Judiciary Reforms in India, Current Issues and UPSC Notes

The judiciary is a crucial pillar of any democratic society and plays a vital role in upholding the rule of law, ensuring justice, and safeguarding the rights and freedoms of citizens and the Indian Judiciary looks for reforms for better delivery of justice to public. In this article we will dive in judicial reforms in India, their needs and goals to be achieved from the reforms.

This topic is important from UPSC GS2 perspective as it covers topics from polity and reforms.

Judiciary Reforms in India

Judicial reforms refer to change and improvements in the legal and judicial system, these reforms aim to achieve efficacy, transparency and effectiveness ensuring fair and timely justice to all citizens.

“The judiciary to a very large extent is not concerned with the executive: it is concerned with the adjudication of the right of the people and to some extent of the rights of the Government of India and the Units as such,” – Ambedkar

The adjudication of the right of the people will be better with the judicial reforms in India.

Need For Judiciary Reforms in India

Before discussing the reforms required by the Indian judicial system we should first learn about the need of new reforms and the challenges in implementing new reforms. It will help you better understand the system.

1. Backlog of cases – This is one of the major issues associated with judiciary, delay caused by this make people loose their faith over judiciary.
2. Shortage of Judges – There is a big shortage of  35% of judges in the subordinate court. This is the reason for poor judge to population ratio. In India there are 17 judges per million people.
3. Lack of Human Resource – Not only at the judge level but at assistance and clerical level also there are shortages.
4. Lack of Gender Diversity – There have been only 11 women judges till date and India will get its 1st woman Chief Justice of India in 2027.
5. Procedural issues – It includes delay in service of summons/notices to accused/defendants/respondents by process servers and police.
6. Appointment and accountability of judges – There have been concerns about the transparency and accountability of the process of appointment of judges, as well as the performance and conduct of judges themselves. The judges in India are appointed through collegium system. This system has been criticized for not being transparent.

Previous Judiciary Reforms in India

Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill: The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to regulate the conduct of judges and to establish a mechanism for investigating complaints of misconduct against them but there have been more additional steps take after that which are –

1. Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR): virtual courts, Lok Adalat, Gram Nyayalyas are example of ADR addition to these there is mandatory pre institution settlement for commercial disputes through Commercial Courts Act 2015.
2. Fast Track Courts: Setting up fast track courts for better, fast and timely delivery of justice in special cases like sexual harassment and terrorist activities have been implemented through Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, 2008, both central and state governments have setup fast track courts to speed up the justice delivery.
3. Integration of technology : Integration of technology with the judicial system has been a good step. Impact of integration of technology with judiciary-

a) National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG): Under NJDG, lawyers and litigants can access status information of cases and orders/judgments.

b) Virtual court system: In the virtual court system, regular court proceedings are conducted virtually through videoconferencing. It helps in saving resources and manpower used while transporting accused for trials from jails to courts.

c) e-Sewa Kendras: To provide e-filing services to lawyers and litigants to bridge the digital divide.

More Judiciary Reforms in India

When we talk about, more judicial reforms in India the main demands about reform are the appointment of judges, accountability, reducing pendency, gender-neutral environment, and training. Now, after learning demands and requirements related with judiciary reforms in India. let’s read about these in detail –

1. Appointment of Judges:  As discussed above the current system of collegium is criticized because of its opaque nature. It is a proposed national-level judicial service in India. It aims to create a unified and centralized system for the recruitment and career progression of judicial officers in the country which will be called All India Judicial Service which can be compared with appointments made in other all India services.
2. Increase the use of the ADR mechanism and Plea Bargaining: Building awareness among litigants and prospective litigants about ADR processes and encouraging out-of-court settlement and plea bargaining by accepting the guilt if guilty.
3. Increase representation of women in the Judicial System: Former CJI N V Ramana has voiced support for 50% representation for women in the judiciary. He remarked that “the presence of women as judges and lawyers, will substantially improve the justice delivery system.
4. Training:  A training center for improving legislative drafting, conducting Judicial Impact Assessments, and training Law Officers of the Government, for better and effective documentation also it will be a helping hand to judges.
5. Reducing Pendency: Law Commission of India in 2009 recommended to increase the maximum strength of supreme court judges and dividing the Supreme Court into a Constitution Bench at Delhi and Cassation Benches in four regions at Delhi, Chennai/Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai to ensure timely Justice delivery and to increase the retirement age of High Court Judges.

Challenges to Judiciary Reforms in India

Judiciary mainly comprise of elderly people in their 50s which makes it difficult for them to be open to changes and they show resistance.

Inefficiency for implementing the reforms mainly with the training and filling vacant posts. Other challenges include political interference, insufficient resources and funding to the judiciary, and lack of public awareness

Conclusion

From the above discussion it is significant that Judiciary Reforms in India are necessary for bringing effectiveness, transparency and timely justice also several intellectuals have advocated for the reforms but because of the challenges discussed above there is resistance to reforms the best way to overcome this to take the changes slowly but steadily and be done within a time limit his allow the people to change their mind set to accept new reforms.

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