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The author suggests ways and means to expedite court proceedingsGovernment-Owned InstitutionalArbitration like courts but lessprocedures: Like courts, we shouldhave government-owned institutionalarbitration. The advantage is that thepublic will trust it more, cost will be economical,and it will be speedy as the law of procedures is notstringently exercised in arbitration. Secondly,...
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The author suggests ways and means to expedite court proceedings
Government-Owned Institutional
Arbitration like courts but less
procedures: Like courts, we should
have government-owned institutional
arbitration. The advantage is that the
public will trust it more, cost will be economical,
and it will be speedy as the law of procedures is not
stringently exercised in arbitration. Secondly, the
Government can directly appoint arbitrators unlike
judges at the collegium. Thirdly, all commercial
matters should be arbitrated before the Government’s
institutional arbitration, except matters which
cannot be arbitrated, which can easily reduce the
courts’ burden by 30 percent or more. The other
advantage is that all arbitration matters have to be
decided in one year, and there is only one appeal
before the Supreme Court of India.
E-Copies in Courts: Why do we need physical copies
for parties, courts and lawyers? There were 21
parties, and for each party, one voluminous set of papers was to be
given, one for the court, further copies for lawyers and counsels.
This literally means that “Save Trees” remains only in letter and
not spirit. Therefore, all parties should be given scanned copies
and they can carry devices such as laptops, iPads etc. to court,
read and argue from that. Secondly, maintaining physical copies
in courts is so tedious, you have to keep the papers intact and
secured, sometimes papers are lost or stolen etc. or not traceable,
and further, you need huge space to keep all papers of all matters
of the court, then you have problems of white ants,
and for that, you need to have pest control. All this can
be saved in terms of space, costs, etc. Hence, e-copies
should be started using in courts.
1. E-summons etc.: Why do we need to serve physical
summons etc., when emails can do the job? You
need the staff to upload the same on the server
and email them to email ids of respective persons,
lawyers etc., instead of sending it physically at
additional costs. To add to it, there are delays in
physical delivery.
Daily Time-Based Hearings: All hearings on a day
should be of 20 minutes. You cannot keep arguing cases
for hours and hours when everything is mentioned in
the written submissions, case, reply, or rejoinders?
The lawyers cannot go on and on for hours and hours
unless it is a requirement which Judges think fit in
certain cases. In the US, there is a time limit of 20
minutes for each lawyer to argue his or her case. The
advantage is that Judges will be able to hear more cases a day. The Judges will also waste no time in hearing
the same arguments repeated by the lawyer again and
again. Since the same will be a new system in India, there
can be an option to increase by another 20 mins at the
discretion of the Judge. The bottom line is that if everything
is stated by a lawyer and client in his/her written case,
plaint, reply, application, affidavit etc. and the Judges have
read the same, then the lawyer should only argue on limited
points for highlighting anything and not waste the time of
Judges with things that have already been mentioned in
written submissions which the judges have read.
Full Case Scheduling from Day 1 to Final Day: There
should be a full case scheduling. The moment you file
a case, you should have the schedule from Day 1 to the
final day on the dates and duration of the case, so that
one can plan accordingly. We must remember one thing
that persons coming to court generally are working
or employed somewhere and have to leave aside their
work and routine schedule. The above will also give
confidence to the person filing the case as he will know
all details. Imagine you know the flight boarding time but
do not know when it will land. Our objective is to at least
predict a landing time for closure of case, which today is
not known. In fact, the quality of service motivates us to
work on a project which has estimated timelines.
2. E-hearings, Why go to Courts?: Conduct e-hearings
in cases where required. Traveling to the courts may be
convenient for some but inconvenient for many. Where it
is inconvenient, e-hearings, i.e., video conferencing, Skype
hearings etc., between courts and lawyers chambers can
be conducted which would save us use of court rooms,
administrative time, money, costs, inconvenience, and
unnecessary travel to courts. The courts can always call
parties for important days or on order day. In fact, courts
which are for petty matters should have online payment of
fines etc. and no special courts should be opened for that
purpose. More so, it will be convenient for the Judges also
for administering the same.
3. Don’t Courier Case Papers, When you can Send by
Email: All services of documents like applications, plaints,
complaints, replies, affidavits etc. can be electronically
served to the concerned person and/or their lawyers on
record. The hassle of wasting papers for each party including
traveling to places for concerned persons involved in case
could be avoided. The parties and their lawyers should
exchange email addresses and the e-registrar should be
marked a copy to keep records of the same with courts.
All of the above innovations are possible by digitization and
policy decision-making as a Make in India referendum and
shall only enhance the confidence of the general public in
our justice delivery system and avoid terming delays in court
cases as “Justice delayed is justice denied”.
Disclaimer
– The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author and are purely informative in nature.