Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied: Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere

Historical acknowledgement of delays in the justice system after recognize the perspective of the accused or the disputed and suggest that for a person seeking justice, the time taken for resolution of their issue is critical to the justice experience. In essence, these acknowledgements are consistent with more recent research which has shown that the time taken to deal with a dispute is a, and in many cases the, critical factor in determining whether or not people consider that the justice system is just and fair. The question of whether justice delayed is justice denied appears to depend on whether delay is appropriate, out of proportion or avoidable. Proportionally and appropriateness of time taken to provide an outcome for disputants is said to form part of the definition of timelines.

Introduction

Justice delayed is justice denied is rightly the present scenario of India. Justice though is difficult to define, but can be said that it varies according to situation and persons. Since we live in a democratic country like India where people are governed by the laws of the country, it is very important to deliver justice on time to the victims to prevent the miscarriage of justice. It is rightly called the shield of innocence and the guardian of civil right. This is so because, like Martin Luther said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” A vey recent survey in India shows that there are approximately 3.2 crore cases pending in high and lower courts which means there is no meaning for justice.

Some years ago India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, informed the Lok Sabha (the lower house) that India had the largest backlog of cases in the world, and figures from this estimate that as many as 30 million cases are pending. The Hindustan times reported that over four million of these are high court cases, with a further 65,000 cases pending in India’s Hon’ble supreme court, this is about the previous decades and now the situation has become more worst. We are living in the society where we believe that “let the hundred guilty be acquitted but not one innocent be convicted” but do we really believe this? On one hand we say that one innocent should not suffer but the other hand due to delayed in justice don’t we indirectly letting the innocent to suffer.

According to Markandey Katju, a retired supreme court justice, judges should have not more than 300 cases pending at any one time, but backlogs for individual judges stretch into the tens of thousands. In 2009, the chief justice of New Delhi high court released a damning report in which he claimed it would take 466 years for the court to clear its backlogs. Despite spending on average less than five minutes per case, in 2009 the court had 600 cases that had been lodged over 20 years ago.

Some of the cases such as:

On October 31, 2018 Supreme Court gave its verdict on the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case1 and sentenced 16 former policemen of the 41st battalion of up provincial armed constabulary (PAC) to life imprisonment. The massacre is the case of the targeted killing of may 1987where policemen picked up and shot 42 Muslims in Hashimpura, Meerut. The bodies were later thrown into a canal.

In 1988, UP government directed CB-CID to probe the matter. CB-CID, in their 1994 report, held 19 police personnel guilty of the targeted killings. After 31 years of the tiring judicial process, during which three police personnel died, 16 accused were found guilty and slapped with life imprisonment.

There is another famous case of Delhi’s uphaar cinema fire mishap2 in June 1994report, held 19 police personnel guilty of the targeted killings. After 31 years of the tiring judicial process, during cinema hall was responsible for the mishap. It took 18 years to get justice. The Hon’ble Supreme Court Gave its ruling on this case in 2017.

Third and the worst example of judicial failure is a case of Machal lalung3. Twenty three- year old lalung belonged to the Tiwa tribe in Morigaon, Assam, and was arrested in 1951 on the false charges of “causing grievous harm”. The court gave him a jail term of ten years. But due to health issues, he was transferred to a psychiatric institution in tezpur, where he was forgotten. In 1967, the doctors certified him as fit, and he was moved to a jail in Guwahati, where he spent nearly four decades. He was released in 2005 after the local human rights groups brought his case to the attention of the national human rights commission. It was found that he was punished for the crime which he has not committed. When he released from the jail, he was of 77 years old. The apex court ordered the Assam government to compensate him and give him a monthly assistance amount. He was not able to speak Assam, Hindi, and English. He knew only his tribal language. That’s why he was not able to communicate with police and other officials.

Another detestable instance of gross delay by the judiciary is the Bhopal gas tragedy case4. The union carbide factory devastated more than 5 lakh people and after-effect of the tragedy continue to disrupt the lives of people that that reside in the area. The case protracted for years in the court, only 7 employees of the company were sentenced to jail for a period of 2 years and the company dodged its liability by paying compensation of $470 million. However, numerous victims are yet to receive any compensation for the undeniable damage that the adversely caused to them.

On similar lines, the rights to a fair trial is a fundamental right, however, in cases like Aarushi murder cases, this right is often forgetten.lack of evidence, witness statements, and even narco analysis didn’t change the courts view that Aarushi’s parents Rajesh and nupur talwar were guilty of the dual murders. Since 2008 there haven’t been any development in the case that is stuck in a catch-22 situation causing an inextricable delay in justice to the victim.

Another case that has eluded justice is the pallavi purkayastha murder case6. The session’s court failed to abide by the Hon’ble Supreme Courts guidelines on ‘rarest of rare case’ for awarding capital punishment to sajjad mogul and instead, sentenced him to life imprisonment. Mogul has still not been found after he jumped his parole granted to him in February 2016 and the police authorities are oblivious to his whereabouts. A small omission in heeding to the prescribed regulations has allowed the culprit in evading justice.

One of the most heinous crimes that shook everyone, was the Nirbhaya gang rape case7. Out of the 6 persons held guilty, one escaped from the clutches of justice owing to the juvenile justice laws, one committed suicide in his jail cell and the death sentenced of the remaining four is yet to be executed.

So when we look at the above example then one question arises that “did they really get justice?” few optimistic people may call it justice, while few may differ. But for me, it is not a justice. I mean when someone commits a crime he should be punished accordingly, but what if an accused got punishment after 10 or 20 or 30 years after the incident. Can we call that justice? In such a situation, the tiring judicial process often becomes mentally and financially torturing for the victims. The victim side feels a double burden on them. This becomes all the more difficult when the victim belongs to a vulnerable section of the society. Thus, the Indian legal system is required to taken some steps such as:

1. The Indian legal system urgently require to multiply the number of judges and fast-track courts, primarily at the district level.
2. Cases that are pending from decades must be dealt with on a priority basis.
3. Mobile courts and more Lok Adalats are required, to reduce the burden of higher courts and resolve complex cases speedily.
4. However, it’s a high time to work upon the judicial system. It is a necessity of Indian to get justice on time rather being following the proverb “justice delayed is justice denied.”