Justice continues to evade common man

Shortage of judges, corruption in district courts delay cases

ISLAMABAD: The National Judicial Policy (NJP) was formulated in 2009 to address the perennial twin-problems of ‘backlog’ and ‘delays’ in the administration of justice.

However, six years later, the problems still persist.

In April 2009, total pendency of cases at all levels of the judicial hierarchy was approximately 1.6 million. In the last six years, not only has the gap widened, but the numbers have reached at almost 1.8 million; making it more difficult for people to get justice.

In addition, the issue of overall shortage of judges in the country has not only aggravated the problem but added an extra burden on the quality of justice which is an absolute right of every citizen.

At the district level in the capital, there was severe shortage of judges a few months ago but the number of judges has been increased to 63 in the last three to four months. The situation of backlog is no different in the capital when compared with the other parts of the country.

Almost 14,000 criminal, civil and family cases are pending before the district courts while just over 13,000 cases are pending for adjudication before the five benches of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

With the speed of deciding just over 7,000 cases every year, the IHC has decided 29,784 cases since 2011 but the number of cases has also increased manifold.

Though the total sanctioned strength at IHC is seven but the legal community has urged legislators to increase it to 11 so the justice may be served swiftly.

Despite all these efforts, one thing the former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry or any of his successor or predecessors could not deliver is inexpensive and speedy justice to the people of Pakistan.

The NJP – a brainchild of Chaudhry – was introduced in his tenure and focused on ridding the lower judiciary of corruption and eliminating the backlog of cases at all levels, but little has been achieved in these two categories.

Corruption is still rampant at the district courts all over the country. Apart from the heavy fees charged by legal professionals, litigants have to pay the mandatory ‘mithai’ or ‘chae-pani’ for getting any legal document.

Litigants are charged for all legal or illegal favours. For instance, one has to pay for getting a suitable date in the case and for acquiring any document from court officials. In some cases, sources at the district courts revealed that court officials obtain information about a decision beforehand and take advantage from the parties involved in it.

Delay in disposal of cases, corruption, shortage of judges and other related problems are not new but have now acquired a whole new dimension and terrifying proportions. According to the statistics, the ratio of judges to the population is around 10 judges for one million people – which comes down to one judge for 100,000 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd,  2015.