Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Saturday said the justice delivery process is so deadening that what is basically a human problem transforms itself into “yet another case” by the end of the day.
This is a “harsh reality”, Chief Justice Ramana said.
“Sadly, our system is designed in such a way that by the time all the facts and law are churned out in the court of law, much gets lost in the process. People might be bringing their problems to the courts, but what remains at the end of the day is yet another ‘case’,” the CJI noted.
The common man loses control over the fate of his own grievance in the labyrinth of the complex language of various statutes and the process of justice delivery, he said.
“Often in this trajectory, the justice seeker feels like an outsider to the system,” the Chief Justice said.
The CJI said, “The lawmakers, the Legislature, have to revisit their laws and simplify them to suit the practical needs and realities of the time. The Executive has to make rules which correspond with these laws for the benefit and welfare of the people. The legal framework has to be drastically altered to make the justice delivery mechanism people-friendly.”
The Legislature and the Executive should work in unison, Justice Ramana said.
It is only then that people would get rid of the wrong notion that the judiciary, and not the Legislature, makes the law.
“It is only then that the judiciary would not be compelled to step in as a lawmaker and would only be left with the duty of applying and interpreting the same... At the end of the day, it is the harmonious functioning of the three organs of the State that can remove the procedural barriers to justice,” the CJI said.
The CJI was speaking at the inauguration of the new building for the Odisha State Legal Services Authority in Cuttack.
He said his words mirrored his thoughts on the last Census, which found that 83.3% of people living in the rural areas of Odisha were often excluded from the formal justice delivery system. He said it was in such cases that the role of the legal service institution assumed great importance.
Published - September 25, 2021 03:45 pm IST
