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Dear Netters
It is a brilliant article by Anil Chawla. I never heard about the Fast
Tracks Courts before; his article is comprehensive and it cleared a lot of clogs
from my conception of the working of the judiciary in India during the last
three decades.
The Assam Tribune's editorial has praised the working of the FTC so far in
India. His only concern is that these were temporary measures to clear backlogs
and the FTCs might have to disappear because of lack of funds. Moreover the
target of creating a total of 1,734 FTCs in the country was not reached.
This is a temporary measure. As soon as the backlog is substantially
reduced I see no reason why these courts should continue.
The famous filmstar Rekha's case has been cited as a case of delay in a
normal court.At the same time it shows quick detection work by the police.
The question is why then it took seven years to return the jewellery to their
owner? That has to be found out; we've some indication below.
It appears from the general comment about lawyers that they are the people
primarily responsible for laws' delay. They were aggrieved that the number
of cases was falling and their means of livelihood were at stake. I don't think
we want cases to be delayed because lawyers should survive at the cost of the
litigant public. Absence of strife among mankind is a healthy
portent.
There is a theory in law that a prompt verdict is better than even an
erroneous one. Only problem here is that retired judges were found to be not
serious about their responsibilties as those in active service. I don't
think all retired judges would behave in that way. To prevent that they can be
given short tenures. I would also recommend that FTCs recruit practising
lawyers on a temporary basis who may be absorbed in permanent posts if they
perform well. We need not bother much about the Best Bakery case as the judge
was unable to convict the guilty persons because of poor police work and that he
did not leave room for appeal. However, the author says that the State
Government can have recourse to an apeal or revision by the High Court.
Anil Chawla recommends that NHRC conduct studies that monitor on a regular
basis the quality of judgments delivered and the level of confidence of the
people in the judicial system. Our system of trial is known as adverserial which
helps judges to sift the truth from analysing the evidence from both the sides.
In the event of miscarriage of justice there is a regular channel to seek
relief by way of appeal to higher courts.Why then another tier of judges
duplicating the work? However I see no harm in trying to measure
peoples' confidence in the judicial system.
I cannot agree with his conclusions that courts are answerable to
none and that they can act irresponsibly and have no accountability and act with
impunity and then let themselves be manipulated by the wheeling-dealing of
crooked lawyers and external influences.
We remember judges for their outstanding work from the days of
the proverbial Daniel. They can be disciplined like any other public servant
for misbehaviour, incompetence and corruption.At the same time they
enjoy certain protection to their person which is essential if they are to act
freely and fairly. They are responsible and their performance is judged by the
whole world. They would not let themselves be manipulatd by crooked lawyers if
they could help. The theory is that lawyers are also servants of the courts and
they are also expected to possess the same integrity as the judges. That they
are evils is a social phenomenon. It is unfortunate that many of our politicians
are from that profession.
Bhuban |
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