By Arun Srivastava
Functioning of the judicial institution has always been under scanner, but after Narendra Modi ushered the country and its judicial system into New India, after coming to power in 2014, the credibility of the institution has to witness the most embarrassing period.
Like all his promises and assurances, Modi had told to bring about fundamental changes in the functioning of the judicial institution. But it has proved to be a mere illusion. The plight of the institution has been exposed by the latest India Justice Report 2022. The Report underlined that the justice system as a whole remains affected by low budgets and India’s per capita spend on free legal aid – which 80 per cent of the population is eligible for – is a meagre Rs 3.87 per annum. Except for two Union Territories, Delhi and Chandigarh, no state spends more than 1 per cent of its total annual expenditure on the judiciary.
Modi of course did not find fault with the functioning of his government. Instead only some months back, his law minister Kiren Rijiju put the blame on the Supreme Court for all the malaise the institution and the system was facing. Rijiju has always been critical of pendency of large number of cases, but at no stage he came out with the panacea as to how to improve the situation. Latest data indicated that as of December 2022, India had 19 judges per million population, a backlog of 4.8 crore cases, and prisons were over-occupied at over 130 per cent, more than two-thirds of the prisoners (77.1 percent) are undertrials, and vacancy among high court judges is at 30 percent.
The government has been the top most litigant. Ironically no effort is being made to ensure that the less number of cases, that too only in the case where no solution was in sight, is referred to judiciary. The reason for government sending large number of cases to courts is, either the officials are reluctant to apply their mind to find a solution, or they are completely ignorant of the legal provisions available to them. A look at the legal proceedings in the higher courts would make it amply clear that the bureaucrats have absolutely no perception of the legal implications. Barely a month back a district magistrate was seen admitting to the judge of Patna high court that he was not a lawyer and obviously he was not aware of the legal formalities and implications.
According to the India Justice Report (IJR) 2022, which ranks states on delivery of justice in the country, Karnataka is at the top followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh is at rank 18 which is the lowest, as per the report released here on Tuesday. In the list of seven small states, with a population less than one crore each, Sikkim is at the top followed by Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura is at rank three and Goa is at rank seven.
The IJR also assessed the capacity of the 25 state human rights commissions. Their performances were not upto the mark as the report pointed out the state units suffered with the lack of enough man power. In fact the report stressed that vacancy is an issue across police, prison staff, legal aid, and the judiciary. Really ironical for 1.4 billion people, India has about 20,076 judges with about 22 per cent sanctioned posts vacant and vacancy among high court judges is at 30 per cent. The Law Commission had desired, as early as 1987, it should be 50 judges per million in a decade’s time from then, it added.
Overcrowding of the prisons has been a major issue. A number of studies have been undertaken to find out the mechanism to ease the malaise of congestion. But the Modi government has not taken any initiative to have the prisons decongested. According to the report the prisons are over-occupied at over 130 per cent and more than two-thirds of the prisoners (77.1 per cent) are awaiting the completion of investigation or trial. The major reason for ignoring the plight of the prisons is the inmates mainly belong to poor class and are Muslims. Four years back a committee of Patna High Court at the initiative of a judge had visited the prisons and was surprised to find that most of the prisoners were languishing as there was no one to come to their help and offer the bail.
Shockingly as the political leaders of the states were so engrossed in their internal acrimonies and politics that they have little time to look into these issues. As a result of it most states have not fully utilised funds given to them by the Centre and their own increase in spending on the police, prisons, and judiciary has not kept pace with overall increase in state expenditure.
Though political leaders have been harping on empowerment of women and providing them with equal opportunity, the fact remains that women are only about 11.75 per cent in police force, despite their numbers doubling in the last decade and about 29 per cent of the officer positions are vacant. The police to population ratio is 152.8 per lakh, whereas the international standard is 222.
The third edition of the IJR has been quite revealing. The only heartening note in this careless backdrop is the southern states have done quite well. The primary reason according to the experts and academics is they have been witnessing less interference from the Union government. It is a known fact that Central government has its own likes and dislikes, depending on the relation and closeness it has with the state governments of central and north India.
Karnataka ranks top of the 18 large and mid-sized states (with population of over one crore each), followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. India’s per capita spend on free Legal Aid —which 80% of the population is eligible for – is a meagre Rs 3.87 per annum. Commenting on the India Justice Report, Justice (retd.) Madan B. Lokur, said, “The third IJR shows that states are making a substantive improvement over the last two ones in terms of adding new dimensions on diversity, training, and infrastructure. Some states have dramatically improved their performance but there is a lot that needs to be done on the whole. So far as the police is concerned there does appear to be a shortage of women officers in police.”
One of the reasons for poor performance of the police, especially in the eastern and northern states, has been its politicisation. During the nine year rule of Modi, a systematic attempt was made to communalise the police. An insight into the functioning of the police system in Delhi, Gujarat and MP would make it explicit. The condition is more or less similar in states of Bihar and Bengal. The not so proactive role of the police is curbing the riots and arresting the rioters is testimony to this.
According to IJR 2022, vacancies in the justice system are at: Police: 22% (Constables), 29% (Officers); Prisons: 28% (Officers), 26% (Cadre Staff), 36% (Correctional Staff), 41%( Medical Staff), 48% (Medical Officers); Judiciary: 30% (High Court Judges), 22% (Subordinate Court Judges), 26% (High Court Staff) . Share of women across the justice system (Police, Prisons, and Judiciary& Legal aid) in key positions is, 1 out of 10 is a woman. At the same time population per subordinate court judge is 71,224 persons and population per high court judge is 17,65,760 persons
India has only 658 medical officers for its over 554,000 prison inmates. This averages to one doctor for 842 inmates. IJR 2022 has urged urgent filling of vacancies and increased representation. There is no denying the fact that over concentration of power in the hands of the executive and bureaucracy has been the prime factor for the neglect of the judicial functioning. The judiciary has ceased to be the ultimate destination to get justice. The executives dislikes the judiciary playing an activist role to compensate the inaction of the executive, which was perceived to be weak, compromised and corrupt.
The latest standoff between the government and the judiciary on the issue of Collegium has delayed the MoP finalisation and judicial appointments. The Modi government did not intend to send the message that the judiciary has been dictating the terms. Many high courts such as the ones in Calcutta and Karnataka are now functioning with half the sanctioned strength. It is sad that centre on one plea or other has been ignoring the recommendations of the Collegium, blatantly violating the settled law. Obviously this would have a chain reaction, from top to the bottom. It would also impact the functioning of the police.
One can also see a consistent pattern of sitting over files, splitting up recommendations and selective acceptances of names by the Centre over the past five years. In some cases, files were kept pending for several months; while in some cases, the Centre acted within 48 hours of recommendation by the Collegium.
It is significant that in the pre-2014 scenario the apex court was not hesitant in going against the executive in matters involving high political stakes. It was during hearing of the coal gate scam coinciding with the second leg of UPA 2rule that Supreme Court had made critical remarks like CBI is a caged parrot. (IPA Service)
