Judicial policy fails to expedite justice, say experts

Say learn from India to speedily dispense cases in lower courts.

ISLAMABAD:

Legal experts think that the effect of National Judicial Policy (NJP) has failed to translate into speedy dispensation of justice especially in the lower courts.

Some senior lawyers in Pakistan expressed this opinion at the time when Indian judges on Saturday settled over 350,000 of the 390,000 pending cases in a single day.

These cases – concerning accident claims, matrimonial disputes, dud cheques and traffic fines, among others – were settled by Indian judges through a day long exercise under the ‘National Lok Adalat’.

“Yes! The NJP helped the superior courts to restore confidence on the superior judiciary and end the culture of corruption, but the fruit of the policy is yet to reach the general masses at the lower courts where litigants are still deprived of speedy dispensation of justice,” said Supreme Court’s senior lawyer SM Zafar.

He said, like Pakistan, India also faced tremendous judicial challenges and the litigants suffered due to a complicated judicial system. “That’s why the Indian Supreme Court has introduced an alternative mechanism to resolve petty issues,” he pointed out.

He said as compared to India, where judiciary-related issues were much more abundant, the number of courts and litigations were fewer in Pakistan.



He commented that the Supreme Court in Pakistan consumed most of its time in high-profile suo motu cases with less time left to take up public issues.

“Apart from ending corruption in the superior courts and restoring public confidence, the judiciary – including superior courts is yet to manage the cases and time in a proper way,” he noted.

Zafar said teams of lawyers come daily from far-off areas of the country to Islamabad to present their cases but, due to time constraints, most of them return without appearing before the court.

Senior lawyer of the Supreme Court Wasim Sajjad also opined that the lower courts faced numerous challenges that needed to be resolved. “Pakistan can learn lesson from India to resolve petty issues through mutual settlement.

Sajjad pointed out that the judicial reform had no effect at the lower courts in Pakistan. “People should not be forced to go to litigation on petty issues and there should be effective and credible alternative options to resolve disputes,” he added.

Senior lawyer and former spokesperson of the chief justice, Athar Minallah said speedy justice did not mean compromising on the essence of justice.

“Justice must be dispensed satisfactorily and within a reasonable time,” he said.

He admitted that no justice prevailed at the level at which the judicial movement had been launched.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2013.