Abstract
Justice is the one of the basic pillars in the democratic society, and if justice is delayed it is totally a serious issue. Every citizen of the country expects that if any crime is committed the legal system will provide the fair and timely remedy. In India, the right to the fast justice has been seen many times as the part of the Fundamental Right under the Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Yet, in India we could see the criminal cases often remain pending for the years, and even sometimes decades.
The famous line "Justice delayed is Justice denied " reflects a harsh reality of the Indian Criminal Justice System and the public or the citizen should suffer from this. Although several reforms has been introduced in our legal system as Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023, Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023, which challenges backlogs, shortage of judges and main the procedural delays but still somehow we could see some of the problems in it. This articles states about the delayed justice how it impacts and some recent reforms and the cases and some possible solutions to make it better.
Keywords: Delayed Justice, speedy trial, Article 21, Constitution Of India, Fair trial Justice denied
1. Introduction
The word Justice means "the fair treatment of the people" but unfortunately we couldn't see this in our society or country. The criminal justice system exists to protect our society or to maintain law and order so that it ensures justice for victims. However, Justice losses its true meaning when it arrives after many year in our country. In India, thousands of criminal cases are still pending before the different courts either its District, High or Supreme Court. Victims who are innocent actually faces many of the problem because of the delayed justice and many of the accused moves freely around the society and the witnesses may loose their interest and even public comes to believe that law doesn't give any kind of solution and this time also we will not get any kind of justice.
As our Constitution gives us right fast trial as a constitutional right under the Article 21. The right to quick trial was become the part of Article 21 under the judgement in Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary , State of Bihar (1979). and later in another case A. R. Antulay v. R. S. Nayak (1992), the Supreme Court held that the right to fast trial applies to the investigation , inquiry, appeal.
India has one of the biggest judicial system but still it backlogs many of criminal cases, and during this time our victims and witness also faces many of the problems even the accused.
A delay in justice not just affect the single individual but it effect the whole society as it disturbs the rule of law of the society. Even people start believing that our judiciary only delays our cases and hence they start loosing their interest. And when sometimes serious crime happens like rape, murder, corruption, Dowry Death remain unsolved for years, and people started questioning the legal system, therefore it is a necessity to have a reform not just in names but in their system.
2. Understanding delayed Justice
Delayed Justice is a situation where our judiciary or the courts takes an unreasonable time to decide the criminal cases or to give the judgement. As we all know that when any kind of criminal case occur it majorly takes much times to resolve the case by the judiciary.
A person wait for the several year before a trial is completed or the judgement is delivered. Delays in any kind of justice can bring an unfair decision for the citizens of the public. Delayed Justice can happen in any kind of situation as in different stages as registration of FIR , filing of the charge sheet and at last the final judgment. Even sometimes it is done by the citizens only as they think it is not necessary to file a case, because of the previous situation of our judiciary. The delays in our system can decrease the effectiveness of the justice which create a chaos around the society.
3. Major causes of the delay:
One of the major cause for the delay is that huge number of cases are still buried under the court and number of pending cases before our Indian courts. Every day a new case comes under our Indian courts either it's District, High or Supreme and the number of disposal rate is often slow than the rate the new cases that are getting registered. Another factor which is an major contributing factor is the lack of guidelines across the judiciary which should institute a "average" time a case should take and beyond which a pending case doesn't take any time to become delayed case. Since there is no record that includes the time frames and it could to a stop in delayed cases.
Another factor is that the writ jurisdiction become pervasive and as the cases comes under the writ petition which makes a excessive burden of cases on the judiciary. Courts receive a large number of cases in very few times and hence they get too pressured and because of that many of the cases were still get pending and therefore g they comes under the category of the delayed cases. And as a result they remain pending for the years.
Another reason added to the this is the poor management of our judicial system of our country. There is a full absence of the timeline and the monitoring of the absence of the cases that are still pending which takes a much time in disposing of a case. And even it includes the investigation done by police officers as it takes much times because of the inadequate manpower and less forensic facilities along with many problems which lead an investigation to take much time and again till that time an another case occurs.
There are many such things which is even not exposed and due to many reasons the practices takes much more time and here also once again the judiciary is challenged by the people that "why our case is still in the pending list" due to increased duration of the criminal cases unnecessarily.
4. Impacts of Delayed Justice
The Impact of the Delayed justice creates a physically, mentally,and psychological problems for a person who faced these kind of problems even when they are already dealing with the criminal charges or proceeding. According to the NJDG (more than 1 around the society. The impact of the Delayed Justice :
4.1. Violation of Fundamental Right - The Right to life and Personal Liberty under the Article 21 also get violated by the delayed Justice. As in the case of the Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary the Supreme Court of India held that the right to the Speedy Trial is the essential part of the Article 21.
4.2. Suffering from loss - Victims faces continuous with the mental stress and even even from the stress of the society and they feels like the wasting money in the case which was pending since the investigation has been started and waiting for the final decision to come.
4.3. Overcrowd in the Prison- It is important to keep the accused under the custody but because of that many accused that are still in the custody or the prison the prisons are overcrowding because many of them are since long here and even the court even decided that they are guilty or not.
According to the NCRB prison reports the 73% to 75% approx. of the prisoners are in undertrial.
4.4. Delaying punishment - With the time when the punishment is delayed, it reduces the fear of law from the citizens and rate of the crime again increased
4.5. Weakens Evidence - With the time the witnesses may forget about the case or the facts, or may be they will be unavailable or may be they even doesn't exist so there are so many cases under this and because of the delay it can happen.
5. Recent Criminal cases with reforms
5.1 Recent Criminal cases
Vijay Singh v. State of the Uttar Pradesh (1985) : It was a case where the
Supreme Court Of India condemn a 41- year delay by the Allahabad High Court as a "blot of the justice delivery system," granting bail to the 72year - old appellant. The court highlighted that a four decade delay is hearing a criminal appeal violates the right to the speedy trial under the Article 21, prompting an investigation into systemic backlogs. 5.2 Reforms: India has introduced on 2023 three new criminal laws to modernize the criminal justice system i.e. Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam ( BSA). These reforms aim to improve the work investigation , encourage the use of technology, reduce unnecessary delay. The increased use of the digital evidence, electronic records and the other things which is expected to improve the speed of the criminal trials and to stop the delayed justice. They used many new technologies and even they add many of the reforms that the punishments are increased and the time for the trials are fast rather than the before but we know that improving laws or reforming law doesn't bring changes in our system, what brings changes in our system is the implication of the of these laws. Merely changing laws or without any changes in their working infrastructure the problem will be not solved. It will not change the problem until the courts, police officers, forensic institutions and many other officers will work together.
6. Suggestion For Reform
6.1. The judicial vacancies should be filled without unnecessary delays. More courts should be established in areas where we could see a large number of criminal cases.
6.2. Established more recruitment through different level of examination in district state and national.
6.3. Expands the system of the e-courts with the fully working system as the the hearing could be more easier and fast.
6.4. Unnecessary adjournments should be strictly removed or control because of this the unnecessary delayed occur, case management system should be systematic.
6.5. We have Free Legal Aid services for the economic weaker section but they worked very slow so it should be proper formalised and they should be resolve on time.
6.6. Police Investigation should become more professional through better training and they should even use modern technologies which could help the victims for better justice. They should do investigation on time and should not delay in that.
6.7. One of the reform that is for the trials as, in many of the cases the evidences and all the details are in the favour of the victim but still the accused case comes under the trial courts for multiple time so it should be strictly balanced by the court of law.
7. Conclusion
Justice shouldn't be only fair but it should be timely also. Delay in justice can impact many of the person including victims, witnessed and the accused. It can lead to reduced the public confidence in the rule of law. Although we have taken a step to introduced new laws in India the reform laws but it will only work when it gets a proper working and systematic system followed by our country.
The reform should not only viewed as the changing legislation but it should also focus on the improving investigation, and protecting the right of the citizens and ensures proper justice delivered to the citizen in a reasonable time. Only then there will a truly fulfillment of promise given by the Constitution of India under the Article 21. The steps and reforms taken by the government, if they actually works on it and tries not to delay the cases or the works our legal system will completely change and there will be a justice, fairness and equality in the society.
8. References
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Hussainara Khatoon & Ors. V. Home Secretary, State of Bihar, AIR 1979 SC 1360 (Right to Speedy Trial under Article 21).
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Constitution of India, Article 21 ( Right to Life and Personal Liberty)
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A. R. Antulay v. R. S. Nayak (1992)
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National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)
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Vijay Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1985)
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Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023)
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Bhartiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita (2023) Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (2023)
9. Bibliography
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Constitution of India, 1950
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M.P. Jain, Indian Constitutional Law.
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National crime Record Bureau (2024)
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Scc online
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ijrpr.com
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Indian justice Report