FastTrackRunners

The Judiciary of India is an independent body and is separate

from the Executive and Legislative bodies of the Indian

Government.

The judicial system of India is stratified into various levels. At the

apex is the Supreme Court, which is followed by High Courts at

the state level, District Courts at the district level and Lok

Adalats at the Village and Panchayat Level.

The judiciary of India takes care of maintenance of law and

order in the country.

The Judicial system however has a unified structure. The

Supreme Court, the High Courts and the lower Courts constitute

a single Judiciary.

Indian Legal System: It is largely based on English common law.

Various Acts introduced by the British are still in effect in

modified form today. Much of current Indian law shows

substantial European and American influence.

INCIDENT DESCRIPTION

ACCUSED Ram Singh - the bus driver. Mukesh Singh - Ram Singh’s Brother. Vinay Sharma - an assistant gym instructor. Pawan Gupta - a fruit seller. Akshay Thakur - Job seeker in Delhi. Juvenile - A 17yr old teenager.

VICTIMS

Damini - a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern. Male victim- friend of Damini.

The judicial procedure followed for the case is as undermentioned :- *Dec 18: Ram Singh and three others were arrested. *Dec 20: Victim’s friend testifies. *Dec 22: Victim records statement before the SDM. *Dec 29: Victim succumbs to injuries and other medical conditions at 2:15 am. Police adds murder charge in the FIR. *Jan 2, 2013: CJI Altamas Kabir inaugurates fast track court (FTC) for speedy train in the case. *Jan 3: Police files charge sheet against five adult accused. *Jan 5: Court takes cognizance of the charge sheet. *Jan 17: FTC starts proceedings against five adult accused. *Jul 5: Inquiry (trial) in JJB against juvenile in gang rape—cum—murder case and robbery matter concludes.

*Jul 11: JJB defers to July 25 its verdict in the case against the minor. JJB holds minor guilty of illegally confining and robbing a carpenter on December 16 night before allegedly taking part in the gangrape. *Jul 25: JJB again defers to August 5 the verdict in gangrape—cum— murder case after a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking fresh interpretation of term “juvenile“. *Jul 31: SC asks JJB not to pronounce verdict in the case till it decides the PIL of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. *Aug 5: JJB defers verdict to August 19 pursuant to apex court’s direction. *Aug 14: SC reserves order on maintainability of Swamy’s PIL. *Aug 19: JJB again defers verdict to August 31. *Aug 31: JJB convicts the minor for gangrape and murder and awards three years term at a probation home.

The police filed the charge sheet against the perpetrators on 3rd Jan i.e. 21days after the date of commitment of crime and 5 days after the death of the victim. The lawyer Mr. Manohar Lal sharma presented insensible statements thus delaying the proceedings. Even after committing such a brutal adultery crime the juvenile was given concession in punishment. It was the media intervention that catalyzed the entire procedure which is not possible in ordinary cases. The fast track courts came into existence only after this incident that too due to media and public pressure. Confused proceeding for proving the juvenility of the sixth accused were the most time consuming. Moreover the bone ossification (age determination) test was not conducted.

What is necessary is that a time frame has to be fixed. All cases must

be completed within – at the most – three months.

Frequent adjournments asked by lawyers must not be allowed. The

entire judicial procedure must be changed.

Special courts trying only rape cases must be set up. This will help

speedy trial of rape cases. There are thousands of pending rape cases

in courts.

Non bail-able punishments should be given to perpetrators who are

several times accused of crimes such as rape, murder, acid attack etc. ,

as these criminals are usually addicted to committing the crimes.

Early and permanent assignment of cases to a particular judge to

ensure absolute focus on the case is vital.

The cases having scope of mediation should be

proceeded via the mediators and thus reducing

the burden on the courts.

Reforms like PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION

should be encouraged and new similar schemes

should be introduced.

More efficient internet access of the indian

judiciary system should be availed in order to

enhance public participation

through e-courts…

Major differences between INDIA & USA that delay judgments in INDIA are: Lower no. of cases are solved in INDIA via. MEDITATION i.e. alternate dispute resolution than USA… System has greater degree of RIGIDITY and COMPLEXITY in INDIA than USA. Poor CASE MANAGEMENT in INDIAN courts resists its smoothness… In INDIAN lower courts a single judge handles both criminal and civil cases thus delaying the judgment unlike that in USA…

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The current scenario is that every common man fighting a case in an Indian Court is facing a situation similar to the popular

Dialogue “Tarikh pe tarikh milti ja rahi hai judge sahab par insaaf nahi milta…..”voiced by Mr. Sunny Deol in the movie Damini. And we now really need to act to raise our judiciary from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven.