Judicial reforms and activism

In a thought provoking speech delivered on the occasion of international seminar on Recent Trends in Judicial Reforms: A Global Perspective, organized in New Delhi, President Pranab Mukherjee has made very cogent point in saying that judicial reforms should not disturb the delicate balance among the functioning and delivery of the three organs of the State. In our country, some people have been talking about judicial activism in the sense that they feel the judiciary is overdoing things and this could cause imbalance. The fact of the matter is that we are living in the 21 century in which technological advancement and globalization have brought about sea change in social structure. It is important to see that the existing rules and practices adequately reflect the expectations of the people and society. Reforms are inevitable in our country’s judicial system because we need to keep pace with the changing times and the expectations of the people at large. How can we claim to be just and equitable if there is as large a pendency as about 3.1 crore cases in different courts of the country and no fewer than 66,000 cases with the Supreme Court alone? No justice can be done to anybody with such large pendency. Pendency causes delay and justice delayed is justice denied.
Of course all the three organs of the state have to function in unison and fair understanding in a democratic dispensation. But the pattern of relationship among the three organs cannot be static in a world in which deep and wide changes are occurring in the social structure. The Constitution has specified the areas for each of the three organs but even the Constitution needs amendments and revisions as the exigency of situation and time demand. This is a pragmatic view of approach to the running of a state in a manner that expectations of people are neither delayed nor trampled over.
Our State has its share of judicial difficulties. For example, we have courts without judges because either no appointments of judges have been made or appointments are kept pending for reasons best known to the authorities. The Supreme Court has cleared the list for appointment of new judges for the J&K State but the Government is yet to implement the orders of the Supreme Court. Our legal system is time consuming and complicated. A judicial case takes long time to be disposed off. Therefore there are technical as well as legal bottleneck that need to be cleared. In an age of advanced technology, it has become easy to learn from the experience of others and to improve one’s functionality in any professional field. This also applies to the judicial area. The President has rightly hinted that the impact of technological advancement has to be given proper space in our democratic dispensation. He has welcomed an initiative that would lead to healthy reforms in our judicial system but also cautioned that it should not lead to creating imbalance among the organs of the state.

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