Judiciary can respond

Inordinate delay of justice has become a matter of routine in civil courts in our country. The idiom that justice delayed is justice denied has almost lost its meaning to us. Our judicial system is complicated, time consuming and now expensive. Keeping in mind the amount of pendency, one is led to think if justice will ever be done to the seeker. We were finding it very hard to change this mindset. However, things are changing in our country. Politicians, law makers, law enforcing agencies and the public at large, all are of opinion that our judicial system is in need of over-hauling and reformation is inevitable.
The matter of how pendency would be reduced and how justice would be delivered within shortest possible time are the themes that were being discussed at the level of judiciary and also in administrative circles. A decisive moment came when on 16 December a case of inhuman and barbaric gang rape and murder happened in a running bus in New Delhi that shocked the entire nation including the judiciary. The Supreme Court of India issued instructions to State High Courts of devising mechanisms that would ensure reducing the number of pending cases in different courts and disposing off long standing cases speedily. In pursuance of these directions, Chief Justice of J&K High Court, Justice M M Kumar formulated an Action Plan which conveyed the roadmap to all the courts in the State of how pendency can be reduced and cases awaiting decision since a long period can be disposed off quickly. As a result of this initiative, 13143 cases pending for more than five years in the past have been disposed off within 99 days. This is an unprecedented record and delivery which raise the hope that judiciary can respond to the needs of the society if it is provided the wherewithal plus the will to do. We have to be thankful to Chief Justice for the initiative he has taken in the matter of bringing speedy justice to the seekers of justice. It has to be noted with great satisfaction that the Chief Justice has been personally monitoring the progress of disposing off court cases. The Action Plan suggested experimentation of quick justice for cases older than five years in order to assess whether it would be workable. The Action Plan had fixed the targets to be met within specified time. The result as we see has been very encouraging.
The more appreciable aspect of the Action Plan is that it has reached the district courts throughout the State and fast track courts given the powers by the Chief Justice to empower some district courts in a manner that they can take up rape cases for quick justice. The number of criminal and civil cases in various courts in the State as in September 2012 was reported to be 36306 out of which 13143 have been disposed off in 99 days. It is hoped that remaining 23163 cases of over five years of pending period will be disposed off with equal vigour and in persuasion of the instructions from the Chief Justice. Since the judiciary has successfully managed to achieve the targets within the stipulated timeframe, the clear indication is that given the will and purposefulness, the entire judicial staff can be galvanized into action that would contribute towards bringing justice quickly to the doorsteps of the victims. Appointment of judges at available vacancies has also been instrumental in hastening the disposal of pending cases in different district courts. On December 31, 2012, total number of more than five-year old cases pending in Jammu region’s courts was 5404 of which 1883 cases have been settled besides 75 in Ramban, 311 in Udhampur, 76 in Kishtwar, 550 in Poonch, 50 in Bhaderwah (Doda), 181 in Samba, 578 in Rajouri, 39 in Reasi and 313 in Kathua districts.
The reforms introduced by the High Court authorities have yielded desired results. We would congratulate the judiciary for appreciable performance and we hope that the large number of cases still pending in district and other courts will be disposed off with the same momentum. This will immensely reinforce peoples’ trust in our judicial system. This has proved that there is not any great urgency for changing the existing laws and that even within the jurisdiction of given laws justice can be done to all parties if there is will to bring justice to one and all without loss of time.

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