VIRTUAL COURT: A SOLUTION TO PENDENCY OF CASES - (Article)
The
Indian Judiciary System is one of the oldest legal system in the world.
Historically, India was governed by Arthashastra and Manusmriti, which provide
as a legal guidance. The land was ruled by great Kings, who is considered as
the supreme leader and village panchayat was acting as the judiciary to solve
the dispute. Basically the laws were based on religion. The legal guidelines of
their respective religious texts applied on respective religion people. With
the coming of British rule in India, the Indian legal system was established by
British Raj and is based on English Common Law. Constitution of India is the
supreme law of land. The current legal system mentioned in Indian Constitution,
derives its power from it. Judiciary follows the hierarchy. The various level
of court are there in the Indian Legal System. Supreme Court is the apex court
of the country followed by High Court at various states level which cater at
one or more states. Below the high court exit various district court at
district level and other such lower courts.
Constitution
of India protects the right of every citizens. It protects the citizens from
getting a partial or incomplete judgement.
It gives its decision on the basis of rules and laws enshrined in the
various Indian Acts. The court of our country is an independent body not being
controlled by the government or any political party. The Judiciary is
independent of both legislative and executive. The appointment of judges of High
Court as well as Supreme Court is free from influence and interference from
branch of government. Such independent nature of our judiciary ensure that
justice is not being misused by any other governmental body.
In
the recent time major problem faced by the Indian Judiciary is the pendency of
cases. Pendency refers to the backlog of cases. This arises when large clog of
cases of different sets with different nature is being unnoticed. According to Black Law’s Dictionary,
“Suspense, the state of being pendent or undecided, the state of an action etc,
after it has been begun, and before the final disposition of it.” This pendency
leads to accumulation of cases causing the delay in justice. Main reason for
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied is due to pendency of cases. There are around 59,867 cases pending in the
Supreme Court, 44.75 lakh
cases in various high courts and 3.14 crore cases at the district and
subordinate court . One of the oldest cases still pending in Doshipura Court
since 1878, a dispute between Shia and Sunni Muslim over a two acres of land. India’s oldest
civil case pending since 1956 in the Rajasthan high court and for criminal
cases, the Allahabad and the Jammu and Kashmir high courts have the oldest
backlog since 1976.
Some
of the reason for Pendency of cases are :-
1. Administrative
Problem
This factor has been the major problem which is generally not given importance. According to a report published by Supreme Court it shows that the sub-ordinate Judiciary is not being provided with appropriate number of court rooms, support staffs and residential accommodation for Judges. To curb this problem there is urgent need of around 5000 court rooms and around 20000 judicial officers to meet the need. The condition of the subordinate judiciary is deteriorating day by day with constant pressure of human resources to handle the increasing cases. It is seen that there is immediate filling of 40000 vacancy in the staff position, which has always been given less attention. In case Kadra Pahadiya and Ors. Etc v. State of Biahr Etc[1] contented that having regard to the pendency of a large number of cases in criminal courts all over the country, it is essential that the infrastructure contemplated by these provisions shall be put to use so that to begin with sufficient number of special judicial magistrate and special metropolitan magistrate could be appointed. Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the law minister of India in an interview has said that one of the major reasons behind the high pendency is inordinate delay in filling up the vacancies of the judicial offices.
2. Infrastructural
Problem
Infrastructure is the basic requirement for the smooth functioning of any system. Using of old technology by the administrator and slow change leads to the hinderance in working process of court. As we have seen the condition of various court, it is due to the low budget for the judiciary infrastructure which resulted in depleted building as a result it immensely affect the delivery of judgement at proper time. In Imtiyaz Ahmad v. State of U.P. and ors[2] Supreme Court directed the Law Commission of India to set up additional subordinate courts for elimination of delays and speedy disposal of cases and also direct advocates to reduce their cost.
3. Time
Consumption
Another factor which affects the pendency is the case is the consumption of time by the court. There requires a fixed time limit for the court to come at conclusion. Neither process of investigation, hearing and delivery of judgement is effectively and efficiently followed. In a case benched by Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra said, “our country are usually short of time because of huge pendency of cases and at times the court arrives at an erroneous conclusion because of false pleas, claims defence and irrelevant facts.”[3] In January 2019, Supreme Court asked the people not to file false and frivolous cases in order to save the court time being wasted.
4. Judicial
Officer
We know the rule of direct and indirect, more number of people less is the work. That means the work get easier with more number of people working on it. It became easier and within less time it is being completed. Indian Judiciary Officer are being overwhelmed by large number of cases. Lack of appointment of these officer leads to pendency of cases.
5. Litigation
Issue and Misuse of Law
With
the increasing literacy rate of nation, awareness for people’s right is
developing. There is an absolute obligation of legal system to protect these
rights. The delay in court hearing through appeal has resulted in advantage to
accused and disadvantage to victim. The people in search of justice approached
towards court but due to delay in justice process they end of losing hope on
legal system.
In
the era of technology, Indian Judiciary System still depends on the manual
court method to resolve the dispute. Use of modernised technology tool is an
essential element to make justice more transferable, accessible and convenient.
In
State of Maharashtra v. Praful B. Desai[4]
held video conference for recording the evidence in criminal cases in section
273 of Crpc and in Swapnil Tripathi v.
Supreme Court of India[5], apex court encourages the live
streaming of court proceedings. This virtual fast track court eradicate the
above problem that leads to pendency of cases. The advantage of such court
system are opening e-filling platform for advocate and litigants to file case
in court on 24*7 basis, paperless document system that means all the court
papers are virtually recorded and also digitalisation of court fee payment
system. This virtual method encourages the e-planning i.e developing the core
method of timely information date of hearing of case, any notice or order,
details matter of cases and related issues to petitioner, respondent,
respective advocates and judges. Development and introduction of new technology
helps in more data collection and effective classification of cases on the
basis of their urgency and priority of case. Most importantly there is a need
of training of court staffs, advocate and judges regarding the e-court
platform.
Covid-19
crisis has pushed the various Court to fast track administrative reforms in the
institution, a move that could speed up disposal of cases, digitisation of
records and a switch to paperless courts. Ruchi Kohli, an Additional Advocate
General for Haryana said digital hearing is a positive change where future
hearing will be judicious combination of physical courtroom proceedings and
virtual court.
Indian Judiciary is one of the best in delivering the judgement in the world but it faces the problem of delay in justice. People start losing their hope and faith due to time taken by it in delivering the judgement. It is the high time that Indian Judiciary to switch over the e-platform to reduce the backlog of cases and speedy & appropriate justice delivery.
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