To, 16/10/2018
Hon’ble Justice Ranjan
Gogoi,
Chief Justice of
India,
New Delhi.
Subject:
Practical Suggestions for Reducing the Huge Pendency of Cases in Indian
Courts of Law through Easy and Feasible Judicial Reforms.
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;
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 as per present
Constitutional/Statutory provisions could bring valuable reforms in present
Judicial system.
3. That
public faith and trust on fairness and independency of Judiciary guarantees the equitable and sustainable
development of the society, absence/deterioration of which erodes the natural
rights of all the citizens of democratically ruled societies like India, where as
per National Judicial Data Grid statistics on October 16, 2018, the total 2,78,42,530 numbers of cases
are pending in various district courts, means thereby that at least 8 Crore
citizens always remain in judicial loop of Lower Courts(an average of three person per case).
4. That
on the basis of experiences of litigants and Advocates, including all stake
holders of Justice Delivery system duly documented by our analytical researches
on “Huge Pendency of Cases in Indian Courts of Law ” warrant urgent improvisation
for enhancing public faith and trust on fairness and independency of Judiciary
by urgently reducing the pendency over Indian Courts .
5. That
as per our Analytical research and majority of litigants and their lawyers
shared with our researchers that huge pendency of Cases in Indian Courts of
Law is because of following reasons :
a) Non
prioritization of cases for early adjudication ignoring the Case Flow
Management Rules.
b) Inadequate
numbers of
Judges vis-a-vis pendency
c) Multiplication
of same cases for same cause of action.
d) Not
honouring the intent of legislature for excluding the jurisdiction of Civil
Courts in adjudicating the cases emerging out of certain governing acts.
e) Still
existence of colonial way to serve court process like notice/ summons instead
of ICT enabled process like email in cases there is official email address
available.
f) Uncalled Adjournments for filling Written
Statement/reapplications, adducing the evidences and for advancing arguments
during trials.
6. That
the Non
prioritization of cases is the one of
main causes of huge backlog of cases in Lower Courts, as
per analytical research synchronized with ground reports gathered by our
research team, clearly suggests that on October 15, 2018 out of the
total 2,78,42,530 numbers of cases pending in various district courts, 22,88,535
(8.22%) cases are pending for more than 10 years, despite the fact that various
high Courts have already passed Case Flow Management Rules which provide
prioritization of cases. As per our analytical research 53 % of total cases
pending for more than 10 years are in the State of Uttar Pradesh and
Maharashtra, where the Case Flow Management Rules have not been framed/passed
and in absence of which we cannot imagine clearing the backlog of 8.22% of
total pendency where justice has been delayed for more than 10 years. On this
aspect we at AJRI humbly suggest you in the interest of justice to ask all
those high Courts which have not framed the Case Flow Management Rules till
date to frame these rules and implement these rules in true letter and
spirit.
7. That
inadequate numbers of Judges vis-a-vis pendency is second main reason stated to
be for huge pendency in Indian Courts of law. On this aspect we want to
respectfully suggest that appointments of judges in Lower judiciary may kindly
be initiated in those states urgently which are largely contributing 50 percent
in pendency like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar
etc.
8. That
the multiplication of cases for same cause of actions is the third major
reasons for huge pendency in District Courts. Our research study on this aspect
fortified that some litigants/ lawyers unethically filed various cases emerging
out of same cause of action in different courts, and courts even knowing these
facts do not initiate to club all these cases in one competent court, which not
only hike the pendency but also complicate the adjudication in case of conflict
judgments by various courts on same cause of action. On this aspect we want to
submit that strict action should be taken for causing pendency by
multiplication of cases, and registry at district Courts level should be unified
under one local computer network so that it can check the multiplication of
cases for same cause of action at time of filing, as such now this is no option
for registry to check multiplication at time of filling thus this aspect is
also adding uncalled pendency over Indian Courts and seriously hampering the
cause of Justice more then only pendency issue.
9. That
the section
9 of CPC puts bar on civil courts to hear the cases which are barred by the
provisions of various special acts despite this bar, all district Courts are
flooded with cases where cases are filed ignoring the above mentioned
provisions and same remained pending for years even this aspect have been
brought into notice of concerned courts on first instance which is a also major
causes of pendency in Indian Lower Courts. On this aspect we at AJRI conducted
a research study which suggests that in cases where jurisdiction of civil
courts is barred by the law, the majority of districts courts do not decide the
question of jurisdiction on the first instance before proceeding further into
full-fledged trial, which creates unnecessary pendency, which could be avoided
if same is decided on initial stage rather than after full-fledged trails. It
is humbly suggested that all Courts of Law should be directed to decide the
questions of jurisdiction if same is barred by law first before proceeding
full-fledged trial.
10. That
as per experiences of litigants, their lawyers which is well synchronized
with our research suggest that if a case
takes one year from its first hearing to final judgment majority of time
consume in serving the notices to respondents and filing written statements which
can be saved by strict implementation of existing law, as your lordship knows
that the amendment of Order-V of Code of Civil Procedure through which the
services of summons may be transmitted through fax message or electronic mail
service but the same has not been become reality in district courts as well as
in the High Courts. And in case of delay in filing written statements beyond
the stipulated timeline, strict directions may be issued to all courts of law
and lawyers for adhering to the stipulated timeline for filing the written
statements as per CPC.
11. That
uncalled adjournments have become the public presumption about in Indian Courts
of Law, which must be rectified urgently for further enhancing the faith and
trust on Justice Delivery system, on this aspect it is suggested in the
interest of fair justice that maximum numbers of adjournments in a case may be
fixed which either of parties may avail during a case. If this suggestion
is implemented it would not
only reduce the pendency and also correct the public presumption about uncalled
adjournments.
Keeping in view above
submitted suggestions, we request you that
in case suggestive measures 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 prevailing in the world.
Dinesh
Singh Rawat Mrs.
Jatinder Kaur
Trustee
Managing Trustee
Copies to All Hon’ble
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
No comments:
Post a Comment