Our constitution mentions Justice first and then says about Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Health and Education too play very important roles in a nation’s well being. The commitment of governments and people decides the creation of a policy or a system and success or failure of it.
Also read: Lawyers in Courts
Law is the last resort
Generally speaking, law is the last resort of a student who fails to get a seat in any other course. Most of the law graduates know pretty little. Even senior lawyers do not express the same opinion on any issue. One who knows a little more becomes a magistrate and later a judge. Lawyers of opposing clients agree to prolong the case. Further, the accused makes his lawyer drag on the case as much as possible. Magistrates do not take the initiative of driving the lawyers to speed up the case. Some try to postpone judgment in critical cases as far as possible. Even listing of a case in a court sometimes takes up to six months and God knows when the trial starts.
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Here are some points to ponder.
• Appoint a Special officer in each court complex to receive cases, study it and allot it to a magistrate with a reasonably fixed time frame to dispose of the case. If any case is not disposed of on time the magistrate and the lawyers concerned must offer explanation which would be considered in granting future benefits to them.
• There should be only one chance for appeal except for extraordinary cases.
• The guilty must be undergoing the sentence awarded during the appeal period.
•       If the appellate court decides against the lower court, such a case may be permitted to go to next higher court and based on the judgment of that court the performance of the judges of the lower courts must be recorded and considered in their promotions or future benefits.
Also read: Privatization
• Special officer may send extraordinary cases directly to High courts. Apex court may deal with issues between states, constitutional issues and issues of national importance.
• Fast track courts must be there for cases of urgency, cases related to rape and cases against politicians.
• There may be an scrutiny of the judgments of lower courts at random (by an appropriate authority) to keep an eye on their functioning.
•       In good old days the British judges who could not bear the summer heat used to go to England declaring vacation to courts. There is no reason why this practice of vacation is being continued in Indian courts when lakhs of case are pending.
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