Need for Judicial Reforms in India

Few days back a historical case was closed after 65 years. It is historical, because perhaps it was the longest running case in India.
The case was to recover money of Jaggery sold to some party which then refused to pay back. Looks like a trivial matter, isn't it? But still it took 65 damn years..the 4th generation of the petitioner got the justice(?).

This case is not an exception in our judicial system. There are so many pending cases and the least unit of time-line for closure of any case is years (and not days or months).

Here are some facts around our judicial System:
Pending cases: 25 millions
Out of which Criminal cases are: 18 million
Cases pending with Supreme court: 50000
Cases Pending the lower courts: 15 million
Yearly Increase in pending cases: 2 million

With such a dismal state of judicial system, no one expect justice from it. People think hundred time before approaching courts. There is a old proverb 'Justice Delayed, is Justice Denied". So it is not even appropriate to call our judicial system as 'Judiciary'. Because it is no longer able to deliver justice to common man.

On the contrary, this same system is being used by rich class to get away with any crime. One just need enough money to hire a good lawyer who will be able to postpone the case for years. But there is a problem if you don't have money and that is a problem of 80% of Indians. So Indians please don't expect any justice in the current system. It is not meant for you, but to protect rich class from the rule of law.

This is one side of the story. The other hand it shows the state of our society and the growing criminalization. As a society are we progressing? The answer is sad, no. The morality of society is degrading. There is no value of 'values' and ethics. The more ethical your conduct is, more is the chance that someone will fool you.

While degradation of our society is rampant, the judiciary is not ready to change. It is following the same old procedures. Even the laws need to be simplified and our legislative system should work upon that. Computerization will help a lot. If every panchayat has a facility of teleconferencing, it could be used by the courts instead of summoning people in the court. There has to a time-line for each kind of case. Each case need to handled as a project and enough resources should be allocated to it.

I think it is all about following good management practices than following old bureaucratic processes. With good management practices courts will be open more than 190 days a year, at least we can expect a norm of 225 days of work per year followed by our judiciary.