Gram Nyayalayas: Can't have straitjacket formula for entire country, says Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said there cannot be a "straitjacket formula" for the entire country over establishment of Gram Nyayalayas as the situation would depend from state to state.

An Act passed by Parliament in 2008 provided for the establishment of Gram Nyayalayas at the grassroots level for providing access to justice to the citizens at their doorsteps and to ensure that opportunities for securing justice were not denied to anyone because of social, economic or other disabilities.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan was hearing a plea seeking a direction to the Centre and all states for taking steps to set up Gram Nyayalayas under the supervision of the apex court.

"You can't have a straitjacket formula for the entire country," the bench said.

The bench noted that the counsel appearing for the Delhi government has said that Gram Nyayalayas were not required to be established here as there were no gram panchayats in the national capital.

"The situation will depend from state to state," the bench observed, "in some of the north-eastern states, they have alternate traditional systems and therefore, the courts which are functioning in some of these states don't have enough of work".

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO National Federation of Societies for Fast Justice and others, said it was well-known as to how many cases were pending across the courts in India.

He said probably, not a single state could say the courts they have were adequate to deal with all the cases.

The bench said all these questions would have to be addressed taking into consideration state specific issues.

Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, assisting the top court as an amicus curiae, said in pursuance of the apex court's October 16 order in the matter, some states filed their affidavits giving details, including about number of Gram Nyayalayas that were established.

The bench noted some states took a stand that the Act was not mandatory, and therefore, there was no necessity for them to constitute Gram Nyayalayas.

It further said some states took a stand that though the Act was applicable to them, in view of the existing infrastructure available, it was not necessary to establish the Gram Nyayalayas.

The amicus informed the bench that in order to address the various issues, it would be necessary that answers were sought from the states on the questionnaire prepared by him.

The bench directed the chief secretaries of states to file affidavits within 12 weeks giving details about the questions mentioned in the questionnaire, which also sought details of district-wise judge to population ratio of the states.

"We clarify that in the event any of the state government fails to comply with the aforesaid directions within a period of 12 weeks from today, we shall be constrained to take serious view of the matter and take such action as deemed appropriate against the chief secretary of the state concerned," the bench said.

It posted the matter after 14 weeks.

The amicus said as per details filed by some of the states, Madhya Pradesh had 89 functional Gram Nyayalayas, while Karnataka had two.

In an earlier hearing, the apex court said establishment of Gram Nyayalayas across the country would help improve access to justice.

Bhushan had argued that directions were needed to be issued to all states to notify and establish Gram Nyayalayas as statutorily provided for under the Gram Nyayalayas Act of 2008.

He had said that Sections 5 and 6 of the 2008 Act provide that state government in consultation with the high court would appoint a "nyayadhikari" for each Gram Nyayalaya who would be a person eligible to be appointed as a judicial magistrate first class.

The apex court on January 29, 2020 directed the states, which had not yet issued notifications for establishing Gram Nyayalayas, to do so within four weeks.

It had asked the high courts of states, where the constitution of Gram Nyayalayas and appointment of its members were pending, to expedite the process of consultation with the respective governments.