacancies. It’s now upon the executive to expedite the process and make sure that it does not jeopardize an equally powerful organ of the state which has gained a very respectful position all round the world for its ability to uphold the rule of law in our country.

PM’s assurance that his Government would contribute its share in reducing the pending cases in the higher & lower judiciary is welcome. Vacancy in judiciary may be cited as main reason for huge arrears of cases in the courts. But most of the cases get struck because of the attitude of Lawyers and judges as they do not feel the pinch of the litigants since they lack judiciary digitaliasation and simplicity in procedure. Long hours of working like other professionals will help judiciary.

Recognising the problem of pendency of cases is a positive step. But, certain important decisions must be taken for speedy justice. Number of judges must be increased along with more number of courts in different cities. Also, time frame should be worked out depending upon civil and criminal cases and the disposal necessity.

Appointing sufficient number of judges is a very important component of the solution. Does it suffice? Any case involves the litigants, the legal fraternity both official and unofficial, the witnesses ranging from the eye witnesses to experts, the infrastructure, including equipments and proficient personnel to man them and various other factors, are to be taken into consideration. Whatever is said and done it is not possible to control human avarice. This bug can affect all around including litigants and their advocates. The system of payment to the legal fraternity has to be looked into afresh. Undue postponements to suit the lawyers, not litigants, and calling for postponements and desire for more and more dates are some of the issues.