New Delhi: There should be fifty judges in the country for every one million population as was the practice in the United States of America some time ago.
This is one of the recommendations of the Law Commission to expedite disposal of criminals and other cases in different courts. The issue is under the active consideration of the government.
Presently, there are 13 judges for ten lakhs (one million) people. The number is far less than required to handle lakhs of cases pending in different courts.
The Commission has also recommended reduction of jail period for the undertrials . Many a time undertrials remain in jail for a longer period than they could be in for their crimes. It is one of the reasons of overcrowding in jails.
Scrapping of some old laws which are no more relevant has been also recommended. The Modi government is seized of the matter and has removed many provisions from the statute but a number of such legislations are still to be taken out from the book.
Delay in disposal of cases has been largely caused by lawyers by seeking postponement of hearing on some pretext or the other. The judges have to find some way to deal with this kind of situation. Postponement on not-so-serious grounds should not be allowed and it should to limited to one or two times.
The cases have often been postponed to more than three times. Action against a few in this connection may discourage others to adopt this tactic.
It is generally believed that maximum period for completing hearing and pronouncement of judgement should not be more than two years in majority of cases. But is takes a much longer time.There are cases which have been decided after as many as 25 years.
Take for instance the Babri Masjid cases. They were filed in the year 1992 but are yet to be disposed.
In come other cases courts have taken more than 20 years to decide. A murder case of Bihar which was linked to a political high-up was decided after 22 years this week. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment but being 68 he may not live long. Before the judgment he was out on bail. That means he will spend less than 14 years , a minimum jail period for life sentence.
Governors and the President have power to grant remission but they cannot reduce the jail period to lower than 14 years in view of the latest Supreme Court judgement.