To,
19/05/2020
Hon'ble Mr. Justice
Sharad Arvind Bobde,
The Chief
Justice of India,
New Delhi.
Subject:
Suggestions for turning COVID-19 Pandemic into a blessing in disguise
for Indian Justice Delivery System.
Reference to the subject mentioned above, we on the behalf of our trust
the Association for Judicial Reforms, India (AJRI), want to humbly submit the
following submissions for kind consideration of lordship for enhancing public
faith and trust on fairness and independency of Judiciary during Covid-19
Pandemic:
1. That
our Trust, Association for Judicial Reforms ,India (AJRI) is working for the
cause of Judicial Reforms by suggesting practical ways to all the stakeholders
of Justice Delivery System based on public experiences and analytical legal
researches.
2. That
as our Trust believes that evolution of present Judicial system within its
jurisdictions is the best suited methodology to bring judicial reforms in
India, we at AJRI work for documenting the public experiences of
litigants/lawyers and synergize these with analytical researches carried out by
our researchers, to suggest only those practical ways, which if implemented in
accordance with the present Constitutional/Statutory provisions will bring valuable
reforms in the present Judicial system.
3. That
on 06/04/2020, the Hon’ble Supreme Court speaking through your lordship,
Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice L.Nageswara Rao issued various directions
evoking the jurisdiction of article 142 of Constitution of India in Suo Motu Writ Petition No.5/2020 for
assuring access to justice during COVID-19 pandemic by adopting new ways.
4. That
above mentioned directions mandated all stakeholders of Indian Justice Delivery
System to adopt the two sets of novel approaches for keeping access to justice
open even during the most severest catastrophic situations, the first set of
directions are regarding the behavioral changes which are required to be
adopted by all, under changed situations, and second set of directions are
about the usage of digital technologies in accessing justice and delivering
justice.
5. That
we at AJRI suggest your goodself, the two sets of practicable suggestions for
urgent implementation for securing the Rule of Law during the COVID-19 pandemic
Lockdown, and further propose your goodself for continuance of the same, even
after normalcy regained. These suggestions if implemented would reduce uncalled
the public gatherings in Indian Courts on one hand and will further enhance the
sanctity in judicial proceedings.
6. That
as per AJRI analytical research synchronized with ground reports gathered by
our research team, clearly suggests that, India has 2,500 court complexes housing more than 15,000 Courts,
further our research indicates that around 15, 00,000 cases come for
consideration daily in the Lower Courts. The Civil Cases Vs Criminal Cases ratio in Indian Courts is 1: 2.5, The CrPC mandates the presence
of complainant and accused in hearings of criminal cases, keeping. in view of
aforesaid legal provisions and general tendency of Indian litigants, more than 2.5 million litigants usually
attend Indian lower courts daily in congested court complexes, apart from
litigants, the Indian lower courts complexes hold around 15, 00,000 (2500x500)
lawyers and their support staff whole of the day.
7. That
under above inscribed scenario, where around four million people attend Indian
lower courts in a day, maintaining the social distancing would be a cumbersome
work for authorities, on this issue AJRI wants to suggest that, the Lower
courts should direct all lawyers to compete the procedural legal works like,
filings of the written statements, the reapplications, the written replies and
the written arguments in civil cases. And in criminal side, where cases are
pending for arguments, these cases should be taken on priority basis and
lawyers should be directed to file their written arguments in the support of
their respective cases in accordance with section 314 of CrPC, prior to
granting them opportunities for oral arguments, which will one on side enable
judges to decide the cases quickly and on other side, it will minimize the
duration of physical presence of lawyers and accused in the courts.
8. That
further AJRI suggests your lordship to issue direction to all judges irrespective
of status of courts, for utilizing the lockdown period to write down the
judgments in all those cases, which are pending for order/judgments and upload
the copies of same in e-court website. If these steps are taken then it would
prevent litigants to visit courts complexes for above mentioned purposes in
future.
9. That
the situation in the Higher Judiciary including the Supreme Court of India is
critical, wherein 26 Court Complexes hold more than 65,000 (26x2500) lawyers
and their support staff daily, apart from these, approximately same number of
litigants attend various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India daily. On
this onset, we at AJRI suggest your goodself to first start telecasting live
streaming of Court proceedings of The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and all
High Courts in accordance with the directions dated September 26, 2018
issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Writ Petition (civil) No. 1232 of 2017 Titled Swapnil Tripathi Vs Supreme Court of India.
10. That
the telecasting of the live streaming of Court proceedings in the High Courts
and in The Supreme Courts will endorse the existing provisions of the Rule 1,
Order 20 of CPC and section 353 of CrPC and it will also reduce the litigants
physically presence in the courts.
11. That
the telecasting of the live streaming of Court proceedings in the lower Courts
is not feasible right now in absence of basic infrastructure required, like
uninterrupted power supply, ultra speed internet etc. in all district Court
Complexes. Once capacity will be created at all district level Courts, then
lessons learnt from the Higher Courts of India can be replicated in all the
district lower courts after customized the same as per the local situations.
12. That
the people are isolated at homes, travel is restricted, the right for accessing
justice has been impaired, as majority of citizens in the locked situations are
not able to engage lawyers and nor they have any other option to access justice
in case rule of law infringed in their vicinity (especially in rural India),
and not normally come into the notice of Indian Justice Delivery system through
media or through other limited legal window. On this aspect we at AJRI want to
suggest your goodself that all the Higher Courts including the Hon’ble Supreme
Court should release email addresses /other digital options for citizens, where
they can send their grievances directly to the respective High Courts or even
to the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. This suggestion, if implemented urgently
will open an additional window for accessing the Justice Delivery during this
COVID-19 pandemic, which will also widen the suo motu jurisdictions of Indian
Justice Delivery system.
13. That
the move of conducting the court proceedings through virtual Court mode is a
welcome step for transforming the Indian Justice delivery from files to fiber
technologies, but the early feedback of the virtual Court mode suggest that,
even at the High Courts and the Supreme Court levels, the mode is at its
infancy stages that CISCO’s Webx is an approved videoconferencing app but still
Whatsapp is being used frequently while court proceedings in case of the
approved CISCO’s Webx fails.
14. That
majority of lawyers who experienced the virtual courts despite various
technological hurdles welcomed the initiative of opening of the virtual Courts
for keeping the Justice delivery system moving even during the COVID-19
pandemic. Majority of lawyers advocated that, directly opening the virtual
Courts for all lawyers, irrespective of their technological aptitude would be
detrimental to their professional standings and would also be a great injustice
with the litigants and ultimately to the cause of justice. On this aspect, We
at AJRI suggests your goodself that, as concept of the virtual Courts in India is
at its trial stage, and during this stage it should be tried with only those
lawyers who are fully tech savvy that too after inviting their willingness to
join virtual courts and once trial period will end, then a Standard Operating
Procedure for Virtual Courts could be released after augmenting the general
legal aptitude of a lawyer with available digital technologies.
15. That
We at AJRI suggests your good-self that apart from Virtual Courts ,help of a new
technology called the virtual reality technology could be taken, which is easier
for even non tech savvy judges and lawyers in conducting virtual court
proceedings.
16. That
the COVID-19 pandemic mitigation strategy warrants the social distancing as a
main defence against COVID-19, but bringing this sudden behavioral change is
not a easy to carried out until we take help of behavioral science, which says
human lives are in constant state of changes but these changes went unnoticed
until it was over and done. It can suddenly become habits, once you do or see something
new that you’re never had before, or like you, quit doing something you've done
forever. The move initiated by your goodself, easing the dress protocol for
Judges and Advocates will surely bring desired behavioral changes towards the
social distancing. On this Aspect, We at AJRI suggests you that during COVID-19
pandemic all the judicial complexes in India should be cleansed and sanitized
to the next level and giving them a new look, as this new look will always
remind all the stakeholders of the Indian Justice delivery system for
maintaining the social distancing in court Complexes.
17. That,AJRI
humbly request your goodself that, if the above mentioned suggestions are
implemented during COVID-19 pandemic, will not ease pressure on judicial
authorities to maintain social distancing in court complexes during the
COVID-19 menace, but also in post COVID-19 it may bring decisive judicial
reforms in Indian Justice Delivery System.
Keeping in view the above
mentioned humble submissions it is kindly requested to consider the suggested
suggestions in the interest of justice, in case of suggestive measure are
positively implemented in the interest of fairness an independency of Indian
Judiciary, assistance from our side is always at the disposal of one of fairest
and independent justice delivery systems in prevailing world.
Dinesh Singh Rawat Mrs. Jatinder Kaur
Trustee Managing Trustee
Copies
to All Hon’ble Judges of The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India & Chief Justice
of High Courts with humble request for considering of submissions made in our
communication in the interest of Justice.
Dinesh Singh Rawat
Mrs. Jatinder Kaur
Trustee Managing Trustee
Enclosure: Copies of Earlier Suggestions for Judicial
Reforms suggested by AJRI to former Chief Justices of India
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