The judiciary

They say (don't ask me who) that a strong judiciary is a cornerstone of a democratic society. Mostly they are talking about the need for an independent judiciary that is free from political influence and is not pressurized by other elements of society. They however fail to see that an independent and impartial judiciary can also be mindblowingly ineffective, leaving a corner stone of our cherished democratic society a little loose, if not shaky. Putting someone in jail is considered a deterrent. It is something to be feared, something that shames a person, and it is something that the British rulers used effectively against Indians, until a certain person named Gandhi came along. Under his leadership, Indians successfully executed "Jail Bharo Andolan" or submitted to mass imprisonment, rendering the threat of jailing someone largely ineffective. For the last 50 years, a similar movement has rendered the Indian judiciary ineffective to the point of being non-existent. I refer to the mass backlog in Indian courts. Court cases drag on for years, preventing newer and more heinous crimes from being prosecuted. Almost anyone who has to deal with Indian judiciary knows one golden fact. Justice will be delayed no matter what. This has allowed cops to file cases that have no chance of being held up in court (They don't care, because their promotions or careers will not be impacted by the case that anyway won't come up for years). We are told that the wheels of justice turn slowly. So slow does it turn that someone walking on that wheel would never notice.

The numerous delays in court cases also causes huge national losses. Banks go to court to recover losses that 25 years later represent losses that can never be recovered , given the amount of time and energy put into those cases. Criminals roam free, largely free to eliminate witnesses or other pesky individuals who might show up on the day of reckoning. Govt. Departments file cases against other govt. Departments sometimes to settle inter-personal rivalries. Witness, facts, memories, enthusiasm all rot waiting for the day when cases are called out finally. And then comes the farce with witnesses turning hostile, and the case is dropped, for "lack of evidence".

In any professionally run company, if there are large backlogs, management won't just sit on it. They will institute measures to fix the problems or be thrown out by shareholders. Yet, in India, the shareholders get raped on a daily basis and there is not much they can do about it because the independent judiciary cannot be bothered by the people's representatives, because the political class, across the board benefits from the delays in justice.

Enough of carping. New management is in town (I will either wake up at this point, or realize that it is time to go to bed). The problem needs to be addressed. Large backlogs can be handled in a few ways.

1> Increase total working time
2> Reduce valid work to be processed.

Methinks we can do both.
1> All cases involving different govt. Departments should go to arbitration. The court system was designed to provide justice to a suffering population and not designed as a way to paralyze the working of the govt. The decision of the arbitrator would be binding on both parties.

2> All cases that are non-criminal in nature and do not involve financial amounts above a certain value should be shoved off to small claims court where the decision is binding on all parties

3> Today, the wheels of justice turn from 10-12 and 1-4. Hardly an advertisement for a fast developing nation. For a nation that is pretty much the backoffice of the world, and runs 24*7, the justice system works less than 3 hours a day on providing justice to the "masses". I propose a new slogan for the new 21st century India. "Justice 24*7. The wheels of justice never stop turning". In other words, we run 3 shifts in our courtrooms, many of which will be fully automated to cut down on the administrative aspects of the work (video terminals that bring up the case with the synopsis when they log in, auto transcription of the court record, automatic registration of the judge's attendance as well as that of the court officials). Judge records, including linking of how well a judge's decisions stood up in higher courts would form the basis for promotion. The entire court system consumes too much paper and uses the paper as an excuse to delay justice to millions across the land. Converting the system to run 24*7 in a paperless environment would provide better accountability as well as shore up that vital cog that keeps the democratic engine relevant to society.