Justice has to be accessible, justice has to be equitable and justice has to be swift, in order to be meaningful. The judicial system is massive, stretching from the lower courts to the High Courts and on to the Supreme Court, writes Prof. H C Pande
“Justice must not only be done, but, must also be seen to be done”, was the dictum of Lord Hewart, Lord Chief Justice of England. Arriving in a hot country, from a cold climate across the seven seas, the idea suffered a bit of thermal expansion and the first part got elongated becoming , ‘Justice must not only be done with..’, however, the second part was spared the deformation.
The Judiciary in India has embraced the dictum in toto. Justice has been done with, and, the drama of justice being done, continues to be staged on dates after dates. Due to sheer over enthusiasm, or, may be, Mr. Justice has nothing else to do, the play is stretched to such lengths, that the spectators generally walk out even before the interval is announced, and often enough, a few expire in the hall itself, out of sheer desperation, while waiting for the final curtain to come down.
The huge backlog of cases to be heard,60 million, give or take a few million, ensures that the theatre would always run full house, no matter how bad the acting, how boring the play play, and, how cacophonous the music score.
Justice has to be accessible, justice has to be equitable and justice has to be swift, in order to be meaningful. The judicial system is massive, stretching from the lower courts to the High Courts and on to the Supreme Court. There are armies of lawyers from the Ambulance Chasers to the black silk-gowned Legal Eagles, as also battalions of Fixers and witnesses for hire. Justice is accessible in the sense that access is allowed into the run-down buildings of the lower courts, as also, into the imperial buildings of the High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Justice is equitable in the sense that,with the Black Silks arguing the case,the truth and falsehood can be made to appear equal in the eyes of the law,or,at least,those of the Judge.Justice is swift with the right Fixer.Even on a holiday a case can be admitted by Supreme Court within hours of a High Court judgement and one Bench after another can be constituted to ensure that supreme judgement is delivered the same evening.Where else in the world justice is delivered with such breakneck speed.The neck of justice gets broken in the process is another matter.
For a civilisation to develop,and,sustain the advances made,the rule of law is a pre- requisite.Be it a nation,or,a province,or,a town,the very basis of its existence is law and order.Law and order is one entity.Law codes spanning close to 4000 years,from Hammurabi to I.P.C. are not just to be contained in the law books,decorating book-shelves,but are to be enforced without moderation or loss of time,whenever the code is violated.The Judiciary has to be just,and,not just be.
With the case of the small man,entrapped in the maze of Fixer infested legal system,and,awaiting a hearing for decades,yet,the case of the Big daddy of the syndicate,political or otherwise,being heard and decided upon in next to no time,
it is time for the judiciary to introspect and ponder whether the Hon’ble Mr.Justice is enforcing the rule of law or giving in to the rule of the outlaw or that of the in-law.
The general impression is that we have a great Judicial system de jure,but,not de facto.
(Prof. H C Pande is Vice Chancellor Emeritus , BITS, Mesra)
