Last month I received a letter with enclosures from an unlikely person, Mr. Bhagvanji Raiyani, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Forum for Fast Justice, Mumbai. The introductory letter says:
"We are an NGO, spearheading the movement of judicial reforms and accountability under the project named, SAVE JUDICIARY - SAVE NATION…….

You will appreciate that it is the first time since independence that any organisation has taken up such a movement on a massive scale for putting the justice delivery system on its right track. It is the duty of all well meaning citizens and the media which is a watchdog for good governance in judiciary too.

We are sure your paper will certainly come forward to take the patriotic lead for awakening the people in the interest of justice and democracy."

Yes, Mr. Raiyani. I agree. But do you know in India Judiciary is a Holy Cow? Like the King who can do no wrong, so is Judiciary in India. It is the "Contempt of Court" power of the Judges which keeps the media watchdog away from criticising Judiciary.

The message conveyed in a printed leaflet is addressed to all well meaning and concerned citizens of this country saying that "Justice delayed is justice denied." It urges people to join in a mass movement to rejuvenate the Judiciary. It says that by saving Judiciary, we can save our nation from becoming a Jungle Raj of corrupt and criminal people, politicians and bureaucrats. It is for this reason, at present, judicial intervention is the only hope for saving the nation from the evil forces.

But what happens if Judiciary itself is corrupt and incompetent?

At present, if a case is filed, the judgment may not come during the lifetime of the petitioner. When our lawmakers and the law enforcers (the government) fail to give justice or fail to perform their duty, correctly and effectively, it is the Judiciary that should come to the rescue. However, at present for a common man, Judiciary has become exorbitantly costly and unconscionably time consuming. While we are proud of democracy, we are equally ashamed of our Judiciary being the slowest and the costliest in the world. Here is a fact sheet.

The Supreme Court's calendar for 2007 says that out of 365 days a year, the Supreme Court has only 176 working days. The remaining 189 days are holidays. The judicial system at present cannot be accessed or availed by the weak and the poor, partly because of its complex procedure, which can be accessed only through a lawyer who is prohibitively expensive to a common man. To add to this problem, even after going to the Court, the evil of adjournments drag the case to infinity, just denying justice to the litigants. Everyone knows the adage that “Justice delayed is justice denied”. But nobody does anything about this problem.

The goal of the Forum For Fast Justice is to ensure that all cases from the lowest court to the Supreme Court should be disposed off within two years.

Well, this seems to be a pipe - dream of an optimist. Of course, if it happens, it will raise the moral standards of the people in general, reduce economic offenses, avoid financial defaults, bring down criminal tendency among the people and politicians apart from saving the colossal waste of man power and material resources.

Please remember that under Article 21 of our Constitution, relating to Life and Liberty of Citizens, speedy justice is also a fundamental right that will bring good governance, promote peace, harmony and prosperity among the vast multitude of our people. Hence the need for judicial reforms. It is not as if successive governments were not aware of the need for reformation in Judiciary. The Law Commission of India is entrusted with this responsibility and in the last 50 years has submitted over 200 reports to the government which are gathering dust.

The Law Commission in its 125th Report, among other things like two shifts for courts, had also suggested setting up of a Bench in the South. However, this did not find favour with the Supreme Court which is understandable, because no judge would like to move South from the power centre Delhi. This was the same reason why our Karnataka High Court too was reluctant to have a Circuit Bench in Dharwad to help the litigants of North Karnataka.

According to the Chief Justice of India, our country needs an additional 10,000 Courts (Times of India, dated 7.2.2009). Again according to the Chief Justice of India, there are 3 crore 80 lakh cases pending in our Law Courts and to clear the backlog we need 77,000 judges. A Public Interest Litigation is pending on judicial reforms in the Supreme Court which has ordered issue of notice to the Union government to file its affidavit. The Law Commission has suggested setting up of a Judicial Commission empowered to evaluate and try an errant judge and on its recommendation, the President of India to be empowered to remove the judge held guilty by the Judicial Commission. Alas, as could be expected nobody would like to suffer a self - inflicted wound. The Judiciary, it is learnt has opposed this suggestion of a Judicial Commission which is thought of to overcome the present difficulty in impeaching a corrupt or a rogue judge by our Parliament.

It is here that Mr. M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Law and Justice, comes into focus.

It seems Mr. Bhagvanji Raiyani met Rahul Gandhi on Jan.16, 2009 and requested that the Congress manifesto may include the setting up of a Judicial Reforms Commission. As Veerappa Moily was the party's Manifesto Committee Chairman, Rahul Gandhi suggested the matter be discussed with Mr. Moily. As a result, the manifesto mentioned that the party would pursue the setting up of Judicial Reforms Commission. By a fine coincidence, Veerappa Moily has now become the Union Minister for Law and Justice, raising the hopes in the matter of setting up of the Judicial Reforms Commission.

Mr. Moily indeed has many grandiose plans to tune up our Judiciary. For example, he wants certain number of women judges in the Supreme Court; wants to cut down the case life in a Court to just one year; wants to ensure the government is discouraged from filing cases which increases the burden on existing Courts etc. Added to this, he is contemplating to setup four Law Schools of Excellence.

The Forum For Fast Justice has 19 suggestions in its list and one of the most important according to me relates to the amendment of laws to suit the present requirement and repealing of the decades and centuries - old statutes that are irrelevant to our present needs, but which can be invoked by a corrupt law enforcing officer or an evil government for self benefit.

And finally here is wishing all the best to the Forum For Fast Justice in its endeavour to set right our skewed Judiciary. It is hoped our Union Minister for Law and Justice, Veerappa Moily, would take the call.

For those concerned and serious citizens, here is the full address of the Forum For Fast Justice:
Kuber Bhavan, Bajaj Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai - 400056 and
the e-mail: fastjustice@gmail.com

By K. B. Ganapathy
Courtesy: Star of Mysore