MAKE EVERY INDIAN AWARE OF THIS. PLEASE FORWARD TO AS MANY.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Indian Justice Delayed is Indian Justice Denied

Indian Justice Delayed is Indian Justice Denied
Tag it:B. Indira
30 November 2007

It could take you 230 years to get out of an Indian jail . In what must be a judicial record anywhere, courts across India on a   single day,  October 24, handed out life sentences to 60 people in four different  cases -  although there is no sign that any of them will go to jail anytime soon.

Two of the cases relate to murder, one to planning the assassination of a  prominent opposition politician and a fourth to plotting communal riots.   The  initial reaction to the sentences was an impromptu pat on the back for the  judiciary and all-around praise for democracy. Nobody was above the law,   wrote  pundits, be they policemen, former ministers or fundamentalist leaders.

The  judgments, some observers noted, had once again affirmed the faith of the common  man in the judiciary.  But a few days later, the dissenting murmurs started. A major complaint  was that  the judgments were so long delayed. The hearing of one of the cases, in  which 11  Muslim residents of Uttar Pradesh were burned to death in communal riots  in  1992, started 15 years ago. One defendant died during the trial.

The three  other  cases had stretched for 10, nine and four years, respectively.
Secondly, all the judgments have been handed out by lower courts. The  accused
are certain to appeal to higher courts and many more years will pass  before the
final verdicts are in. In the case of Amar Mani Tripathi, an Uttar Pradesh state
minister who was convicted along with his wife and a hired assassin of   murdering
a poet, Madhumanita Shukla, in 2003, the reaction of his lawyer on hearing  the
court's verdict was: "We will appeal in the High Court.''

In fact there is a massive backlog in the Indian courts. According to one estimate, it would take 350 years to resolve all the cases in India at the  current disposal rate.

Some 25 million cases are pending in lower courts,  another 3.7 million in the high courts and another 40,000 before the  Supreme  Court. Nearly 250,000 lower-level trial defendants languish in Indian  jails, of  which some 2,500 have been in jail for more than five years.

Minister for Law and Justice H.R. Bhardwaj has thrown his hands up.   Speaking
before the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, recently,   he
acknowledged that there has been a 25 percent increase in the number of   pending
cases before the Supreme Court alone in just the last year.  "The backlog of cases in the higher judiciary has shown an increasing   trend  despite various corrective measures being taken for their speedy disposal  by  courts.

The measures include increasing the number of judges from time to  time,  besides grouping together cases involving common questions of law, and  constitution of specialised benches to facilitate faster disposal," he   added.

That justice in India drags on is evident from the timeline in the case of   a  fire in the Uphaar cinema hall in New Delhi. In 1997 a spark in a  transformer  led to a fire engulfing the newly-renovated hall, killing 59 moviegoers. A  Delhi  court held 12 people guilty for the tragedy, including the owners,   brothers  Sushil and Gopal Ansal. The judgment was finally delivered on November 20,   2007,  a full decade after the tragedy but not before the case had meandered  through  many twists and turns:

June 13, 1997: 59 people die of asphyxia in the hall during the screening  of a  Hindi movie.
July 22, 1997: Sushil Ansal is arrested by the crime branch of the Delhi Police.
The investigation is transferred from the Delhi police to the Central  Bureau of
Investigation, controlled by the Indian government.
November 15, 1997: The CBI files a charge sheet against 16 accused.
March 10, 1999: The trial begins in a sessions court.
February 27, 2001: The court frames charges against the accused.
May 23, 2001: Recording of testimony of prosecution witnesses begins.
September 4, 2004: Court starts recording statements of accused.
November 5, 2005: Recording testimony of defense witnesses begins.
August 2, 2006: Court concludes recording of testimony of defense witnesses.
February 14, 2007: Accused start advancing final arguments.
November 20, 2007: Court convicts all 12 accused. The Ansal brothers face imprisonment of at least two years.

Various reasons are cited for the huge backlog, but among there are four  main culprits:
Insufficient infrastructure. There is a big shortage of court buildings,  support staff, libraries and technical equipment. This impacts the speed and quality of  justice.

Archaic laws, many of them dating back to British rule. Thus, photography of the imposing Howrah Bridge in West Bengal is banned. But it is perfectly okay  to buy picture postcards of the tourist attraction from nearby vendors. Until six  months ago, no photographs were allowed from any plane flying within the  borders  of India.

Inadequate numbers of judges. In India, the ratio of judges to population  is 12  to 1 million, compared to 107 in the US, 75 in Canada and 51 in the UK.

Judges  cope with such huge lists by announcing adjournments, which prompt people
to  grease palms.

Corruption. India ranks 70th of 163 countries on the Corruption Perception  Index
 in Transparency International's 2007 judicial corruption report. The  report  records two types of widespread judicial corruption: political  interference and bribery. It points out that there is a high level of corrupt practices  among  clerks, prosecutors and police investigators who misuse their power.

A survey carried out by Mint, a Mumbai-based publication, revealed that an astounding 59 percent of respondents had paid bribes to lawyers, 5 percent  to judges and 30 percent to court officials. They had paid the bribes for various reasons including getting favorable judgments, obtaining bail,  manipulating witnesses or speeding up judgments.

In rural areas at least, speedier judgments may be around the corner if a  new experiment in the north Indian state of Haryana takes off. The country's  first mobile court was launched in Mewat district in August this year. The  mobile court is in a bus traveling from one site to the next. This is only a  small step, but mobile courts could be a relief to rural people as they will be  saved  from making frequent trips to central towns to attend hearings.

At a higher level, in April at the Chief Justices' Conference 2007 in New Delhi one of the sessions was devoted to the speedy disposal of cases. The  measures suggested included linking the increase in judicial strength in the High Courts to pending cases, establishing additional Magisterial Courts and evening/morning courts to be presided over either by serving or retired judges.

Even outside chambers there is widespread discussion about the reasons for the delays and many solutions are being proffered including:
Making the judiciary more accountable
Making use of Information Technology in the justice delivery system
Quashing criminal proceedings if the parties agree to compromise
Video recording court proceedings
Using websites to explain basic law to laymen.

The Chief Justice of India revealed that a new policy for sifting cases  into  different categories will be introduced to decide priorities, with  preference  given to cases of corruption and sexual assault against women. Criminal  cases  will also be given attention since two-thirds of the cases clogging the  lower  courts fall in this category.

Clearly, at all levels judicial reform will have to be undertaken on a war  footing. According to a study based on data from Indian States and  conducted by  Dr Wolfgang Köhling of the University of Bonn in Germany, there is a  relationship between judicial quality and economic development. A weak  judiciary, Kohling found, negatively affects economic and social  development.

India's judicial machinery will have to move into a higher hear - if the  country wants to move speedily ahead.
AS

This article appears in the  forum: soc.culture.indian

No Judge should have a protocol and No woman judge be allowed to humiliate her husband in the guise of protocols. I don't know when this kind of tyranny would stop. I am sure there is a solution for this. All the protocols for the Judge need to be removed and no one should get up when the judge arrives in the court hall.

May this is respect to a person who is there after a lot of experience and hardwork but not to JUDGE !