Justice system in India……not designed for delivering Justice !

The justice dispensation system of any ancient dynasty was always the barometer of the how equitable and satisfied its people were . King Vikramaditya would disguise and mingle with people at night to know how satisfied were people from his rule.  On other hand , many rulers didn’t bother about justice at all and those dynasties were overthrown by the unsatisfied people  or rival rulers who know that people would help to get rid of the present king. In the concept of nation states , people’s urge for justice has not changed. But is the present system of justice dispensation in India serving its purpose ?

Ask anyone caught in the lifetime litigations in Indian courts and answer would be same . It is not. And it is no secret even. Everyone from CJI to law minister to advocates know how rotten are the procedures of the courts. Many laws are outdated or simply cannot be enforced. But no one wants to bring the system back to its envisioned path.  Vested interests run high and prevent any substantial relief from this ordeal. As an advocate rightly said, “the litigation is the real punishment ”. Shabby police  investigations , saleable or vulnerable witness and shortage of judges are just few of the several scars that mar the face of justice delivery in India.

Apart from these known and never acted upon issues , there are other key concerns.

If the state has the right to tax citizens , the citizen has the right to demand some services in lieu of the tax paid. A primary service is that justice is delivered in the right spirit and in timely fashion to all strata of society . But the current system in itself is designed such that the people at the bottom of society can never dream of getting justice. They can’t pay court fess, advocate fees, stamp fees and alleged bribes required to be paid at every stage of the litigation. A supreme court lawyer takes 150,000 INR for every hearing so a poor Indian should forget that he can ever go to the Supreme court .

Secondly, onus for producing the evidence and witness is entirely left to the person filing the case. Many times, he is poor, disabled, threatened or simply bought over and the temples of justice pronounce verdicts based on “facts produced before it”. What if these facts are lies or not enough ? Is the responsibility of the state so shallow that it cannot ensure that each and every fact is searched and dug out. The only way to do it is to form a professional agency which would collects facts for both the parties in the case and be held accountable if any fact is left out. The present police is doing a very bad job at this.

Thirdly, the rich can afford best and most expensive lawyers in the country . A poor  can’t or has to rely on charity of any lawyer who may take up his case. What kind is justice system is this ? The best lawyer would rip apart the case of not so efficient or mature lawyer. Justice dispensation is sacrified at the alter of professional competition of two lawyers having unequal talents.  Who cares about who was right. Our temple of justice would again pronounce a verdict based on the “facts produced before it “ . Taking refuge on this sentence in itself is so shameful. Primary purpose of courts is lost and they are just doing what they can. The only solution to this is to form levels of advocates according to their talent and experience . Only lawyers of same level will fight on a case. And all lawyers will be paid by a common state fund as per their level.  A rich and powerful citizen should never have an advantage over a poor before the courts .  And it is state’s responsibility to see that justice is delivered end to end.

Verdicts of lower courts totally turned upside down in high courts is another key matter. Is the law so ambiguous that even judges are confused. First clear your confusion rather than waste time of the citizens. Remember , judges are also public servants and are accountable for their verdicts.

Avenues of justice for any litigant run from district court to high court to Supreme court. All 3 levels must complete in 5 years in normal cases , exceptions apart. Once a citizen gets a supreme court verdict , that is the final justice that the state can offer to him on his petition. If that takes painfully long time , what is the use of this justice system. Should “ litigation be the real punishment ” ?

 

Is Sham Democracy working for India ?

Repeated protests by people of Delhi on rape , Anna  and Kejriwal on corruption and other civilians  have brought forward a very potent question : why is the current democratic system not listening its citizens . Common wisdom would say that democracy should do good for a country where people decide on issues through their representatives. But in India, current form of democracy has utterly failed to provide real fruits that were expected out of democracy. Neither the electorate nor the elected are what they should be .

For once, a country where literacy is just around 65 %, how much wisdom and knowledge does electorate have to decide on complex national issues ?  We know well that educated class votes much less than the uneducated one. That precisely exposes them to the tricks of politicians who raise the slogan of democracy while knowing that these gullible and illiterate people can be conned with rhetoric and token measures. The democracy loses its core and becomes a ridiculous tamasha .

 Being selected by a often prejudiced and ignorant electorate , the elected behaves in a manner which defies common sense . He knows if I have to be elected again, I must appear worthy in eyes of those people who elected me , not in the eyes of intelligentsia  of the society , experts or international community. He does stupid acts of erecting idols , renaming places, etc and surreptitiously indulges in making money out of corruption . He takes care that his electorate don’t get to know much about his misdeeds and should only get an artificial sense of satisfaction that their elected guy is doing a good job for “them”.  In reality , elected representative does everything to loot those people and divide them for political gains. The outcome of democracy is so much distorted from what it was intended, that you find it hard to interpret where the hell is the real problem. 

There are few good and sane voices too among these people. But they are woefully outnumbered and let me remind you , democracy is only a number game. We have seen that enough during confidence votes in the Parliament. Just consider a normal college class of 50 students . If the best tennis player among them is made tennis captain and entrusted upon to manage tennis court for college , he will do it best among  those 50 students. But if he has to get elected for being Tennis captain and general students do not know much about tennis  , they will elect any other candidate who appeases them through  free snacks/drinks  on the court  .

The majority is never an expert on every subject . Hence in a democratic election , the best tennis player of the college will loose election  and the one who manages to appease electorate , wins. Is this what is happening in India ? Is this the result of democracy we are so proud of ?

On the other hand, if meritocracy was the form of governance , the tennis player would be an obvious choice for being tennis captain and he would built a world class tennis court . This sounds simple enough except for the fact that that captain would have a chance to cheat students for their lack of understanding of tennis. Enough safeguards and heavy penalties must be enforced upon such actions.

So  a purely democratic college with an ignorant electorate gives us a sham tennis court  . It cannot hold world class tournaments and produce world champions. India’s Olympic 2012 tally is an example enough. But don’t forget , students are satisfied with snacks and drinks. On the other hand , a meritocratic college would have resulted in a world class tennis court which would  produce several Olympic gold medalists. Imagine the overall impact of this excellence on college. Other sportsmen also get inspired and emulate this example. A win produces immense sense of bonding among fellow students . Everybody starts striving to bring laurels like the tennis players. The college becomes the best college in the country.

It is high time we introspect on these issues to adopt a system that delivers for our country.