Criminal justice system on verge of collapse: AG

The criminal justice system in India is on the verge of collapse owing to the inordinate delays in getting judicial verdicts and many a potential litigant taking recourse to a parallel mafia-dominated system of 'justice' that has sprung up in metros like Mumbai, Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee has said.

"Hamlet's lament about the laws delays still haunts us in India and the horrendous arrears of cases in courts is a disgraceful blot on our legal system, especially the criminal justice delivery system," he said, while delivering a talk on Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution: Rhetoric or Reality? at the Nehru Centre in London on Wednesday night.   

"The criminal justice system is on the verge of collapse," Sorabjee said. "Because justice is not dispensed speedily, people have come to believe that there is no such thing as justice in courts. This perception has caused many a potential litigant who has been wronged to settle out of court on terms which are unfair to him or to secure justice by taking the law into his own hands or by recourse to a parallel mafia dominated system of 'justice' that has sprung up in metropolitan centres like Mumbai." 

"The gravity of this development cannot be underestimated. Justice delayed will not only be justice denied, it will be the Rule of Law destroyed," the attorney general said.

Referring to measures initiated by the government to clear the backlog of cases, Sorabjee, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague for six years, said fast track courts have been established and amendments have been made to expedite the justice delivery system.

"Alternative dispute resolution is vigorously promoted and requisite legislation has been passed in that behalf. Yet the burden of arrears is still heavy and is very worrisome. Legal profession needs to be transformed in its methods and mindset to overcome this grave problem."     

He noted that modernising the system and making it user-friendly was one of the urgent tasks. "Judges must address the problem of arrears seriously and with determination. Judicial unpunctuality in the subordinate courts and in some high  courts must be eschewed. Adjournments should not be granted at the drop of a hat especially to accommodate senior counsel who are busy making money in other courts."

"Most important, government should fill judicial vacancies which are known in advance in good time."    

The attorney general said the time has come to ask: "Have the ideals of Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity proclaimed in the Preamble in grandiloquent language been realised in the working of the Constitution during the last 53 years? Have we redeemed our tryst with destiny? Have fundamental rights been merely in the realm of empty rhetoric or have become living realities for the people of India?"

"Some fundamental rights have become living realities, to some extent, for at least some illiterate, indigent and exploited segments of humanity of India. Environmental pollution has been checked and accountability in the use of the hazardous technology has been made possible and has yielded salutary results," Sorabjee, who was conferred the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award last year, said.

"This has to be viewed in the context that social justice, which is the signature tune of the Constitution still eludes us and vast in equalities in wealth and income persist. No doubt much remains to be done."

Describing the events of 2002 in Gujarat as "shameful," Sorabjee, a member of the UN Working Group on Minorities, said, "Fortunately these incidents did not take place in other parts of India and communal frenzy was contained. Gujarat was an aberration never to be  repeated."

Referring to the laws passed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat prohibiting conversion from one religion to another by use of force or allurement or by fraudulent means, he said there could be no dispute that conversion brought about by force, fraud or deceit could not be regarded as a true and genuine conversion and should not be permitted.

The regrettable part about these laws, he said, was that whoever converts any person from one religion to another by performing any ceremony has to send an intimation to the district magistrate about the fact of such conversion. He said the question of constitutionality apart, "These are very unwise measures in the present Indian context."