When everyone and every institution have failed to cater to the people of India, only the judiciary has time and again saved us. Now the judiciary faces some of the toughest challenges ever. The UK Telegraph forecasts a gloomy future for the Indian judiciary. 25 million civil and criminal cases are pending trial in the lower courts; 3.7 million cases remain for the 35 high courts in the country.

Three thousand vacancies for Judges’ positions have few takers for the pay of a judge is abysmal while the workload is unbearable. Then, there are security risks associated with the job. It is as if, the Government has forgotten the plight of the Indian judiciary.

When none bothers about the judges, we cannot possibly expect anyone to remember the cramped unhygienic prisons. After all, prisoners do not have the right to vote and hence are treated inhumanly. We should not forget that a society is known by how it treats its powerless citizens. In such a situation, it is natural that most cases end up being settled after the litigants’ deaths.

What is unnatural in the whole fiasco is the apathy of the Legislature towards the judiciary and prisons. There is a constant stress by the Legislature on the need for judicial accountability. Should we be blaming judges for sometimes becoming human when their treatment by society is so callous? In the case of the Mumbai bomb blasts, for example, we are so focused on the victims that we hardly take time to remember the death threats that hang on the presiding judge.

We need a three pronged strategy to clean up this mess: firstly, we need to increase and inflation-adjust the pay that judges receive. This will attract the best minds to law.

Secondly, frivolous cases should be screened right at the start by lawyers, thrown out of the courts and steep penalties should be imposed on such litigants. One reason why our courts are chocking form litigations is this fad of taking each and every little contentious issue to the courts.

Lastly, Legislators at the central and state levels should be made accountable to the public. Too many civil disputes which can be easily solved if our political leaders were half as much proactive as our judges are clogging the judiciary.

Empowered judges will automatically hasten prison-reforms. It is not only the judiciary who has to suffer because of the proverbial ’system’ but also such officers of the law like Kiran Bedi. If the judges start leaving their services like her, then there is no saving us. The situation is spiraling out of control fast’

Image: GBGM

Via: UK Telegraph