Address At The Golden Jubilee Celebrations Of The High Court Of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad

Societal Harmony through Justice

I am delighted to participate in the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. I greet Hon?ble Justices, President of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Bar Association, distinguished legal personalities and other participants. During the last five decades the Andhra Pradesh High Court has dealt with many critical cases of national importance and have provided landmark judgments. I congratulate the Hon?ble Judges, members of the bar association and the legal luminaries both present and past who have built a robust institutional framework for Andhra Pradesh High Court over the last five decades. When I am in the midst of Andhra Pradesh Judicial and Legal community, I would like to discuss on the topic "Societal Harmony through Justice".

Our judicial system is dynamic and an institution which is throbbing with life. As the ultimate protector of human rights and the final resort for dispensation of justice, the citizens of India look up to this institution with awe and eternal hope. This casts a very heavy responsibility on the entire judicial system to live up to the expectations reposed in it and to maintain the sacred aura attached to it unsullied. Qualities of honesty and integrity are synonymous with each member of the judicial system.

Importance of speedy justice

In a developing economy, for that matter in any modern economy, there is an urgent need to implement nationally relevant and important projects in a time bound manner. While the Courts are the guardians to protect the projects from the onslaught of from and machinations of unscrupulous individuals or groups, the Courts also have a responsibility to ensure that honest implementations are not impeded by unsustainable or motivated litigations or honest persons vilified through public glare based on such filings. This dual role of the judiciary places enormous responsibility on the shoulders of the Courts and the nation?s development is equally dependent on the dynamism and the innovativeness of the judicial system. Hence, there is an urgent need to ensure that no justice is delayed and the situation existing today is remedied soon. Though I have cited an example from the projects of the national initiative?s point of view, this is equally valid even for the litigations that concerns individual citizens and organisations as well. Human rights of many persons are being violated through charges made by certain groups and cases filed which take many years to come to final decision. Years lost don?t come back to individuals or their families.

Transparency starts from Home

On 21st November 2005, I had visited Adhi-chun-cha-na-giri Math, attended a function of FUREC (Foundation for Unity of Religions and Enlightened Citizenship) and interacted with over 54,000 students of various schools and colleges of Karnataka. There a 10th class student Ms. M. Bhavani studying in Adichunchanagiri Composite High School, Sharavathy Nagar, Shimoga asked me the following question.

"Dear Sir, What is the role of students to stop corruption which is deeply rooted in our county just like cancer?"

Agony of the young mind is reflected in this question. For me it was an important question, since it comes from a young mind. Definitely, the self-esteem of every Indian is affected when someone says India is a corrupt nation. I was thinking what type of solutions we could give. My thought process was the following:

I said there are one billion people in the country and nearly 200 million homes. In general there are good citizens everywhere. However, if we find that people in few million houses are not transparent and not amenable to the laws of the country, what can we do? These houses apart from father and mother, they have one daughter or one son or both. If the parents in these houses are deviating from the transparent path the children can use the tool of love and affection and correct the parents to come back to the right path. I asked all the children assembled in that gathering, in case parents of a few children get deviated from transparency and resort to dishonest methods to get gains for themselves or the family or friends, will you children boldly tell your parents, father or mother, you are not doing the right thing, that is what we are taught by you and in the school. Most of the children spontaneously responded, ?We will do it?. The confidence comes from them that they have love as a tool. Similarly I have also asked the parents in some other meeting, initially there was a silence, later, many of them hesitantly agreed that they would abide by the children?s suggestion since it is driven by love. The children took an oath from me. The oath was ?I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a transparent way of life?. Finally I told the students that they should start a movement starting from their home. I hope they do.

On 8th December 2005, I was talking to some of my friends. During the conversation my friends told me about certain instances which they have observed where the children are not in talking terms with their father or mother if he or she is perceived to be not transparent. This reinforces my thought that the children can definitely bring a change for making our country as a whole transparent and become a proud nation. Now I would like to discuss on the topic of pendency in litigation and certain remedial measures.

Dispute resolution through human touch

I would like to share my experiences in Rameswaram. Almost every day after the evening namaz my father used to come back and sit outside. Each day about 10 to 20 families or at times individuals would come to my father and tell their problems on land and house disputes, marriage conflicts and issues involving forsaking of elderly parents and get solutions. They will get a solution within two or three days. In a similar way, my mother used to meet many womenfolk on Fridays. They will seek her advice. My elder brother himself was Panchayat Court President. The court had five good human beings from various walks of life and with one State Government representative. In those days in that region, the caste system was not visible at all. I used to see many disputes of human life being settled in our own rural environment. Only if the disputes are not settled at these two levels, they used to resort to higher courts. After 1970s, all these systems with human touch vanished and most of these disputes are directly piling up in courts. I feel, since the Panchayat environment is emerging in rural areas, the judicial system at the Panchayat level also can take a shape with the same type of human touch without the influence of political parties and the related biases vis-�-vis individual and families. This may reduce the load in our courts. It is generally said that ?law is somewhere and justice is somewhere else?. In the rural judicial system justice is always with the truth. A similar system of dispute resolution I saw in Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, where I met Shri Nanaji Deshmukh (Age 90+) and his team members belonging to Deendayal Research Institute (DRI). DRI is a unique institution developing and implementing a village development model which is most suited for India. Apart from all these development activities, the institute is facilitating a cohesive conflict free society. As a result of this, I understand that the eighty villages around Chitrakoot are almost litigation free. The villagers have unanimously decided that no dispute will find its way to court. The differences will be sorted out amicably in the village itself. The reason given by Nana Deshmukh is that if the people fight among each other, they have no time for development. I consider that this model must be propagated throughout the nation. The Andhra Pradesh High Court can suggest to the village authorities to introduce a system of out of court settlement in villages with the assistance of reputed unbiased persons in the region. This will enable settlement of large number of cases in the village itself, leading to a harmonious atmosphere in the villages.

Mobile Legal Aid and Lok Adalat

Recently I inaugurated a Mobile Legal Aid and Lok Adalat System in Bihar in continuation of Gujarat Model. I would recommend creation of a Mobile Legal Aid and Lok Adalat for Andhra Pradesh also. I would also suggest that all Mobile Legal Aid and Lok Adalat spread in different parts of the country can be networked. The number of cases settled in each month can be presented. This will provide the transparency to the villagers and many will come forward for getting their cases settled. Eventually, speedy settlement of number of cases will bring down the pendency in the Courts and also provide the rural people the necessary peace in their mind which will enable them to apply their effort towards development tasks. I understand that, Andhra Pradesh has settled number of cases through Lok Adalat, including the settlement of relief and compensation to the families of flood victims affected by Delta Fast Passenger Accident, which took place on 29 Oct 2005. Similarly, I witnessed the system of Lokadalat introduced by the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court for the on-the spot settlement of relief and compensation particularly for house reconstruction of the earthquake affected persons in URI, Tanghdar and URSA. The system has ensured the timely payment of relief to all the people affected by earthquake. In the Golden Jubilee Year Andhra Pradesh High Court can consider creation of Mobile Legal Aid and Lok Adalat for the on-the-spot settlement of cases in rural areas.

Age analysis of the cases

I would suggest that the Hon?ble Justices assembled here may like to organize the conduct of a systematic analysis of the ?age? of the pending cases in the High Court and in the district and sessions Courts. If we carry out such an exercise, it may be possible we may find cases which are pending for five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years, thirty years and so on. On further examination of the cases we may find that the parties who are involved in the litigation of very old cases are either not there or they may not be interested in pursuing the case any more. If this process is systematically done, in my opinion at least twenty five to thirty percent of the total pending cases can be closed in one go. I understand that this procedure has been adopted in Delhi High Court and has resulted in closing of many cases. Simultaneously, along with this analysis, grouping may also be done to sort out the cases in which same or similar law points are involved so that these cases would be placed before a particular judge or a bench for disposal. The combined process of age analysis and grouping will definitely result in disposal of a large number of pending cases. At this stage itself, computer based sorting out methodology is useful.

Andhra Pradesh Litigation Pendency Clearance Mission

Fortunately, India had a number of successful mission mode programmes in agriculture, nuclear technology, defence research, space technology and recently in IT and Pharma sectors. We can use the experiences from these programmes and evolve a ?Judiciary Programme Management Group? with empowered team of IT power for reducing the pendency of cases in the State of Andhra Pradesh in a time bound manner. This programme management group must have the authority to create mobile pendency clearance courts which can move to various districts and blocks for hearing the cases in the village itself and provide speedy justice. I was very happy to see, certain cases where the justice was administered speedily. One case pertains to rape case in Rajasthan and the others pertained to theft cases in Tamil Nadu. These are the good examples in speedy disposal of cases.

Potential of e-Judiciary

The judgments of the Supreme Court and some High Courts are now available in the internet. This step has considerably relieved the agony of the litigants and also enables others to use these judgments in their areas of interest. It is a giant leap. I am happy to note that Andhra Pradesh High Court have created a website which displays the daily cause list, the judgment delivered and many information useful to the citizens. This model must be extended to the district courts also since they have the large volume of pending cases. In addition to this, there is a need to work out a total e-judiciary system for implementation by our Courts. From the time the case is registered, till it is disposed off with judgment, the entire processing must take place electronically. This will enable easy search, retrieval, grouping, information processing, judicial record processing and disposal of the cases in a transparent manner and enable quicker disposal of cases. At any time the complainant should be able to find out, what is the stage, what Court, what date and what subject will be dealt with by the Court during a particular hearing, enabling him to be fully prepared for the case. Apart from bringing in total transparency in the case, the judges can also see how the case has progressed, how many adjournments have been sought, whether the grounds are trivial or serious and many such information which will make the delivery of justice impartial. I am very happy to mention that action for connecting all the fifteen thousand courts in the country from the District Court to the Supreme Court through a Wide Area Network has been approved by the Government. This I consider a good beginning.

The video conferencing offered by ICT has to be used in a large way. This saves enormous amount of expenditure and the unnecessary movement of police personnel and under trials and avoids unpleasant incidents that would have happened during the transit. This will be very useful in cases where a number of individuals are accused. The witness identification and crime reconstruction areas have also immensely benefited by the use of ICT. Many countries including Singapore and Australia have also been experimenting with Internet Courts and a legal consultation service which can pre-advice the potential litigants about the legal correctness of the case, that he or she wishes to pursue. In all cases, the ICT had been useful in speedy redressal of the cases as well as avoiding even origination of fraudulent cases. This in effect will contribute to speeding up of our justice delivery system.

Fast track courts

Fast track courts for particular type of offences, we understand, are performing. That is why the Government has approved the continuation of these courts. After performance review of this experience, the fast track courts can be encouraged in various levels of courts in other areas. Fast track courts in priority can take up the rape and corruption cases to deliver speedy justice.

Patent Law

There are number of small and medium scale industries in Andhra Pradesh who undertake production of variety of engineering items including spare parts and components for the automobile sector. As the nation economically advances, patent law, cyberlaw, oceanlaw and spacelaw will become strategically important. Judiciary and law personnel have to have special training programme with case studies from international experiences. This will lead to understanding of the typical problems of the small scale industries, software houses, sea and space transportation issues.

Mission for the Judiciary

I suggest a mission for all the high courts in the country including Andhra Pradesh High Court. As a part of this mission I would like research to be carried out by legal and judicial personalities for analyzing the path breaking judgements delivered by various courts in the country during the period 1990-2005. Also it will be useful to determine the impact of such judgements to the welfare of the people and promotion of societal harmony in the area of environmental protection, protection of citizen rights and protection of national economic institutions. The results of the study will become a handbook of guidance for Law students and legal planners. It will also be a pride for judicial community for its contribution to societal transformation.

Conclusion

It is of utmost importance to remember that fairness, nobility and righteousness on the part of dispensers of justice constitute the hallmark of any sound judicial system. Hence for the alternative dispute redressal mechanism to successfully thrive in its quest for delivery of amicable, thrifty and speedy justice it ought to be ensured that those who don the robes of mediators, conciliators, negotiators and arbitrators set an example for the posterity by efficiently disposing off litigation without compromising on the time and quality of justice. At the same time, interference by the formal legal system in disputes redressed through alternative system should remain minimal and on well defined grounds to lend credibility to the alternative system.

Our judiciary has a glorious tradition. It has given wholesome meaning and healthy content to our democracy. We have every reason to be proud of our system and I have no doubt that as days go by, our judicial system will go from strength to strength justifying the citizens? faith in it and their hopes and aspirations for speedy dispensation of justice.

Once again let me greet all the members of Legal and Judicial Fraternity of Andhra Pradesh High Court on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations. My best wishes to all of you in your mission of providing speedy justice with nobility.

May God bless you.