Need to adopt methods to reduce pendency in courts, say experts

Rising pendency in courts across the country which reached 42198488 on Tuesday calls for setting up of judicial infrastructure as well as adopting methods to improve the criminal justice system say experts As per data from the National Judicial Data Grid there are 10838264 civil cases and 31350224 criminal cases pending in courtsmidday had on October 1 highlighted the high pendency as well as underreporting of criminal cases across the country midday held a discussion with Dr Arvind Tiwari professor and dean School of Law Rights and Constitutional Governance at Tata Institute of Social Sciences about possible ways to mitigate the situation Dr Tiwari mentioned five methods to improve the situationldquoFirstly community policing should be encouraged in both rural and urban areas Unfortunately community policing needs to be institutionalised even though some top police officers think otherwise Also community policing is not considered as a performance review key for the police and hence not adhered to effectively The police need to adapt to bridge the gap between police and publicrdquo Dr Tiwari saidDr Arvind TiwariHe added ldquoSecondly the Gram Nyayalayas Act 2008 which came into force on October 2 2009 can be used for speedy redressal in rural parts Unfortunately this is nonfunctional today It should be revived so that the petty cases could be tackled and resolved without the need of a court In Maharashtra too the police initially conducted slum panchayats to solve petty issues in the slum pockets but for some unknown reasons this practice has been called offrdquoAlso Read Herersquos whatrsquos up with our criminal justice systemldquoThirdly the Hyderabad police model wherein the police go beyond routine policing should be adopted all over Cops should take down citizensrsquo complaints pertaining to civil civic electrical issues or otherwise and refer them to the departments concernedrdquo he saidldquoFourthly the government of Maharashtra had a very good concept called Tanta Mukti Scheme which operated in rural areas It is an alternative dispute redressal mechanism which included police patil and gram sabha members who would handle and resolve petty issues While the scheme was misused by some governing members if implemented properly this can be a good redressal systemrdquo Dr Tiwari addedThe fifth point mentioned by Dr Tiwari is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in the United Nations in 2015 ldquoOf the 17 goals goal 11 is about making cities inclusive safe resilient and sustainable Similarly goal 16 is about promoting peaceful and inclusive societies providing access to justice for all and building effective accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels Goal 16 also talks about reducing all forms of violence and related death rates If these measures are implemented and petty matters are resolved at local levels the pendency of cases in our courts will by default reducerdquo he saidItrsquos a global issueAdditional Director General of Police Dr D K Goswami who is currently pursuing research as a Fulbright Fellow on Wrongful Convictions and Innocence Claims at Cornell Law School in the USA said ldquoEvery country across the globe has strengths and weaknesses in criminal justice administrationrdquoAdditional Director General of Police Dr D K GoswamiDr Goswami an expert on the interface of Forensic Science and Law and Criminal Investigation explained ldquoIndia has several good practices worth portraying at the global panorama For instance in California a recent piece of law has been enacted wherein the police were given the power to register an offence only if the value of the stolen property exceeded a certain amount This was welcomed by few while some criticised the new enactment citing that offenders would only target properties with lesser value to evade police action In India there are no such restraintsrdquoWhen asked for the solution to ensure that the pendency of court cases are brought down he said ldquoIn the USA every state has its own Supreme Court India may similarly consider judicial reforms customised for our purposes We may consider having a Supreme Court in every state while the Federal Supreme Court deals with Constitutional cases and matters of higher importance referred to by the President This will help bring down the number of cases in courtsrdquo