Justice delayed, or justice buried

GOVERNANCE

law pending cases

 

Justice delayed, or justice buried

Speedy justice, which is a fundamental right, has been reduced to the level of classified dispensation

 

by Rakesh Bhatnagar

 

A couple of years ago, Supreme Court Justice BS Chauhan, as the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, had created ripples as he warned that with the current pace of dispensation, it would take at least 300 years to dispose of the whopping backlog of 3 crore cases. His intent was to alert the law makers, judiciary and executive of the impending danger which might hit the country due to the accelerating pace of pendency of cases. It is estimated at least one member of a family is involved some kind of a court case. It may be pointed out that even when the BJP-ruled NDA was governing the country, the then law minister, Arun Jaitley, would offer the same figure of pendency of cases, but he hastened to set up about 1,700 fast track courts, which had been able to tackle the backlog problem to some extent, as they resolved 30 lakh legal disputes pending for decades in different courts in the country.

 

Be that it was, the fast track courts have been abandoned for want of financial support and paucity of judges to man them. What’s come into being instead are the so-called fast track courts manned by designated judges, who are directed by the respective high courts to dispose of specific cases such as rape or violence against women. Speedy justice, which is a fundamental right, has been reduced to the level of classified dispensation disregarding the adage that justice delayed is justice denied or even justice hurried is justice buried...Read More