Forum for Judicial Reform

Proposal for debate on Judicial Reform prepared by Radha Krishna Kumar.

As we know that we are living in capitalist system where money counts almost everything in the society. Everybody is running after money because everything has become saleable. Corruption is by product of capitalist system which creates more needs and greed. The old ideology of simple living and high thinking and austerity has become obscure and obsolete. In a system where money counts everything corruption is bound to happen.

In a country like India, vast economic disparity exists. On the one hand half of the population of this country is doomed to live below the line of poverty and is deprived of basic education and necessity and on the other hand some people are becoming richer due to our faulty and corrupt system. All organs of our administrative system are suffering from cancerous disease of corruption. Even the capitalist lobby and vested interest are working to influence our judicial system through corporate lawyers and faulty system of appointment of the judges.

In the words of justice Krishna Ayer, how would an advocate having a roaring corporate practice and a particular mind set become a sage overnight after being appointed as judge?

Our judicial system is very vulnerable to corruption due to some inherent flaws in the existing judicial system. Therefore it should be urgently addressed to prevent trembling faith of people in the system. The covert system of appointment of judges in higher judiciary is one of the conspicuous reasons to doubt our judicial system. It’s a pick and chooses system. No democratic and transparent method is adopted by collegiums of judges. Lobbying and class bias cannot be ruled out in the present system.

Recently the higher judiciary came into storm and controversy and the faith of the people in the judicial system started eroding due to Gaziabad P.F.scam, bundle of currency notes was found at the door of a judge of Punjab & Haryana high court, illegal allotment of plots to the judges of Orissa high court, controversy regarding appointment of Justice Dinakaran, illegal accumulation of wealth by some judges of supreme court, allegation of corruption by Prashant Bhushan on the former chief justices of supreme court.

In view of these facts and circumstance it is the need of the hour to rectify the flaws in our judicial system and for that all efforts need to be made, otherwise judiciary would became a laughing stock like the political class. Some suggestions are made hereunder for inviting debate on this topic in the enlightened and patriotic circle of our society to save our judicial system and make it more transparent, vibrant and robust.

1. There should be an all India judicial service on the pattern of IAS conducted by UPSC and it should be called IJS (Indian judicial services). The examination should be conducted for additional district judges (ADJ) and they will reach in the high courts and Supreme Court by promotion on the basis of periodic merit assessment by an independent committee.

2. There should be subordinate judicial services for the magistrates conducted by the state judicial commission.

3. The judges should be given handsome salary, perks and better pension after retirement. Judges should be required to disclose their assets at the time of their appointment and there should be annual assessment of their assets by CVC or CAG.

4. There should be an independent NYAYA LOKPAL consisting of 5 members, 1. Eminent retired judge of Supreme Court, 2. Eminent law professor, 3. CVC, 4. CAG, 5.CEC to entertain the complains of corruption and judicial misconduct against the judges of supreme courts and high courts.

5. The impeachment procedure of the constitution should be deleted and that power should be vested to the NYAYA LOKPAL.

6. There should be strict code of conduct, so that no retired judge of Supreme Court or high court is appointed on any advantageous position except lokpal.

7. The proceeding of the supreme and the high court should be video recorded and made available on the web site of the concerned court and the modern technology should be used for the speedy justice.

8. The language of the Supreme Court must be Hindi in addition to English and the language of the high court should be in the main state’s language in addition to English.

9. Time bound justice needs to done. Delay in justice tantamount denial of justice. The maximum time for justice for trial court should be 1 year, for the high court and the Supreme Court should be 6 months each. The advocate should be allotted a time limit for the argument.

10. The number of the judicial officers and judges should be increased on the basis of population and the number of the cases. The following formula should be adopted, namely: one judicial magistrate for population of 15 thousand, one additional judge for population of 30 thousand, one high court judge for population of 5 lakh and one Supreme Court judge for population 50 lakh.

Please mail your suggestion on: kumar.radhakrishna@gmail.com