JOIN USIndia needs to do much more to make its court houses accessible to those seeking justice. A year-long study by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, in collaboration with Tata Trusts and Jaldi (Justice Access and Lowering Delays in India), graded states and union territories with regard to physical and digital aspects of court infrastructure by qualitatively accessing 665 district court complexes and interviewing 6,650 litigants. Its findings show how difficult it is for litigants to access district courts. Although the National Court Management System requires court complexes to be easily accessible by public transport, not all courts are accessible by bus. Litigants travelling to at least 20% of the district courts nationwide are forced to either shell out exorbitant amounts for autorickshaws and cabs or make their way on foot. Things don’t get easy when they reach a court as only 20% of district courts had guide maps and only 45% had helpdesks. Besides, only 27% court complexes are accessible through ramps and/or lifts and just 11% had washrooms for persons with disabilities. Security at the courts was found to be dismal.
The study found that court complexes in Delhi, Kerala and Meghalaya are doing well with regard to accessibility for litigants. This is not so in the case of Karnataka, which scored just 50 on 100 and finds itself ranked 15th among India’s 29 states. Karnataka scored particularly poorly with regard to waiting areas for litigants, ease of access for the disabled, security, and access to information on court websites. Eighteen of Karnataka’s 29 court complexes do not have waiting areas for litigants and although most of them have restrooms, 47% of litigants complained that running water was often not available. Ironically, the district court at Bengaluru, India’s IT capital, secures a little over 50% with regard to its website providing information on court location, court fees, judgments, etc.
Judicial reforms in India have focused on speeding up trials by increasing the number of judges and courtrooms. While that is important, just as necessary is the need to provide infrastructure, access and information that will help litigants in and around courts. We need to improve accessibility of courtrooms to all litigants, especially the physically challenged and the poor. All courts must be made accessible by bus so that poor litigants are not deterred by travel expenses. Courts must be wheel-chair friendly and equipped with waiting rooms and functional toilets. Those seeking justice often give up in the face of these and other challenges that they face in going to court. That amounts to justice being denied. It is time we made our courts litigant-friendly.