A critique of the Judicial System
In an ideal utopian society, education, health and justice of the highest quality should be free for everyone. The effects of this are obvious. There will be great progress and there will be great happiness in society. But obviously this is impossible to achieve. Nevertheless, free education, health and justice are worthy ideals to strive towards. Whilst decent progress has been made on the education and health fronts, free justice still remains an unfulfilled dream. The condition is far worse in under developed nations like India.
The justice system in place today will certainly rank amongst the worst possible systems that has ever been conceived by the human mind. It certainly cannot take us anywhere near the ideal goal of free justice to all. There are a plethora of reasons for the same. Some of the most important ones are
In an ideal utopian society, education, health and justice of the highest quality should be free for everyone. The effects of this are obvious. There will be great progress and there will be great happiness in society. But obviously this is impossible to achieve. Nevertheless, free education, health and justice are worthy ideals to strive towards. Whilst decent progress has been made on the education and health fronts, free justice still remains an unfulfilled dream. The condition is far worse in under developed nations like India.
The justice system in place today will certainly rank amongst the worst possible systems that has ever been conceived by the human mind. It certainly cannot take us anywhere near the ideal goal of free justice to all. There are a plethora of reasons for the same. Some of the most important ones are
- Justice is not decided by the spirit of the law, instead it is decide by the word of the law.
- The accused and the accuser have to pay inordinate amounts of money to lawyers to get justice.
- There is absolutely no consistency in the delivery of justice.
- Time taken to deliver justice is inordinately high
1.) The first point mentioned above is probably the worst of the above four points. This alone makes the court rooms a circus. Any law should be adhered to in spirit. If not, all you need to break the law is sophistry. One just needs to keep on talking until one finds a way to interpret the words in a particular fashion. What this does, is that law and all legal documents are so embroiled in legal jargon that the common man, for whom the law was designed, cannot interpret it.
e.g. a smart young man gets a patent on a technology and this is worded in a certain fashion
In comes a corporation with great economic muscle. It hires the best legal talent, interprets the word in the patent statement in a certain fashion and steals the technology that came out of that smart chaps efforts.
There are countless such examples. Now this is a simple example from a civil case. Criminal cases are even more notorious. This is the greatest bane of our society. Justice by the word of the law and not by the spirit of the law is exactly how it should NOT be.
And this is something that is not restricted to the judicial system. It is in our culture. We somehow want to twist each others words to get our job done. That is the root of the problem. Is it possible for us to challenge our mind to break out of this? No matter what, can we stick to honesty and the spirit of our word in each and every action of ours, no matter how trivial?
2.) The Government is of the people, for the people and by the people. So, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure justice prevails. For that, the government mechanism should take care of both the for and against arguments. Instead it appoints a lawyer as the public prosecuor and leaves the defendants to fend for himself. So, for the same crime a poor man for want of money to hire a bright legal mind will have to face the stick whilst a well heeled one will escape the law becoz he is able to hire someone who is better at gabbing than the public prosecutor. This clearly shows that whether one is right or wrong is simply decided by the depth of ones pocket. Can there be a bigger disgrace to justice?
Similarly when two people have a civil case on some issue, the person who hires the better legal talent wins. If lawyer A is better than lawyer B and if X hires A in a suit that he has filed against Y, then X wins. On the other hand, if X had hired B instead of A, then Y would have won. Things certainly cant get worse than this.
3.) The third point is simply a by-product of the first two. The sessions judge dismisses the case, high courts then convicts the accused, the supreme court then dismisses the case. I just cant help but laugh at this. Is it possible to evolve a system that deliver judgement consistently. Yes, overriding a decision is bound to happen now and then. But, in this system it is the norm rather than the exception.
4.) Justice delayed is justice denied. If this were maxim were true, there is hardly any justice available in India. The primary reason for is point 1 mentioned above. Beyond that, it is incompetency and corruption in the prosecuting side. What is the damn point in
With such ills, is there hope? Do we simply accept this as There Is No Other Alternative? Any thoughts?
Is it possible for us to brain storm and find out various ideas to counter this - ranging from the most insane to the most sublime of possiblities?
e.g. a smart young man gets a patent on a technology and this is worded in a certain fashion
In comes a corporation with great economic muscle. It hires the best legal talent, interprets the word in the patent statement in a certain fashion and steals the technology that came out of that smart chaps efforts.
There are countless such examples. Now this is a simple example from a civil case. Criminal cases are even more notorious. This is the greatest bane of our society. Justice by the word of the law and not by the spirit of the law is exactly how it should NOT be.
And this is something that is not restricted to the judicial system. It is in our culture. We somehow want to twist each others words to get our job done. That is the root of the problem. Is it possible for us to challenge our mind to break out of this? No matter what, can we stick to honesty and the spirit of our word in each and every action of ours, no matter how trivial?
2.) The Government is of the people, for the people and by the people. So, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure justice prevails. For that, the government mechanism should take care of both the for and against arguments. Instead it appoints a lawyer as the public prosecuor and leaves the defendants to fend for himself. So, for the same crime a poor man for want of money to hire a bright legal mind will have to face the stick whilst a well heeled one will escape the law becoz he is able to hire someone who is better at gabbing than the public prosecutor. This clearly shows that whether one is right or wrong is simply decided by the depth of ones pocket. Can there be a bigger disgrace to justice?
Similarly when two people have a civil case on some issue, the person who hires the better legal talent wins. If lawyer A is better than lawyer B and if X hires A in a suit that he has filed against Y, then X wins. On the other hand, if X had hired B instead of A, then Y would have won. Things certainly cant get worse than this.
3.) The third point is simply a by-product of the first two. The sessions judge dismisses the case, high courts then convicts the accused, the supreme court then dismisses the case. I just cant help but laugh at this. Is it possible to evolve a system that deliver judgement consistently. Yes, overriding a decision is bound to happen now and then. But, in this system it is the norm rather than the exception.
4.) Justice delayed is justice denied. If this were maxim were true, there is hardly any justice available in India. The primary reason for is point 1 mentioned above. Beyond that, it is incompetency and corruption in the prosecuting side. What is the damn point in
With such ills, is there hope? Do we simply accept this as There Is No Other Alternative? Any thoughts?
Is it possible for us to brain storm and find out various ideas to counter this - ranging from the most insane to the most sublime of possiblities?
