Heed CJI’s concerns, suggestions

Better governance, legislation must to reduce burden on courts

In highlighting some important issues concerning the working of the judiciary and the functioning of the legislature and the executive at the Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts in Delhi last week, Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana underlined the deficiencies in governance that are affecting many areas of national life. His remarks are especially relevant and significant because they were made in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The large number of vacancies in courts, the failure to make judicial appointments in time, and the shortage of infrastructure in courts are all well-known. But the CJI raised some other issues also that should receive greater attention.

Justice Ramana pointed out that the government at the Centre and in the states accounted for over 50% of the pending cases in the courts. Courts would not only have to deal with fewer cases but would be spared the task of having to make policy pronouncements on many issues if all the wings of the government did their work properly. That would help the courts to stop at the Lakshman Rekha separating the powers of the legislature, executive and judiciary. He specifically mentioned the profusion of land and revenue disputes, the fights between government departments and between State-owned companies and the government ending up in courts, as symptomatic of a growing malaise. They showed administrative and systemic deficiencies at all levels. He also flagged “illegal” arrests, custodial torture and biased investigations by the police which forced victims to go to the court for relief. He said that if service laws are applied fairly in matters of seniority, pension and so on, no employee would be compelled to go to court.

Another serious problem that he raised was the paucity of public consultation, within parliament and outside, on legislation, which leads to litigation. Justice Ramana has mentioned this in the past. Many laws are rushed through legislatures deliberately without adequate debate, and that leaves ambiguities in them that courts have to grapple with. That also shows the subordination of parliament by the executive. A more serious issue is the growing number of contempt petitions arising out of failure and inaction, at times even deliberate, on the part of governments to implement court decisions. An example is the failure to implement the 2014 Supreme Court directive to immediately release undertrial prisoners who have served half their term. There are many others, too. The issues raised by the CJI need to be addressed not only for better functioning of the courts, which should provide speedier justice to the people, but also for achieving the larger aim of strengthening the country’s democratic system.