Mumbaikars in long wait for justice at HC ………Viju B
Ratio Of Judges To Population Very Low, Lawyers Tactics Add To Litigants Woes
Ratio Of Judges To Population Very Low, Lawyers Tactics Add To Litigants Woes
Justice delayed is indeed justice denied for lakhs of Mumbaikars whose cases have been pending before the Bombay high court for years together.
Data procured from the HC registrar shows that a whopping 3.41 lakh cases were yet to be cleared till April this year. Around 2.98 lakh civil cases, 43,253 criminal cases and 296 dowry cases are pending at various court rooms in the Bombay high court.
What is more worrying is that the disposal of cases at the high court has come down from 1.71 lakh to 1.45 lakh in the last two years. Similarly, the number of disposal of Public Interest Litigations have also come down from 202 in 2008 to 142 in 2009.
Senior counsels and judicial activists said that this huge pendency has resulted in a loss of faith in the judicial system as litigants have to wait for decades to get justice. The situation is definitely worrying.
If we do not rectify this problem soon it can have a repercussion on social ills, like an increase in corruption cases and general loss of ethical values, said Bhagavanji Ryanji of Janhit manch, an NGO which has filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the issue of speedier justice for the common man and reforms in the judicial system.
The Supreme Court in a 2002 order had directed all state governments to increase the number of judges from the current abysmal strength of 10 per million population to at least 50 judges per million population.
But till the date none of the states have adhered to this order. While countries like USA has 107 judges per million population, the UK has 51 judges per million and Canada has 76 judges per million. India is nowhere near this figure, Ryanji said.
Activists said that the delay in implementing the Supreme Courts recommendations and lack of effective will to initiate reforms within the judicial system is one of the main reasons for the rise in pending cases.
The lawyers cite frivolous reasons for adjournment and in many cases arguments actually begin only after both the parties have filed affidavits and applications in the court. By the time the case gets extended for almost a year, Chetan Kothari, who filed an RTI query on the pendency issue, said.
Former IPS officer-turned-lawyer Y P Singh said when the case comes for hearing the judges should be in a position to hear arguments directly. And as in other countries, a deadline should be set for each case and it should be disposed within that time frame. The counsels should not be allowed to argue endlessly for years together.