BUILDING A CONSENSUS ON JUDICIAL REFORMS

In our April-June 2008 issue, we had reproduced the writ petition that Janhit Manch, Common Cause and others had filed in the Supreme Court with a view to setting in motion the process of comprehensive judicial reforms. The petition was taken up in April 2008 when notice was issued to the Union of India to file its reply. Nine months have elapsed, but the Union of India has not responded. The case is now listed for February 9, 2009. Hopefully, we shall then come to know the Government’s response to our pleas.

Meanwhile, the petitioners have been striving to build a national consensus on judicial reforms, which are crucial to the preservation of our cherished values and democratic polity. The impending elections to the Lok Sabha provide us an opportunity to project the issue of judicial reforms on the political firmament. We deemed it appropriate to urge the political parties to treat it as a non-partisan issue of national importance and invite them to affirm their commitment to a time bound programme of implementation in their election manifestos. Accordingly, we have addressed the following letter to the heads of all political parties recognised by the Election Commission at the national and state levels.

“The legitimacy of a state is founded on its capacity to uphold the rule of law and provide speedy, affordable and substantial justice to all its residents. The Indian state, unfortunately, falls woefully short of these standards of governance. Our judicial system is agonisingly slow, ruinously expensive for the vast majority of litigants, and gives precedence to technicalities and intricacies of procedure over issues of substance. These shortcomings have given rise to an environment in which the rule of law is fast losing ground to the rule of the jungle. The country urgently needs radical judicial reforms to avert the impending anarchy. It has become imperative to evolve a national consensus on the agenda for judicial reforms and to this end, all our political formations must rise above parochial considerations and commit themselves to a time bound programme for the overhaul of our judicial system. The forthcoming general elections to the Lok Sabha provide an opportunity to the political parties to affirm their commitment to a national programme of judicial reforms by giving it the pride of place in their manifestos.

We have taken the liberty to suggest for your consideration the key elements of a programme for judicial reforms in the hope that you would incorporate them in your manifesto.

With warm regards,