Examining the Roadblocks to Swift and Fair Justice in India’s New Legal Framework
PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week took a review of the implementation and effectiveness of the three new criminal laws. The laws, which replaced the centuries-old British era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act, were replaced with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
The new laws came into effect on July 1 this year, and the union territory of Chandigarh has achieved the distinction of being the first in the country to fully implement the new laws.
Speaking at the event, the Prime Minister claimed that a speedy justice delivery system has been made possible under the new criminal laws. Quoting the famous lines from a Bollywood film – “tareeq per tareeq,” he said such days are over. He pointed out that time limits have been set to complete the process of prosecution under the new laws.
He cited an example of an accused getting punishment in just two months for a vehicle theft case in Chandigarh and another accused getting a 20-year sentence within 60 days of the FIR being registered.
That’s a welcome scenario, but it sounds too good to be true. We all know that cases remain pending in various courts for years, and some have been pending for decades. No wonder the total number of cases pending in the country’s courts has swelled to over five crore!
Evidently, a lot of steps are required to reduce the number of pending cases, and everyone must welcome the new laws if these are a step towards early resolution of the pending cases.
However, the government needs to take many more steps to clear the backlog. It is important to note that Governments are, by far, the biggest litigants, with almost 70% of the cases having ‘state’ as one of the parties to the case.
While the ‘state’ automatically becomes a party in cases of crime and law and order, the tendency of filing unnecessary appeals burdens the courts and slows down other cases. As a first step, an explanation must be sought if the government counsel seeks an adjournment without a valid reason.
The tendency among government advocates, including those under the Solicitor General at the Centre and Advocate Generals in high courts, besides the public prosecutors in subordinate judiciary, is to pass on any responsibility by filing a review appeal whether there is merit or not in it.
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This is called “defensive litigation” where government advocates avoid taking on any responsibility for closing the case and to be hauled up by officers later. The government must take effective steps to avoid appeals to higher courts only for the sake of it.
Serious shortage of judges, for which the government as well as the judiciary should share responsibility, also cases delay in the delivery of justice. There are presently over 45% vacancies across high courts in the country, as per official figures.
Over a decade ago, the Law Commission had recommended an increase in the number of judges from 10 judges per 10 lakh people to 50 judges per 10 lakh people, but little has been done about it.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Rajya Sabha last week that subordinate and district courts face a shortage of over 5,000 judges, while the 25 high courts collectively have over 360 vacancies.
While time limits set in the new laws are welcome, the Government must undertake a comprehensive review of the bottlenecks in the justice delivery system and provide relief to the lakhs of people seeking speedy justice. 
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Vipin Pubby
The author, a freelance journalist, is a former Resident Editor of Indian Express, Chandigarh, and reported on the political developments in Jammu and Kashmir, North-Eastern India, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab in his long, illustrious career.
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