SUBORDINATE JUDICIARY ---------WHOSE BABY IS IT ANYWAYS….

It is heartening to learn that while the executive and the legislature were busy giving  shape to the Prime Minister’s flagship ‘Central Vista’ project to give a new façade to their offices, CJI, the head of the Judiciary of our country on the other hand took time off to embark on a solemn drive of realising his dream project to effect radical changes in the entire Judicial  ecosystem to make it more dynamic , fast and easily accessible to the poor indigent litigants. Soon after assuming the reins of his high office he made no bones of the fact  that he was aware of the plight of the poor litigants in seeking speedy justice. He articulated in no uncertain terms his vision, mission and ardent ambition to make judiciary a vibrant dynamic institution and promised to strive hard to overhaul the whole system to achieve this noble goal. To give effect to his solemn ambition he, at the very outset, declared that henceforth adjournments ,the greatest bane of the system would not be granted on a sly as being done now and shall be restricted to rare cases only that too under compelling and urgent circumstances justifying doing so for the larger interests of Justice. He emphatically asserted that it would be his sincere endeavour to make judiciary a viable and people friendly institution to help the needy and vulnerable people. In his sincere bid to dispel the stigmatic image of judiciary as being the most tardy & sluggish institution from the minds of the people, he first of all, ticked off  the corporate lawyers seeking urgent listing and hearing of their cases which often consumed lot of court’s precious time as a consequence of which the cases of the poor litigants lag behind and get pushed onto the back burner.

Though the Supreme Court witnessed the maximum number of women judges being elevated to the Supreme Court under the aegis of his good offices during the recently done elevations of judges, the progress was however not satiable to the intense desire of the CJI to provide more avenues to the women especially in the system catering to the administration of justice in our country.  Expressing his dismay at the  small number of women joining legal fraternity, he vociferously expressed his deep interest in the progress & development of the women folk in all walks of the life and exhorted them to shout and demand 50% quota in all spheres uninhibitedly to give effect to the holistic progress of our society and to help the poor and the  needy populace of our country in a meaningful way.

It is thus clear that in his overarching sincere endeavour to revamp the whole judicial system ,the CJI is ruthlessly uncompromising in his pursuit as is evident that ever since he assumed the office he started following a ‘take no prisoners’ policy in this regard. He felt deeply piqued on government’s indolence in the appointment of judges and severely put down government on this issue on several occasions. While it is indeed heartening to learn that he is zealously on the spree of infusing dynamism in the entire judicial ecosystem, it is however dismaying and intriguing that in the vast & elaborate canvas of his agenda no word has been said about the subordinate judiciary which constitutes the very pivot & foundation of the whole judicial edifice.

It is a cruel irony that despite being the underpin of the very  reputation, dignity and honour of the whole institution at the very threshold, it has no All India Structure like the other civil services and it remains a conglomeration of services fragmented on state wise basis bereft of any pan Indian uniformity. Its distinctiveness of being different and independent from the executive and the legislature further compounds the predicament of judicial officers who being trained as a disciplined judicial officer deters them to seek redressal of their grievances in the way others can do by resorting to protests and ventilating their grouse in public. But for the patronage of the CJI, they have no one else to look up to and are virtually left alone to fend for themselves to seek redressal of their collective grievance. Their problem becomes all the more compounded in the event of their getting superannuated in due course without getting the benefit of their legitimate dues pending consideration of the Supreme Court for years together with no hope of relief coming their way any day too sooner.

In a system so immutable and oblivious to the plight of its own people who it was meant to protect and serve there seems a dire need of overhauling, making it more sensitive , compassionate and responsive towards its own subordinate cadre bound by the oath of discipline and maintaining dignity of the office. The non- disbursal of the benefit of 7^th pay commission to the Judicial officers until now is a sad commentary on the functioning of the Supreme Court. The CJI needs to do the needful in right earnest in the pursuit of his noble cause to earn the pride of place of being the bell wether of judicial reforms in real sense. His Urgent indulgence is called for as most judicial officers are now playing last innings of their life on the pitch of their luck. Some of whom having been pushed at the end of their tethers  ,have gone back to their pavilion being  completely dejected ,leaving behind their families in a welter of sorrow ,grief and unfathomable depression.  It is a cruel irony that at a when the Executive is employing ‘GATI SHAKTI ‘ to buck up its pace of working, judiciary is  found hamstrung in a stubborn mode of complacency . Surely Judiciary needs to shift its gears to reverse this trend. One looks askance when will the elusive benefits accrue to this modest & disciplined tribe of subordinate judiciary? . Only the CJI holds the key to answer this quandary none else.

Ravi Kumar Mathur,

(Former District & Sessions Judge)