Justice and its delivery

Corruption is hampering the delivery of justice globally. People perceive the judiciary as the second most corrupt public service, after the police. We in India, have been living with less than efficient judicial remedy system. Some reasons are restraint of contempt notice threat, corruption prevailing in courts, incompetent level of delivery pattern of our judiciary and lack of awareness even after 70 years of self rule. 

• A transparent and accountable judiciary to deliver justice for all. The integrity, independence, and impartiality of the judiciary are preconditions for fair and effective access to justice and for the protection of human rights. Discrimination and corrupt practices often prevent citizens, especially the poor and marginalized, from equitable opportunities and protection of their rights.
• More than 75% of the Indians have never visited courts while near 100% have visited doctors  and huge majority have visited schools or temples / churches / mosques and little lesser to colleges and employment offices.
• Vast majority have never tested the efficacy of the judicial system. Our judges and judicial officers are crying for help as the work seems piling and becoming unmanageable, what will then be the case if litigation intensity rises?
• The bitter truth is that our courts are court of law and not a court of justice. Some may disagree because it is the law and order that justice is incidental to. If you get proof beyond reasonable doubt, about your innocence, the court shall provide you with justice.
• To achieve justice, to prove the truth, it takes time. The judge doesn’t know what has happened. He or she has to learn, listen to both sides, and with the corroboration of evidence beyond reasonable doubt, make a decision. Extreme justice is often injustice.
• Even though the power is in the hands of the bench, its members cannot unplug the Constitution.
• The truism, justice delayed is justice denied, is easy to cite. But to be in that chair surrounded by thousands of provisions and arguments, and eyes looking for justice, it is not easy to make decisions that are not just in favour of what is right, but also in the interest of the public at large.
• What if, in haste, an innocent person is punished — it would be the most horrendous crime. Instead, let the crime of the guilty go unpunished, than an innocent person being condemned.
• Our judicial system is so opaque and money centered. Even a simple bail and case settlement is often decided and determined based on the person's capacity in financial terms and political poweress.
• It is not a coincidence that all criminal and politically sensitive cases of those in power are always in the back burner and this happen without fail.

Corruption undermines justice in many parts of the world with the poor and vulnerable suffering most. We need justice delivery system that works round-the-year, speedy and free - like public hospitals. To achieve this the judiciary infrastructure must be modernized and upgraded. Judge-to-people ratio should be increased from the present 18 to at least 50 per million people. With the states failing to spend adequately on providing the required infrastructure and adequate number of trained personnel by way of judges and staff, the judiciary can hardly be blamed from the enormous backlog of cases that has been built up to whopping 28 million pending cases. The justice delivery system failure has led to mafia, musclemen, politicians and policemen settling the disputes and collecting hefty amounts from all the aggrieved parties.