Events And Issues
New Delhi, 22 January 2007
Justice Through
Conciliation
Towards
Fast Track Rural Courts
By Radhakrishna Rao
The draft Bill on Nyaya Panchayat aimed at setting up fast
track, people-oriented, easily accessible
and highly affordable rural courts is under scanner, as a prelude to its
introduction in Parliament.
Describing the activities of Caste Panchayats and communal
justice dispensation system as “illegal and unconstitutional”, the Union
Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, has stated that Nyaya Panchayat
which would bring justice to the rural populace through “conciliation and
compromise” rather than through “arguments and adjudication.” It would go down
well with the psyche of the Indian rural community because it is not imposed
from “outside and above”.
Indeed, the acceptance of Nyaya Panchayat by the rural
community is based on the fact that they existed from time immemorial and
formed an integral part of the India’s
ageless cultural ethos. As pointed
out by Avadesh Kaushal, Chairperson of the Dehra Dun-based Rural Litigation and
Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), Nyaya Panchayat which embodies the rich heritage and
tradition of moral values running into thousands of years is ideally suited to
meet the aspirations or rural India.
Indeed, Kaushal drives homes the point that dispensation of
justice by local self-government functionaries is not new to the Indian
genius. For there is a long and old
tradition in India
of the encouragement of dispute resolution outside the formal legal system.
Disputes are quite obviously settled by the intervention of elders or assemblies of learned men and other such bodies.
Nyaya Panchayats at the grass root
level were there even before the advent of British administration, observes
Kaushal.
Kaushal, who has made original and significant contribution
to the draft Bill on Nyaya Panchayat is clear in his perception that Nyaya
Panchayat alone could provide speedy, transparent and cost effective justice to
the rural communities in India.
Indeed, way back in 1970s, the well-documented Bhagwati Committee report had
made a strong pitch for invigorating Nyaya Panchayat. But the lack of political commitment implied
poor support for the recommendations of Bhagwati Committee.
Prior to that, in 1954, a report on Village Panchayat had
this to say on Nyaya Panchayat: “Sitting on the Panchayat, the elders of the
villages used to solve disputes, arising between the members of the village
community. These elders used to live in the villages themselves and by virtue
of their residence well-acquainted with local conditions and knew the habits,
customs and practices of the people.
Almost all individuals of the villages were known. In view of all these factors, they easily
came to know reasons behind the dispute that arose.”
On his part, Kaushal points out that down the centuries, the
system of Nyaya Panchayat has been nourishing the legal administration at the
grassroot level in a highly
democratic fashion by involving the community at all stages of decision making.
Says Kaushal: “With the prevailing system of judicial
administration becoming cumbersome, costly and complex, a large section of our
population has started shunning the courts of law for seeking legal redressal to their grievances. As such, Nyaya Panchayat
which can easily be accessed by an
ordinary rural citizen in a highly affordable manner, has become the crying
need of the hour”.
The current system of administration of justice has failed
to achieve its objectives. Indeed, a common perception amongst the rural masses is that access
to justice is both complex and difficult and as a result they avoid seeking
redress to their grievances through
courts.
The reason for this attitude appears to be physical inaccessibility, inordinate delay in dispensing justice,
expenditure involved, technicalities and rigid rules of procedures of the
present legal system. The biggest crisis facing the conventional judicial
system is the burden of a massive
backlog, which, in recent years, has assumed
insurmountable proportions, making access
to justice to the people at large far delayed and long drawn out process.
More than 30 million cases are known to be pending before
various courts spread across the
country. During one of his moments of soul searching, the former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi had expressed his
concern over the functioning of the judicial system with the statement that “if
the justice is delayed, we cannot really claim that is justice is being
delivered. We have to look ahead and see
how we can clean up these roadblocks, how we can expedite justice without
diluting justice, without reducing it in its value. We have to see how our people can get
justice. It is not a question of time.
It is also a question of affording it. We have taken steps and we have shown
that it can be done cheaply. It is also
a question of physical access”.
Obviously, over the years the legal ambit in its entirety
has widened to encompass innovations
in the legal process, for instance,
cyber crimes, intellectual property rights violations and bio-terrorism
etc..The instance of legal remedy sought by a grand father being passed on to his grandson are aplenty. In distinct
contrast to the conventional judicial delivery system, a rural court will be less formal, simple and well equipped to deliver
speedy and inexpensive justice to the rural masses
of the country.
Further, these rural courts, guided as they are by local
tradition, culture and behavioural pattern of the village community have the
potential to instill confidence in the people towards the administration of
justice. A envisaged, the make up and composition
of the rural courts would be quite simple. It would staffed by a professional judge and supported by two other judges who
would be selected/nominated by a panel of district and sessions
judges. It will hold sessions in the full view of the local community and
try to resolves disputes through persuasion and conciliation.
It is not for nothing that not long ago, the Indian Law
Commission had observed inter alia,
that the rural courts could lead to a transparency in the justice delivery
system, with a stress on promoting
justice on the basis of equal opportunity and without any type of
discrimination.---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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