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Judicial Reforms in India
Issues and Aspects
Judicial Reforms in India is a collection of 13 well-researched articles by different experts, including Debroy and Hazra themselves. Both Hazra and Debroy, who have edited the book, are well-regarded economists and political commentators long associated with various institutions both in government and outside. Till recently, Debroy was the head of the PHDCCI. The thrust of the writers is on giving top priority to judicial reforms if economic prosperity and social equity is to be achieved. They have given examples of the US, European countries and other developed nations where the economic development took a great leap only after the legal system was overhauled. Strict enforcement of the rule of law by these countries is credited with the phenomenal success achieved by them in improving the governance both at the government and corporate level. Neglecting judicial reforms has a social, political and economic cost, is the message. The judicial system in India, burdened with over 3 crore cases, does not cater to the needs of one-third population living below the poverty line because for them a legal remedy to any of their problems is alien. The 13 chapters in the book deal with issues like the rule of law, its effect on governance, legal structure and economic freedom, elusive justice to poor, views on access to justice, delayed justice, congestion of courts with cases, need for alternate redressal mechanism, judicial productivity, measures required to reduce the burden of cases, technological backup, deterrent effect of speedy disposal of criminal cases. The writers have mentioned facts and figures to show how the neglect of the judicial reforms had impaired the entire system. The 14,000 odd lower courts for a population of over a billion can hardly deliver timely justice. The effect of this delayed justice is that the rule of law no more acts as a ‘deterrent’ against crimes, which are rising by every passing year while the conviction rate is declining. Though much has been written on judicial reforms in the past, the book perhaps for the first time makes an effort to link them directly with economic prosperity and social order. The articles based on cross-country economic studies, project six clusters —voice of people, accountability, political stability, effectiveness of government, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption — asissues closely linked to judicial reforms. These unfortunately remained at the bottom ladder of the priority for both Union and state governments. The institution of judiciary has generally remained outside the reforms initiatives, introduced 15 years ago, Debroy and Hazra in their first chapter say. This has led to frivolous litigations pertaining to the economic reform initiative itself, resulting in the higher contracting transaction costs and inefficiency of commercial ventures, digression on governance. Effective governance requires to withstand three tests — proper selection of people in authority, capacity of the government to effectively manage its resources and implement sound polices and respect of citizens and the state for institutions that govern the economic and social interactions among them—if the rule of law has to be really made an effective tool. The book squarely put the blame on the government for not providing enough financial backup to the judiciary, which alone cannot solve the backlog problem. If the burden of pending cases has to be cleared, there will be an immediate need of 35,000 additional courts, which is not practically possible. The population-judges ratio in India is only 2.7 for one lakh as compared to an average of 6.38 in top 30 selected countries as per the World Bank survey. The authors, therefore, stress on the introduction of alternate dispute resolution as an answer to the problem since it will help to weed out non-serious disputes from courts for settlement by mutual negotiation between parties. For firming up the criminal justice system, the book again brings to the fore the issue of police reforms, regarding which the Supreme Court also has issued strict directions to the Centre and states. The last chapter on the subject focuses on how the criminal justice system has become ‘captive’ of the powerful and moneyed class, primarily due to the apathy of the government to reform the police, which has been turned into a tool’. Besides, it makes a strong case for amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Evidence Act to suit them to the changing needs. The subject of the book may not attract common readers but it is a bold initiative to provoke those who matter in decision making. It can be handy for people in the judicial fraternity and may be of value to students of law. But a price of Rs 795 may be on the higher side for them despite the high quality printing and flawless editing.
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IN
the age of
globalisation, corporate governance has become the buzzword for
turnaround of the economy. The government’s apathy to judicial reform
is viewed, by the editors of this volume, as the biggest impediment in
the public sector shedding its lethargy. For the first time, it has been
proposed that lack of judicial reforms is the biggest hurdle to
socio-economic development and good governance. The contributors to the
volume are of the view that only by marching shoulder-to-shoulder with
the private sector can the public sector achieve the target of social
equity. The views by social scientists and experts on the necessity of
judicial reforms have been expressed in the book brought out by Arnab
Kumar Hazra and Bibek Debroy.