ONE MORE SUPREME COURT?
AUTHOR: PRANEET PRAKASH NAMBIAR,
SYMBIOSIS LAW SCHOOL,PUNE
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ABSTRACT
The whole research topic will be dealing with whether there should be one more supreme court in our country or not. As there are many advantages of Supreme Court, there are many disadvantages to it as well. However, our judicial system faces certain inherent problems, which show the weakness and defects of the system, which requires immediate reforms and accountability.
Taking the example of the Indian jail most of the prisoners are under trials, who are confined to the jails until their case comes to a definite conclusion. In most of the cases they end up spending more time in the jail than the actual term that might have been awarded to them had the case been decided on time assuming against them.
According to the statistics of the supreme court of India there are round about 56,694 cases pending till date. The research paper is going to deal with why there should be one more supreme court in our country by analysing the drawbacks in our judicial system and why it is so necessity to have one more supreme court in our country.
The research analyses the drawbacks, all the possible factors possible involved in the delay of the justice, and it is compared to the effectiveness of the fast track courts and how effective it is given justice to the people in the country. There is a whole analysis that deals with what are the factors and the reason for the delay of justice and the burden and pressure on the Supreme Court to dispose of all the pending and backlog cases. Then we come into a conclusion and further suggestion and recommendation is given for an effective function of the supreme court of India.
II. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The research paper aims to fulfill the following objectives:
- Firstly, the whole aim is to know whether India needs one more Supreme Court or not.
- Then we see how the supreme court of India was originated.
- Then the research paper aims to see the power and how the Supreme Court of India functions.
- Then the aim of the research paper is to see why the Supreme Court takes a lot of time to give justice. Where we analyse on all the possible factors for the delay of justice.
- Then the research paper analyses the burden the Supreme Court is undergoing.
- Few case laws which deals with delayed justice.
- The research also sees how effective the fast track court were in dealing with cases.
- The research paper comes into a conclusion and sorts to recommend ways to ensure ways to overcome delay in justice.
BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION
On 26th January 1950, the supreme court of India came into existence and it was located on Tilak Marg, New Delhi. The Supreme Court came into its being after 2 days of India being a Sovereign Democratic. The inaugural of the Supreme Court took place in the chamber of princes where the federal court of India was situated before for 12 years between 1937 to 1950.
Ensuring that the rules and regulations of the Supreme Court were published, all the agents, and the advocates were given their role. After the inauguration, the Supreme Court commenced its sitting in the part of the parliament house. Later after 8 years in 1958, the Supreme Court shifted to the current building. At the start, there were round about 15 courts present in all the wings of the building and the chief justice of India’s court is considered to be as the biggest room in the building that is situated in the centre of the central wing.
The Supreme Court of India consist of chief justice and the president of India appoints 30 judges and them all. The judge of the supreme is restricted from practicing in any court of law or before any other authority of India. The proceeding of the court take place in English and the practices and the procedures of the Supreme Court are framed under article 145 of the Indian constitution.
There are 31 judges including the chief justice of India in the Supreme Court that has been clearly stated under Article 124(1) and under Article 124(2), it has been stated that the President of India will appoint the judges after consulting with judges present in the Supreme Court as well as in the high court. The system where the lawyers and the judges are elevated from the district and high court to the apex court where the panel will include the chief justice of India and four seniors most judges of the Supreme Court and the system is known as the collegium system.
POWER AND FUNCTION OF THE SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court of India has a lot of functions and powers. It has its original jurisdiction as whichever cases come directly to the Supreme Court and settles all the disputes amongst the state and central and anything related to the fundamental right the supreme court of India considers everything. In case of appeal, the certificate from the high court is necessary on the request of the parties or by their own. In case where the accused is sentenced for death or for imprisonment more than 10 years the accused can directly approach the supreme court of India.
The Supreme Court can review any judgement even the judgement given by the court itself and withdraw it at any point of time if they feel that if any important question of law is being involved.
Objectives of the judicial review are as follows:
Objectives of the judicial review are as follows:
1) Safeguard the fundamental rights of the citizens of India.
2) To maintain equilibrium between the legislature and the executive.
3) Constitutional equilibrium amongst the state and the centre.
Through judicial review, they act as a guard to all the fundamental rights of the citizens of the people in t
he country.
The Supreme Court has the advisory jurisdiction where the president of India is authorised to take legal advice from the Supreme Court. They are divided into 2 categories:
a. Any matter related to the public importance
b. Any matter or any question arising out of pre-constitution, agreement or any other instruments.
The supreme court of India successfully considered as the guardian of the constitution as we all the guardian of the fundamental rights of the people because it has been proved in many of the judgements. In many of the famous cases such as:
· K.M. Nanavati v. The State of Bombay[1]
· A.K. Gopalan v. The State of Madras[2]
· K.M. Menon v. The State of Bombay[3]
V. REASONS FOR LATE JUSTICE
There are crores and crores of cases pending in all the courts and many cases are still pending since last 10 years. Every year round about five crore cases are filed in the all the court of India and out 50% cases are still pending.
REASONS FOR PEOPLE TO APPROACH THE COURT
As per the Supreme Court, statistics until 1.07.2019 there are round about 59,695 cases pending before the Supreme Court. However, our judicial system faces certain inherent problems, which show the weakness and defects of the system, which requires immediate reforms and accountably. One of the main reasons for the people to approach the court for every possible matter is the awareness created amongst the people about their rights and this has given courage to the common person to approach the court for justice.
LACK OF EFFICIENCY
There are very few courts in our country for 133.92cr and counting population in the country. There is a lack of resources there with Supreme Court that leads to inefficiency of the functioning of the Supreme Court and both the central as well as the state is not taking initiative to increase the resources. Our country need more benches as well at the same time they need more and more courts to accommodate all these benches.
Due to lack of efficiency and low quality in the courts, a lot and lot of cases are appealed in the higher courts that increase the number of cases pending in the court. This is due the lack specialization and lack of accountability at the end of the district court judges and lack of effort by the Indian judiciary that did not invest on the resources that will increase the efficiency of the courts. The whole of the budget allocated to the Indian judiciary is very less.
NUMBER OF JUDGES
The main reason for the number of judges as well the courts cannot be increased because is because the centre is not taking any effort. The 43rdchief justice of India SC Chief Justice Thakur had played an important role in increasing the number of judges from 21,000 to 40,000 judges. He has also stated that the centre had not taking any initiative in this.
The former chief justice of India had proposed in 2014 that the courts should work throughout the year instead of having long vacations. However, the proposal was not at all effective, as they had come into a conclusion that the judges will go for vacation separately at different period during the year as per the judge’s choice. However, the Bar council of India had not agreed to any of the proposal finally as it would create a huge effect on the advocates work who are working throughout the year.
DELAY IN APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES
Delay in the appointments of judge’s play an important in the delay of justice. There are only few judges in our country for the population we have. There are round about 13.05 judges per million in which is increases the burden on the part of the Supreme Court judges. For clearing, all the backlog cases there need to be adequate amount of judges and courts. In the Indian judicial system there a lot of vacancies pending which ends up affecting the efficiency. In Advocates on Record Association v. Union of India and others[4]it was held that the chief justice of India must initiate the appointment of the Supreme Court judge. According to the norms mentioned, the vacancy of the judges should be filled within 6 months from date of the retirement of the judge but it highly followed.
DELAY IN DECISION AND DELIVERING JUDGEMENTS
There are judges who do not deliver judgements for years and years and the Malimath committee considered this. The foreign studies also have proved there is not only one reason for the courts and judges to delays the judgements there many reason for the delays and backlogs. There are a lot of burdensome procedures and there not enough courts to deals with such cases and there such matter which end up going into the court where they could be sorted out by negotiation this can sum up to judicial delays.
The delays caused by the court low quality judgement and the corruption the judicial system. Beside from all this following are the reason for delays caused by the Supreme Court:
- Adm
inistrative staffs role in the judicial system - The judges are not properly equipped to tackle all the cases because lack of specialization knowledge.
- In adequate number of courts present in the country to deal with all the cases pending.
- Lack of accountability in the lower court that leads to appeals in the apex court and leads to the delay and backlogs of all the cases in the Supreme Court.
According to the Union, minister on India Ravi Shankar Prasad there no shortages of judges in Supreme Court. The delays for all the pendency and the backlog of cases according to him is:
- Increase in the number of states
- Revision of appeals
- Long vacation
- Accumulation of all the pending appeals
WORKING HOURS
One of the most debatable topics can be the too many vacations in the Supreme Court. In many other countries there in no provision for long vacation for the court but in India there are so many long vacation which lead to a lot of pendency of cases and this has been argued at the national level. The table below lists out the working days and time of all the courts in India.
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COURTS
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WORKING
DAYS
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TIMINGS
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Supreme Court
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185 days a year
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The judges only work for 4 and half hours from 10:30am to 4:30pm including a 1 hour lunch break
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High Court
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210 days a year
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The judges only work for 5 hours from 10:30am to 4:30pm including a 1-hour lunch break.
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District Court
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240 days a year
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The judges only work for 4 and half hours from 10:30am to 5pm including a 45mins lunch break.
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When there are round, about millions and millions of cases pending the court totally gets five vacation throughout the year. The supreme court of India roundabout have 45 days of summer vacation and 15 days of winter break and rest all small holidays which end up in a big gap. The ministry of law should take serious and appropriate actions against this and should implement the recommendation of the law commission that states that according to the Report no.221, 245 and 230 the courts in India should function for 225 days and for 6 hours per day.
The apex court of India is functioning for a very less period during the year, as they are main hope for justice to the whole country. The situation has caused a lot of burden to the Supreme Court and now the court should do away with such long vacation and start focussing of the pending cases. The number of working days in the apex court can literally be counted which leads to monotonous backlog cases i
n the country.
n the country.
The issue of delay of cases is not the new problem of India it has existed for years and years. There are endless amendments of laws that is one of the main reasons for the delay in the justice. These endless amendments makes it difficult for everyone to get used to it or get adapted to the law which makes the court procedure very slow and this again leads to delay of the procedures.
BURDEN ON THE SUPREME COURT
The supreme court of India is bound to deliver verdicts that change the mentality of the society as change the society as a whole.as already stated above there are round about 59,695 cases pending in the Supreme Court. Taking this perspective into consideration the supreme court of India have decided not to consider any more cases. Assuming that the supreme continuing the pace as followed in 2017 it will take two more years for them to clear of all the cases. The whole reason for the problem to arise lie on the India judiciary’s backlog system. In the high court there are 4 million cases approximately pending. This will cause many issues in the coming future for the people in India, as they will lose all their trust for the Indian judiciary as so many cases are being pending and this will lead to delay in justice.
According to the legal scholars from the year 2005 to 2017 that the supreme court of India is mainly focusing on appeals from the high court. 93% of the judgement dealt by the Supreme Court are appeal cases from the lower courts and high court that is why there is a lot of burden of the Supreme Court and this leads to the backlog and pendency of cases. The Supreme Court of India takes up all the appeal cases, as it is the apex court and they feel that the lower court and high court are incompetent and very corrupt and their motive is provide justice to everyone without any unethical issues.
In 229th law commission, report it proposed that there should be more and more benches to deal with appeal cases, which reduce the burden on the Supreme Court as a whole and it, has been stated in the amendment that there should be regional Supreme Court separately to deal with all the appeal cases.
Since 2010 according to Justice Rajan Gogoi had stated there were round about 750 petitions filed which were very defective and despite a lot of instruction given by the registrar still the petition is lying behind the court.
The court has literally observed that there have been petition that have been not rectified from last 10 years. These that have not been rectified by the advocates and the people whom have filed and have caused unwanted pressure on the Supreme Court and this leads to more and more burden on the Supreme Court.
All the cases should be given equal importance by the apex court and in name of burden of disposing of the all, the pending and backlog cases; the court should not stop following its procedures. The court should give more preference to the high-class case where there is a question of law and where a question of fundamental right of the citizen of India is involved. As the court acts as the guardian of the fundamental right if should be given more preference.
CASES WITH DELAYED JUSTICE
1) Bhopal Gas Tragedy[5]
In this case round about five lakh people were injured and approximately 4000 people had passed ay due this major gas leak. The recent study also have stated that the people are still suffering after the gas tragedy. Many people who were affected in this case were still not compensated and the Chairman of the Union Carbide was never prosecuted and he got away with the case by paying of compensation where of the victims were still not even compensated. The influence of money on the judiciary can cause a lot of problem to the people in the society. It took a lot of time for the court to come into a conclusion and still it did not benefit the people. The will not have trust anymore on the judiciary system and the judiciary also the influential people.
2 Anti- Sikh Riots Case:
The people could not take up the assassination of Indira Gandhi where the public and the supporters of the congress party unleashed the violence against the Sikh community. After all this of violence and the delays on the judgements due influential power, not all the victims are getting their compensation and at the same time, they were denied of justice. Such major cases, which involved death, can cause a huge impact on the society and the citizen with not end approaching the court and in short, the citizens with end up losing hope on the judiciary, as they will have mind-set that the judiciary is bias to the influence people in the society.
These are the few very high-profile cases before the court but there still million and millions of people in the in the country who re denied of justice and apex court cannot cope up with drastic rise in the number of cases.
CONCLUSION
“Justice delayed is justice denied”, however delay of justice does not only lead denial of justice it can also lead to the concept of Rule of Law being destroyed. However, the supreme judges are considering this issue. Justice hurried is also considered to be justice buried the Supreme Court should take adequate time and not delay in such a way that the cases in the court wait for years and years.
The supreme court of India has a lot of flaws when it comes to disposing away all the backlog cases pending in the court. As we have already discussed above the burden and pressure of disposing of all the backlog cases pending in the court because it being the apex court in the country. The whole motive of the research paper is to see if the country needs one more supreme court or not and the answer to it is ‘NO’.
NO. OF WORKING DAYS
As we went about by seeing the factors involving in the delay of justice and we have noticed that the supreme court of India should have more working days in the year and less amount of vacation. This will help the court to take adequate amount of time to and there will not have any kind of pressure to dispose and will not have very tediou
s targets which might lead to other factors.
s targets which might lead to other factors.
SPEEDY TRIAL
As we have already seen about how the fast track courts go about where they dispose of the cases at a very good speed, but they do not follow most of the procedure that is the key factor to be given for the justice. If this continues to happen, it will lead to more and more appeals, and if the Supreme Court follows the same procedure then it will lead to a big issue especially the high cases. The cases which deals with fundamental rights of the of citizen , straight away the question of law will arise in from of the supreme court as it being the apex court of India.
We can conclude it by stating that there is no point of having one more supreme court in the country as the whole budget allotted to the Indian Judiciary is very less that obviously be considered as waste investment whereas there should more and more recruitment of judges and there should be more working days during the year. The Supreme Court is taking serious initiative and the Supreme Court amendment bill was passed by the parliament where the judge’s strength was increased from 3o to 33 besides the chief justice of India.
V
RECOMMENDATION
Other than the basic recommendation given by every common man in the country that are commonly known to all of us these are the following unique recommendation.
Case management
This system of case management has not yet been introduced in India. In the United States of America, the system of case, management is introduced and it has been stated that rather than waiting for the matter to be presented to the council they should sit and analyse the issue and anticipate the problem. This will end up reducing the burden of the supreme court of India. Case management can be used as an appropriate tool for increasing efficiency of the courts if there are proper rules and regulations implemented and it will be easy to dispose of all the cases and there will not be any pendency and backlog cases.
Accountability at the lower court
There should be more accountability at the lower court and more and more efficiency at the lower, which will lower the number of appeal cases in the Supreme Court and the burden of the Supreme Court as well the pending cases that are going on for years and years, will not be pending anymore. There should be more transparency and more efficiency at the lower court that reduce the word burden on the upper court easily.
The supreme court of India is taking serious action against all this and all the possible recommendation will be implemented in the coming future.
I REFERENCES
SITES
www.manupatra.com
https://sci.gov.in/statistics
https://legaldesire.com/status-of-fast-track-courts-in-india/
http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l317-Justice-Delayed-is-Justice-Denied.html
http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/adr_conf/Mayo%20Rao%20case%20mngt%203.pdf
BARE- ACTS
Constitution of India
BOOKS
Constitution of India – VM Shukla
ARTICLES and REPORTS
Case Management and its Advantages
Justice delayed is Justice denied
Statistics of Supreme Court
FOOTNOTE:
[1] 1962 AIR 605
[2] AIR 1950 SC 27
[3] 1952 AIR 128
[4] (2005) 6 SCC 344
[5] Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India and ors.