Er. Sunil Seth
Do we need a plethora of written Acts/Laws for India to count itself among the lineage of being a “Developed India”. The Britishers, who ruled India for decades and now being governed by the “Unwritten Law” too left India with volumes of the rules and laws as they visualized that India was probably not ready for the loudly echoed “Democracy”, but to be governed “Dictatorially”.
“Implementation” is the driving factor behind India to place a foot forward towards it being a “Developed Nation”. The main law enforcing agencies viz. “Judiciary” was identified as the key drivers for this positive change. Ironically, “Justice delayed is justice denied” seems to be present state of law enforcing agencies. Inaptitude to resolve the issues on “Merits than Witness” is resulting into piling of cases in the court marked by the increased litigations because of the archaic laws. Either the aggrieved doesn’t want to approach the enforcing agencies or is afraid of the way it is handled thereof. There is no dearth of “Laws” but their implementation seems to be the question mark behind their enforcement. An eye opener statement by the newly appointed Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, that lawyer population ratio in the country which is one lawyer for every 1800 people to 200 people in US needs to be improved.
He also said that quality of “Lawyers” who are offering legal aid needs to be improved, questions over education in the legal sector too. Moreover, speaking about section 377 verdict at HT Leadership Summit-Finance Minister said he disagrees with the Supreme Court’s observation that sexuality is a part of free speech itself shows contradiction amongst even the highest echelons of the society. Now the statistics here below reflects another side of the coin in the implementation of rules on a different pretext. India has 19 Judges per lakh people on an average according to data by “Law Ministry”. Lower courts have a shortage of 5,748 Judicial Officers; the 24 High Courts currently have 406 vacancies. Supreme Court with a sanctioned strength of 31 Judges, has too six vacancies with nearly 3 crore cases pending in the courts. Moreover, the rate at which the population of India is increasing; complicacies in rules and “We First” is going to create immense pressure on the staff deficit legal structure. Is it only the deficiency factor or the pendency of case, can also be attributed to Archaic Rules; Endless Witness Culture; Clause absence of Ethics and Cumbersome Procedures. Jolly L.L.B. and Jolly L.L.B.-2 from the Bollywood seems to be the best depiction of the issue being touched here i.e. the WAR of WORDS between merits and witness. Even the death of witness in the case of rape of Nun in Kerala is another example to the above scenario. Also, in a farewell speech by the outgoing “Chief Justice of India” reflecting that “Tears of a Poor man are the same as tears of a Rich man”. How far this holds good probably is in “Words” only. One property case of my known is languishing in the court, “Crying for Justice” for the last nine years has not moved even an inch inspite of the fact that it holds “Strength on Merits” but every time falls on ground where it has to go through never ending trials and procedure of the “Pandora Box” of “Archaic Rules”. “Nothing is perceived but only conceived between the cruel clauses”. Much hyped “METOO” case will see again “WAR OF WORDS” between “MERITS / WITNESSES”. Another glaring example of wrong implementation by Uttarkhand’s Govt. of cancellation of CBSE Affiliation of a Dehradun Private boarding school where a 16-year old girl was allegedly raped too speaks of the ambiguity over “why the other students” stand penalized of by stripping the “CBSE Affiliation” whereas the action should have been only against the erring officials / persons and the enforcing authorities who granted this affiliation before too highlights the shortsightedness in implementation by the incompetent authorities. justifies the above penned that” Justice delayed is justice Denied” Names like Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and many more are an eye opener as far as the implementation scenario is concerned. Recently, TERI Director and Padma Vibushan Awardee R.K Pachauri, who was accused of sexual harassment in 2015, told a Delhi Court, ”my age is 78 years, please expedite the matter” is a Mirror to my above penned statement that “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”. It’s not only the “Judiciary” but any and every “Enforcing” organization has the same story. Latest imbroglio of the premier enforcing agency viz. C.B.I. for maintaining the sanctity itself reflects the pathetic state of the Enforcing Agencies. Non-committal to enforcement gives air to the languishing implementation leaving the rules to gather dust and finally end up in dormancy like a “Dormant Volcano” which if ever erupted will result in an uncontrollable upheaval.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel
