AND THE APPROACH OF LAWYERS TO THE JUDICIAL REFORMS
The independence movement was, led by the then advocates' fraternity who left behind their lucrative practices and fought for liberation of the country. They were Madan Mohan Malavia, Motilal Nehru, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, C.Rajagopalachari, Lala Lajpat Rai, C.R.Das, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Mahatam Gandhi, Dr.Rajendra Prasad, Bhulabhai Desal, Jawahrlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Vithalbhai Patel, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Kailash Nath Katju, Kanaiyalal Munshi, Muhammad All Jinnah and Dr. .B.R.Ambedkar. But unfortunately today, in spite of our repeated written and spoken communications to thousands of advocates through mails, letters, workshops, seminars, conclaves and conventions to join our efforts on Judicial Reforms, I am sad to say that the response from advocates fraternity is lukewarm.
Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa has not taken any action against any advocate on hundreds of complaints of misconduct and malpractices filed by their clients during last 12 years. Supreme Court once said that no advocate is clean enough to be H.C. Judge.
What a meager annual budget allocation Indian Judiciary gets? A mere 0.2%. Singapore provides 1.2%, UK 4.3% and USA provides 1.4% to its judiciary. Needless to say that the provision requires to be enhanced at least five times if not more to address the need of proper infrastructure, increased strength of judges, staff and technological backup. It is reported that even this paltry provision of fund is not utilized for development of infrastructure of the judiciary.
No country of the world has such long vacations as we have. Our Supreme Court hardly works for 180 days in a year. High Courts work for about 200 days. A drastic reduction in the court holidays is the need of the hour.
RTI Act, 2005 was enacted for transparency and good governance at all levels but Indian Courts are arrogant in following the provisions of the Act and the orders of Information Commissioners. Their application fees are also very high to pinch the pockets of common man. Most orders of the Central Information Commission directing Supreme Court to provide specific information are challenged by S.C. in the High Courts! (that is the provision).
The upright person who files or faces court proceedings for no fault of his, gives up halfway as he can't bear the cost and delay. He will succumb, settle for less or pay up.
Even in some cases compensatory awarded by the court is paltry, tok, but not realistic. The wrong doer rarely penalized and that too to peanut.
The working strength of High Cou judges as in March 2016 is little ov( 600 against the sanctioned capacity c 1017 i.e. working with 40% vacancies Lower courts have 1/3rd seats vacann The situation creates huge backlog a cases and counting.
In spite of very stringent provision Under Section. 193 to 195 of India] Penal Code against perjury i.e witnesses giving false evidences anc litigants filing false and fabricatec documents and affidavits routinely, the courts are sc lenient in not invoking these provisions that wrongdoers are roaming free at the cost of innocent judicial victims. In New York State, perjury attracts 15 years jail. This menace of perjury is shaking the very foundation of justice delivery system. The judges of the country must be held responsible for this type of inaction leading to increase in criminal and immoral conduct afflicting with this cancerous disease among the society, trade, business and politics.
India made significant progress in science, technology, infrastructure, health education, agriculture, telecommunication, IT and space science but in judiciary we regressed. In 1956 there were 22 lakh cases pending in Indian Courts which have gone up to 3.30 crore as of now which is 1500% increase.
Governments went on appointing committee after committee, Law Commission of India went on publishing well researched report after report totaling to 262 so far with very useful recommendations to eradicate the menace of ever increasing arrears of cases but they all bounced back after reaching to the deaf ears of Government, Parliament and Judiciary. People and press didn't have the courage to speak against, let alone launching any movement for judicial reforms till about five years before.
In my real estate business, I was facing (and still facing even after closing down business in 2007 for judicial reforms) several litigations. I went on filing PILs in Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court totalling to 106 PILs so far and most of them I argued in person, though I am not a law graduate. 15 of them are still pending in the Bombay High Court since 2 to 17 years. There too I am frustrated on snail's speed of such cases.
WHAT CAN BE DONE WHEN THE COUNTRY IS IN CATASTROPHIC SITUATION?
few friends met in 2007 had thorough discussion and sided to set up a trust to launch a nationwide movement or exhaustive judicial reforms. Thus Forum For Fast Justice (Forum for short) was registered as a trust in Murnbai in March 2008.
Forums started publishing its own literature highlighting the drawbacks, delays and deficiencies in judicial services. It started mailing this literature to all High Courts and Supreme Court judges, all MPs, Bar Council members and other NGOs and prominent persons appealing them to start judicial reforms in right earnest to save the nation from losing hard earned democracy.
We met Shri L.K.Advani, Arun Jaitly, Rahul Gandhi, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Ravishankar Prasad, Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi, Veerappa Molly, Salman Khurshid, Manohar Joshi and many more political leaders who all appreciated our campaign and promised support but with no action.
We started publishing NYAY DISHA, a quarterly journal of Forum on judicial reforms which regularly reached to all the aforesaid stakeholders but without any response.
The Forum's Board of Trustees decided to approach masses across the country and thus 35 days historic NYAY
No country of the world has such long vacations as we have. Our Supreme Court hardly works for 180 days in a year. High Courts work for about 200 days. A drastic reduction in the court holidays is the need of the hour.
YATRA, first time in the world took off in two groups one led by me and other by Forum's National Convener Pravin Patel, each with two mini buses fitted with public address system and our own media team travelling with us reporting to the central control room at Delhi for editing the news and transmitting them to the media across the country. Commencing on 30th January 2016 from Delhi's Rajghat the yatries travelled through hundreds of villages, towns and cities, covering 19000 kms. in all, distributing pamphlets hi lacs, appealing the citizens to unite for judicial reforms, holding meetings, rallies with blaring slogans, speeches and addressing press conferences in a big way in this massive awareness campaign. Our 85 registered Societies in 22 States had enthustically organised programmes in their respective cities. Other NGOs helped where we do not have presence.
NYAY YATRA ended at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on 4 March 2016 where about 200 delegates from all over the country representing most of our 85 Societies. For Fast Justice and equal number of local citizens participated in dharna, demonstrations, speeches, dance and songs on nationalistic spirit. Following two days were Forum's Annual National Convention, NATCON-16.
The delegates at the convention interacted for two full days on the pathetic condition of Indian judiciary. Forum's untiring efforts to persuade concerned authorities to see the reason and start working on war footing to save judiciary from total collapse met with not much success. One positive trend seen after Forum's relentless and no nonsense crusade for reforms over last 8 years that people and press got so embolden that they started openly criticizing the affair of the judiciary in the true meaning of the freedom of speech and expression as laid down under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.
When Forum Family across the country failed to get any positive result, its Board decided to plan a nationwide NYAY YATRA i.e. March for Justice to connect the people and the press of the country with the movement which really clicked well. People waited for hours on the roads to receive yatris and join the rallies on the streets. Press reporters and cameramen lined up for bytes and interviews. Local newspapers flashed the news of the YATRA following morning. News channels did their job matching with the big event.
WHAT NEXT?
A resolution was passed in the convention highlighting the shortfall in the judicial services and remedial measures. The copy of the resolution in form of a memorandum containing demands on behalf of the suffering multitude of the litigants is mailed to the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, all High Court and Supreme Court judges and Bar Council members.
Some of our demands are; additional Supreme Court and High Court benches, enhancing judges strength 4 times, filling 30% vacancies, constituting judicial ombudsman, implementation of Gram Nyayalaya Act, evening courts, limiting adjournments and time for arguments, punishing false, frivolous and vexatious litigants, video recordings of the proceedings, repealing obsolete laws, cutting down long vacations, etc.
The memorandum will state in no uncertain terms that if the work on some of the above referred demands is not initiated before the end of 2016, nationwide satyagraha, phase-wise, will be launched and will continue till the goal of fair and fast justice, equally accessible to all, rich and poor, is achieved.
