By Tarunkumar G. Singhal, Raman Jokhakar; Chartered Accountants
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In the year 2016 Indians deserve a modern and streamlined judicial system. Instead what they are stuck with is a deficient structure groaning under a great pendency of cases. And the crisis only seems to be worsening, as a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur has accused government of bringing the judiciary to a standstill by stalling judges’ appointments.
This eyeball to eyeball confrontation is part of a prolonged battle over the procedure to appoint judges. While the judicial collegium is criticised for opacity and favouritism, the National Judicial Appointments Commission, which envisaged a broader panel to choose judges and was passed by Parliament, was struck down by the apex court in October 2015.
The longer government and the collegium take to finalise a new memorandum of procedure to appoint HC and SC judges, the more citizens awaiting justice suffer. In practical terms, the high courts are now operating with 44.3% vacancies; pendency has risen to four million cases.
Any attempt at securing justice is an ordeal on its own, and financially ruinous for many people. As the CJI himself has noted, “By the time an appeal can be heard, the accused would already have served a life sentence.” Clearly the current clash of wills between the executive and the judiciary has only worsened matters. Remember that appointments had also remained frozen for nearly a year when the apex court scrutinised the constitutional validity of the proposed NJAC. Instead of wallowing on their respective sides of the legal logjam, both government and the judiciary must show much more teamsmanship – not only to finalise a new procedure to appoint judges but also to implement broader reforms to remedy judicial delays.
(Source: The Times of India dated 15-08-2016)
