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"Without
Justice, life would not be possible and even if it were it would
not be worth living"
......Giorgio Del Vecchio (Justice)
I.
Introduction
Notion as
theory of law
can be defined as a study based on presupposes or ideal which a
men seek for its realization through law, called as
Theory of Justice.
The word
justice
has been derived from the actual concept of
justness which acts as the
primordial factor for any state to provide for its populace. The
concept of justice was vitiated with various welfare, moral and
psychological factors. Harmonious surveillance of these three
features acts as a social tool, which makes justice accessible to
all.
Justice is a
generic term, which includes both procedural (Natural) and
substantive (Social) justice. In India, justice has been adorned
as the very embodiment of God, whose sole mission is to uphold
justice, truth and righteousness. Under our Indian constitution
Justice
sets the ultimate goal for all of us to
serve
our nation. It is a mixture of natural and social justice as
evident from Preamble and Part IV of our constitution. The concept
of
Justice being so important is used only twice in our
Indian Constitution, i.e. in Preamble and in Art 39 A.
In Preamble it sets out as- to secure to all its citizens-
Justice- Social, economic and political and Article 39 A states
that the state to secure equal justice and free legal aid for
the citizens.
Our current stress on justice itself is a reminder of the fact
that justice is not available to us.
II.
Democracy And Indian Judiciary
In a democratic country like India, judiciary plays a vital role
in establishing a state of justice. Therefore being the watchdog,
they are not allowed to shift their burden to others for their
failure to establish an actual
State of Justice. It is judiciary
on which millions of people have struck their faith of getting
justice. It has the capability of imparting justice to the
aggrieved. It is that part of our constitution which acts as its
Messiah. It is that structure of our society, which cemented its
place next to the God and if not properly dispensed will shatter
down the entire trinity of democratic instrumentalists with checks
balances, parliamentary structure and the judicial facets of our
constitution. Generally, aggrieved with lots of pain anguish and
hope in their heart approaches the court of law for their
grievances to be clarified but at the end of the day the
procedural lacuna left them with bare hands. They are denied of
their most important right of Justice.
In India, Justice is beyond the reach of most and the right of
access to it is not communicated to the citizens properly. In many
a circumstances it was found that the litigant who has had access
to the court failed to obtain quick relief and for some never have
the opportunity even to knock the doors of the court due to
ignorance and poverty. If we want justice to be accessible to all,
then it must be relieved from the Laissez faire pattern, where
justice like other commodity can be purchased and initiative must
be taken to educate the populace.
Quest for justice has nothing to do with procedure or
jurisdictional aspect rather it cares for its speedy disposal.
Delay in disposal of cases is considered as one of the most vexed
and worrying problem. It is the code of procedures, which makes it
so worse. However personality like Nani Phalkiwala opined that
Justice in common parlance is considered as
blind
but in India it is
lame too and hobbles on crutches. It is on the verge of
collapse with more than 30 million cases clogging the system.
There are cases that take so much of time that even a generation
is too short to get any type of redressal.
Procedures must be utilized to advance the cause of
justice but
in India it is used to thwart it. Justice is something which
should be dispensed as early as possible otherwise it will be too
late for a critic to add a common adage to that Justice Delayed
is Justice Denied. Current situation shows that it will take more
than 300 years to clear the backlog of cases in Indian courts. In
Anil Rai vs. State of Bihar case, Sethi
J stated that
Delay in
disposal of the cases facilitates the people to raise eyebrows,
sometime genuinely, which if not checked, may shake the confidence
of the people in this judicial system.
Thereafter this problem of delay in justice delivery system had
engaged attention of our law commission for a quite a long time.
To cope up with this situation they have proposed several
amendments. But the position retains unchanged.
III. Reasons For Delay In Disposal Of Cases
Firstly, Increase in litigation-people now days are in a habit of
dragging their point of grievances to the court of law, which
rather can be solved outside the purview of the court. Secondly,
non-adherence with the code properly by the judges and the lawyers
both add to same cause in a greater extent. Thirdly, the judicial
system is not equipped with actual number of judges required so.
Fourthly, Government can be termed for contributing maximum to the
backlog.
While it can be understood that delay may occur in the civil cases
but the same is not expected in the criminal proceedings. If we
compare these two on the basis of its disposal then it is very
much advent that criminal justice system is at its worst and this
position leads to a situation where the common man had lost its
complete trust on the efficacy of the criminal redressal system.
While B.P.Singh J gave an approx statistics showing an average
disposal and pendency of cases which would rather reveal the
actual state of justice in India today:
On average 50 lakh crimes are registered every year, which are
sought to be investigated by the police. The pendency of criminal
cases in subordinate courts is 1.32 crore and the effective
strength of judges is 12,177.
Pending cases of the under trials in criminal cases are 1.44
crores. In an average 19 percent of the pending cases, disposed
every year
Delayed
decisions, piled up files and indefinitely extending projects,
never serve their purpose. They are the real roadblocks to
development of any state or nation. Generally, delayed decisions
take its maximum toll from the under privileged section as
Poor section
of our society, who were always treated as animals. They are often
denied of their bare amenities of life.
Consider the condition of the poor victims of Bhopal gas Leak
disaster, which took a toll of 15000 people. Twenty years had
passed to that ghastly incident; still now victims were fighting
for its compensation, which fails to measure up the damage caused
to them. Consider the terrible situation occurred in August 1991
as massacre of Dalits at Tsundur in Andhra Pradesh. 13 years had
passed to that incident, the families of the victims of Tsundur,
still await justice for those who died. They say, they will not
find any peace until the guilty are punished for their crime.
Consider the condition of those girls who were brutally gang raped
during the Godhra riots in front of their helpless family members.
Consider the case of Jessica lal, where Delhi police yet to grab
Manu Sharma, key accused, still able to safeguard himself from the
clutches of the judicial administration. Still her family members
await justice to be delivered. Consider the victims of Best Bakery
case who still awaits justice to be dispensed in their favour but
the climax starts with the key witness in the case turned hostile
and the entire fate of the Bakery case is in turmoil. Today the
victims of the all the above-enumerated cases know full well that
the price of truth is extremely high.
Still they are waiting…
But for what?
Whether all these amounts to justice?
IV. Conclusion
Social justice will be possible only if the entire concept of
egalitarian politico-social order is followed, where no one is
exploited, where every one is liberated and where every one is
equal and free from Hunger and poverty. The proverb ‘Justice
Delayed is Justice Denied’ is proved as it is denied to the
poorest of the poor. Providing basic necessities to them will
amount to Justice because the definition of justice varies from
individuals to individuals on the basis of its economic
conditions. According to B.P.Singh J
the
situation today is so grim that if a poor is able to reach to the
stage of a high court, it should be considered as an achievement.
At this
juncture the author is of the opinion that judiciary obviously
owes an obligation to deliver quick and inexpensive justice
irrespective of the complicated procedures but it cannot be
hurried to be buried. Cases should be decided for imparting
justice not for the sake of its disposal. Secondly, Arbitration
procedure must be utilized as a better option for quick disposal
of cases. Finally, to conclude with the words of Lord Hewet as
it is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be
done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.
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References:
1. Bare Act- The
Constitution Of India, P.M.Bakshi, Universal Law Publishing Co.Pvt
Ltd.
2. C.K.Takwani, Civil Procedure Code, Edition-5th, Eastern Book
Company.
3. Article- “Access To Justice” By Justice S.B.Sinha, Nyaydeep
Journal.
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Justice Delayed- Justice Denied
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The
author can be reached at:
bhaskar_law@legalserviceindia.com /
