Praveena C·
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Justice delayed is justice denied

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. CIRCUMSTANCE
  3. PROBLEMS IN INDIAN JUDICIARY
  4. REFORMS SUGGESTED
  5. USE OF IT IN INDIAN COURT ADMINISTRATION
  6. NEED FOR TECHNOLOGY IN INDIAN JUDICIARY
  7. PRESENT DAY TECHNOLOGY IN INDIAN COURTS
  8. CONCLUSION

AUTHORS

RAHUL SOY

ABDUL SAMAD PB

Both of them are 3 year LLB students at Al Azhar Law College, Thodupuzha and was our interns at the second internship programme held between October 15 to November 15.

ABSTRACT

Today, it can take nearly 20 years if a case goes all the way from the subordinate court to the high court and then the Supreme Court. Twenty years means multiple generations of litigants, enormous cost and frustration — a case taking this long to be resolved is symptomatic of an inefficient and ineffective judicial system; any ‘justice’ delivered after a span of 20 years would be bereft of its true meaning.

INTRODUCTION

William E Gladstone, Former British Statesman and Prime Minister in the late 1800’s, famously said ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. However he was not the first to express this notion, and it is arguable that its meaning has been articulated in many different ways for thousands of years.

Historical acknowledgements recognize the perspective of the accused or the disputant, and suggest that for a person seeking justice, the time taken for resolution of their issue is critical to the justice experience of this person and can render their treatment wholly ‘unjust’ in Circumstances where finalization of a dispute takes ‘too long’.

In essence, these acknowledgements are consistent with more recent research which has shown that the time taken to deal with a dispute is a, and in many cases the, critical factor in determining whether or not people consider that the justice system is just and fair. Recent research by the Australian Centre for Justice Innovation’s (‘The Centre’) about timeliness and justice has taken place in the context of recognition that the justice system has breadth beyond more formal justice processes that operate in courts and tribunals.

Judiciary in India is the most important institution. Its job ranges from redressing the grievances of the common man to resolve disputes between the Union and the States. It also resolves disputes between States. The judiciary is called the third pillar of Indian democracy. It is the protector of the fundamental rights of the people. The number of pending cases in courts is affecting the citizens. Hence, the proverb, `Justice delayed is justice denied’.

The Government at the center and State levels has tried to solve the problem. But the situation still remains grave. Endless arguments take place in each case. This makes a person spend more time in prison than what he had to spend in a speedy Trial. In the United States,each party gets half an hour to present its case in the Supreme Court which results in a speedy trial.

The administrative procedures of the judiciary are based on the Imperial Rule-of the British. There are many holidays in the courts. The result is that justice gets delayed and the common man suffers a lot. It is high time that the old style of working should be changed.

The increasing population has led to an increase in the number of cases. This has in turn increased the number of laws. Unnecessary laws should be abolished. Effective steps should be taken to check present population growth. Irresponsible political leadership also adds to the problem. The judges are given the responsibility to handle an additional burden of judicial inquiry.

Rapid advances have been made in the field of computers and the internet. The setting up of ‘e-courts’ can solve the problem which the judiciary is facing today. Under such a system a person from any part of the country would be able to file a case or submit affidavits easily. This system would help in saving time and money.

CIRCUMSTANCE

  • There are about 3.5 crore cases pending in the judicial system, especially in district and subordinate courts.
  • About 87.54 per cent of the total pendency of cases is in the district and subordinate courts.
  • More than 64% of all cases are pending for more than 1 year.
  • The average disposal time for civil and criminal cases in Indian District & Subordinate courts in 2018 was 4.4 fold and 6 fold higher respectively when compared with the average of Council of Europe members (2016)
  • A Case Clearance Rate of 100 percent (i.e. zero accumulation) can be achieved with the addition of merely 2,279 judges in the lower courts, 93 in High Courts and only one in the Supreme Court, which is already within sanctioned strength and only needs filling of vacancies.
  • The Ease of Doing Business Report of the World Bank for 2018 and 2019 shows that the time taken to decide a case has remained static at 1,445 days.

It is now possible to assess, in a fairly detailed manner, the judiciary on parameters such as budgets, human resources, workload, diversity, infrastructure, and trends over the years. We can also accurately diagnose the pendency and backlog problem not only at district and taluk level but also at court complex levels.

We know, for example, that while pendency is a nationwide problem, it varies vastly from state to state, with the average pendency being anywhere in the range of two years to nine years in the district judiciary, as the India Justice Report 2019 reveals. We need to work on the problems that lead to delay on a daily basis, by increasing certainty of outcome in each hearing and avoiding burdening a judge in a manner that encourages adjournments. On an average, a district judge has about 50-60 cases listed before him each day. It is impossible to meaningfully hear such a high number of matters, and therefore at least 40 of these cases will be adjourned by the judge without any significant movement. This happens every day in each court across the country throughout the year. Naturally, there will be delay and backlogs at the end of the year. It is these daily problems that magnify over time and transform into structural problems crippling the functioning of the institution.

Today, it can take nearly 20 years if a case goes all the way from the subordinate court to the high court and then the Supreme Court. Twenty years means multiple generations of litigants, enormous cost and frustration — a case taking this long to be resolved is symptomatic of an inefficient and ineffective judicial system; any ‘justice’ delivered after a span of 20 years would be bereft of its true meaning. There are many problems that this process creates. First, judges, particularly those in the superior courts are dealing with cases from the previous decade and not today’s pressing issues. Second, the judiciary and the legal system at large, is inherently favoring the illegal actions of one party at the cost of violating the rights of the other. Further, a prolonged legal battle will have the effect of encouraging such illegal actions not only by the parties involved but across society, which in the long term lead to an erosion in the faith of people to get timely justice.

From a larger perspective, judicial delays also lead to uncertainty regarding laws and their application — the ongoing case in the Supreme Court regarding the application of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013 and the determination of compensation thereunder has practically halted land acquisition litigation in the country. Cases related to land acquisition in the subordinate courts remain pending for six years on average and are a category of cases that take the most time to be resolved in court.

PROBLEMS IN THE JUDICIARY

The government is the biggest litigant.

  • Poorly drafted orders have resulted in contested tax revenues equal to 4.7 per cent of the GDP and it is rising.
  • Crowding out investment: Roughly Rs 50,000 crore are locked up in stalled projects and investments are reducing. Both these complications have arisen because of injunctions and stay orders granted by the courts primarily due to poorly drafted and poorly reasoned orders.
  • Less budgetary allocation: the budget allocated to the judiciary is between 0.08 and 0.09 per cent of the GDP. Only four countries — Japan, Norway, Australia and Iceland — have a lesser budget allocation and they do not have problems of pendency like India.
  • REFORMS SUGGESTED
  • For enhancing productivity in the judiciary, the Economic Survey 2018-19 suggests:
  • Increased number of working days;
  • Establishment of Indian Courts and Tribunal Services to focus on the administrative aspects of the legal system;
  • Deployment of technology to improve efficiency of the courts, e.g. eCourts Mission Mode Project and the National Judicial Data Grid being rolled-out in phases by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
  • Better Case and Court Management:
  • About 30 percent of the life of a case is spent in something as simple as service of notice.
    • For expeditious service of notice and summons, the E-committee of the Supreme Court launched a mobile application called National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP).
    • Computerization and Automation (e.g. Virtual Court in Delhi) to make justice delivery more responsive to the needs of litigants.
    • Professional Court Managers as suggested by the 13th Finance Commission. Court managers or equivalent professionals are the need of the hour and justice delivery can improve only if the courts accept and adopt professional help in their administration.
  • Setting up of Tribunals, Fast Track Courts and Special Courts to dispense important cases at the earliest.
  • Mechanisms such as ADR (Alternate Dispute Resolution), Lok Adalats, Gram Nyayalayas should be effectively utilized.

USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN INDIAN COURT ADMINISTRATION

We are now into the second decade of the twenty-first century. We have well and truly entered the new millennium. However, when it comes to the courtroom, technology is yet to play a role in improving how justice is served.

Modern technology permits courts to improve the administration of justice, enhance efficiency, and even save money. Technology, when used in the judiciary, solves problems and ensures justice is improved, and certainly, not hindered. The problem is finding safe and efficient technology with the added satisfaction of judiciary which is ultimately going to use such technology.

In this article, I provide an overview of how technologies like machine translation, speech recognition, big data, machine learning, A.I., and block chain can upgrade India’s courts and bridge the access to justice gap and improve efficiency.

NEED FOR TECHNOLOGY IN THE INDIAN JUDICIARY

The main business of the judiciary is to hear and determine cases in a fair and timely manner at reasonable costs. In doing so, there are processes involved in the adjudication of those cases. These processes must be efficient, effective, and equitable. The processes must be efficient in the sense that they provide value for money. The resources so employed must be utilized in a non-wasteful manner such that their allocation and utilization is optimized to the maximum extent possible.

The Indian judicial system desperately needs to find a way to bring legal cases to their conclusion in a more efficient and timely manner. Justice Krishna Iyer has said in his book ‘Law, Lawyers and Justice’ that our judicial system is 200 years behind compared to developed countries.1 The Former CJI Mr Lodha had also stated that the Indian Judiciary is terribly overloaded and the disposal of cases has virtually become uncontrolled.

“In many cases, undertrials spend more time in jail than the period of punishment for their crime, if proved in court, would require.”2

PRESENT-DAY TECHNOLOGY IN INDIAN COURTS

Computers were introduced in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts in India in the year 1991-92, for office automation, maintenance of accounts and preparing the pay rolls.

The e-Courts portal has been one of the most significant steps taken for judicial reforms in the recent era. The e-Courts project provides for ICT (Information Communication Technology) to make our justice delivery system efficient, time bound, litigant centric, affordable, accessible, cost effective, transparent and accountable.

E-Courts

India’s first e-court was opened at the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad in the year 2016 which is the common high court for the states of Andhra Pradesh. In the decade since its launch, it has made a vast trove of data available online, at no cost for users. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, a lot of important data points in the daily orders and judgments are in a text heavy format and are difficult to analyse.

Advanced technologies

SA Bobde, the Chief Justice of India said that the Supreme Court has proposed to introduce a system of AI would help in better administration of justice delivery. 3However, he made clear that people should not form the impression that AI would never replace the judges.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines. Thousands of cases that are fairly similar in nature are being filed each year. Through AI, judges can be equipped with enough information about the possible paths that the case could take to help in faster disposal of the case.

Data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are capable of assisting judges by predicting vital information regarding an ongoing case based on past cases of a similar nature. Several case details such as number of accused in a case, date of filing of the charge sheet, number of witnesses examined during evidence stage, witness turning hostile, reasons for adjournments, First Information Report (FIR) details, quantum of punishment, compensation granted etc. which are recorded in the daily orders and the final judgment can be used for this analysis. Analysis of these variables can help judges make better strategic decisions which can help reducing delays in a case.

“Data science and Artificial Intelligence are capable of assisting judges by predicting vital information regarding an ongoing case based on past cases of a similar nature.”3

Big Data

Big Data is a term used for voluminous and complex data that is used for producing various analytics, so in short it is just data that is so much and including everything like numbers, text, audio, video etc. that cannot be processed with conventional data processing systems. Indian precedents, judgments and jurisprudence definitely fall under this and the problems which arose are discussed below.

Firstly, regarding the collection and utilization of big data. Machine learning inherently operates with large data-sets, informing the algorithm of the various correlations, patterns, and analyses of extensive and meticulous data sets is itself a complex process and needs to be taken care of step by step.

Secondly, inaccurate, incomplete, or antiquated data sets, to the personal bias of programmers designing AI-driven tools, are seeping into the final product. AI is, thus, vulnerable to existing biases, and given the extent of its usage, it has the capacity to perpetuate these systemically, if it is deployed in an unregulated manner. Hence, it is very difficult for the programmer to deal with the data without expertise in the field of law.

Thirdly, in this transformative era it is difficult especially in the field of law as new amendments, dimensions, arguments, overruling precedents often happen and makes the job even more difficult.

Lastly, Privacy is also a big concern with this kind of technology building up and as Indian judges are habituated to traditional methods, using this new technology would worry them a bit.

“Privacy is also a big concern with this kind of technology building up and as Indian judges are habituated to traditional methods, using this new technology would worry them a bit.”

But, definitely overcoming these problems is not a big issue and can be solved through legislative conviction and active involvement of judiciary to get this technology which in turn helps in backing Artificial intelligence.

Machine Translation

Currently, a certified translation of a legal judgment takes several months to complete. Afterwards, there is a significant delay between the publication of a judgment in the original language and the availability of its human translation into the other official language.


Initially, the goal of this work was to allow the court, during the few months when the official translation is pending, to publish automatically translated judgments and summaries with the appropriate caveat. Once the official translation would become available, the Court would replace the machine translations by the official ones. However, the high quality of the machine translation system obtained, developed and trained specifically for the courts opens further opportunities.

Machine translations could be considered as first drafts for official translations that would only need to be revised before their publication. This procedure would thus reduce the delay between the publication of the decision in the original language and its official translation. It would also provide opportunities for saving on the cost of translation.

However, the judgments of the Supreme Court are translated into nine regional languages of the country and uploaded on the court’s website. But using this technology it would be a lot easier for the courts to come up with these tasks.

Speech recognition

Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enables the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers.

Speech recognition helps in improving the productivity of Judiciary and corporate legal departments by supporting tasks such as streamline documentation efforts and reduce document turnaround, minimize dependency on support staff, lower transcription costs, dedicate more time to understand clients and their problems and focus on any important business that could cross a lawyer’s desk.

Blockchain

A blockchain is, in the simplest of terms, a time-stamped series of immutable records of data that is managed by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity. Each of these blocks of data (i.e. block) is secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles (i.e. chain). Because a Blockchain does not exist in one place, it offers two distinct advantages over a central server: both broader access and greater security.

“Block chain will help address at least three chronic challenges in court recordkeeping: managing court judgments, warrants, and criminal histories.”4

Block chain will help address at least three chronic challenges in court recordkeeping: managing court judgments, warrants, and criminal histories. With two-thirds of all civil cases pertaining to the registration of property or land, the country’s policy think-tank is working with the judiciary to find disruptive ways to expedite registrations, mutations and enable a system of smart transactions that is free of corruption and middlemen.5

CONCLUSION

As long as poor people won’t get justice on time there is no real meaning of “JUSTICE, social, economic and political” mentioned in our preamble, Cases in the lower courts is where the root of the problem lies. Most importantly, we need to acknowledge it and monitor it on a continuing basis. Other than using advanced technology, the solution for this problem can be found in many ways like extending working hours, reducing public holidays, setting up more courts, reducing procedural delays by adopting ways of technology, appointing more judges, By change is system flow of courts through the usage of technology , filling up the vacancies. Technology done right can bend time in ways we haven’t thought of. Technology can allow courts to adapt more quickly to changes in laws, society and demographics by taking advantage of configurable platforms, business rules engines and workflows.

REFERENCE

1.thewire.in/law/pending-court-cases

2. The Judicial Philosophy of Justice Krishna Iyer – Bar and Bench

3. Supreme Court Cases (2 SCC 2010, 25-32)

4. indiatoday -In speech on Law Day in 2019

5. 08-May-2020 -The law Reporter

6. .//indianlegaltech.com/blog/strengthening-indian-courts-with-technology

EDITOR

Praveena.C, is a member of LJRF palakkad chapter. She has completed her graduation and masters from Government Law College, Thrissur. Currently she is working as Research assistant High court of Kerala.

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