Hon'ble Law minister is reported to have said that he is going to increase by 200 the number of judges in High Courts, and by 4000 in lower courts. Whilst this proposed step is welcome, it is much to little and so, is not going to offer much relief to citizens. When the car is out of petrol, a couple of drops is not going to be much help.
One does not think there is too much dispute that the various India systems are broken, and have been so now for some decades, worsening with each passing year.
It is this writer's belief that any meaningful attempt to put our country back on the rails must start with the judicial system. It is so because the courts are the final arbiters and up (or down) holders of law and destiny. Further, to receive fair and equitable treatment is the essence of democracy. Without fixing the judicial system, nothing else will work properly. Hence, if I were the Law Minister, this is what and how I would proceed:
1. Increase the retirement age to 70. This will give 5 years of breathing space and relief, and having to deal with judge vacancies cropping up every now and then;
2. Increase the number of judges by at least 3-fold in five years by providing for recall of retired judges, mandatory service as judges for a period of say 3 years by senior lawyers, eliminate the two-judge benches as hardly any judge passes a dissenting order, and by normal additional recruitment;
3. Two sittings in each court,room to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks, say from 8 - 12, and from 1 - 5.
4. A strong independent judicial oversee commission, audio-video of all courtrooms with permission to litigants to record proceedings on their mobiles, a strong and independent appointment and redressal commission, random scrutiny of judgments passed by judges, RECALL of SC judgement that judges cannot have FIR-investigation against them except by prior permission of Hon'ble SC, etc.
Once courts are enabled and start deciding cases within a reasonable time-frame ( within 1 year for 95% of cases), one can expect to see automatic improvements in other areas of governance. Under these conditions, tweaking of laws, administrative rules, political framework, etc. can be successfully tweaked. The reverse will be a failure, no matter what.
Victor
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Posted by: Victor Cooper <victor99cooper@yahoo.com>
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