CJI's (Chief Justice of India) blame-game of denial
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 19, 2013 -

Funeral Procession for the last rites of the SDO Th Kishan and his two staff on 23rd Feb 2009 :: Pix - GNet

On a day, when family members of Dr Thingnam Kishan, the then SDO of Kasom Khullen; Revenue Mandal Yumnam Token and driver Aribam Rajen, who were abducted and subsequently murdered by some armed cadres of NSCN (IM), lamented over the delay in delivering justice even after four years of the gruesome crime here, elsewhere Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir admitted that a major problem being faced in India today in delivery of criminal justice is the 'delay where the entire process, from the time when an offence is registered to the stage of final conviction, takes almost 15 to 16 years.'

What Justice Kabir has stated ,while delivering the Justice P D Desai memorial lecture on 'Administration of Criminal Justice' at Ahmedabad on Sunday, was nothing but an obvious fact of how Indian judiciary system has been functioning or, more appropriately, non-functioning all these years.

And the angry public reaction over such inordinate delay in delivering justice that the Chief Justice of India talked about is but natural, because the public, specially the family members of the victims including that of Dr Kishan, Yumnam Token and Aribam Rajen, who are enduring the pang of injustice all the more from an insensitive Government that seems to condone criminal activities, strongly feel that something should be done immediately.

So, everybody involved in the justice delivery process needs to perform their duty to expedite the wheels of justice, as Justice Kabir has stated.

However, just to assert and pin-down on the low judge-population ratio in India as the main challenge in administration of criminal justice in the country would be doing greater injustice to the family members of the victims who come knocking at the door of law court for redressal of their grievances.

It would amounts to condoning the inherent defects in the whole judiciary system itself, which everyone is asking for a thorough cleansing today. Even if we admit the fact that there are just 6 judges for every one million citizens in India as compared to 125 judges for one million citizens in USA, the ground reality of the challenges in administration of criminal justice in the country is something far from that.

It is corruption at every level of the Indian judiciary system which is posing a greater challenge than anything else.

With adjournments of case hearing being allowed at the drop of a hat, the concept of 'instant justice' is becoming something foreign here. There should be directive strong enough to ensure appearance of accused person(s) in all court hearings as well as for the lawyers to come prepare for their arguments with supporting documents in every case hearing.

Moreover, if it is an open and shut case, then what is the point of allowing any further appeal in some higher courts without fresh evidences for the lawyers to make hey while the sun shines?

An 'understaffed judiciary system' should not be an excuse for delaying justice to any victim.

Wish the honourable Chief Justice of India understands this simple points.