In the late 19th century, with the gradual collapse of the Indian craft sector in the face of British imports, Indian weavers banded together in a movement that was many centuries old. In the phase leading up to and during the initial years following independence, a constituent assembly of India met to draft the country’s constitution. This constitution, produced through that process was tailored very explicitly to the needs of the Indian sub-continent. Borrowing parts of the British and American systems of government and promoting traditional local councils called “panchayats”, the Indian Constitution became a revolutionary manifesto. The Framers of the Indian Constitution tried to achieve a society more in favour of egalitarianism by structuring the democracy of India with a separation of powers.
The constitution of India was made with a fourfold aim to ensure justice, liberty equality and brotherhood for all citizens of India. The constitution determines distinct jurisdictions and functions of the state like legislature, executive and judiciary. These pillars are very essential in ensuring that this goal is realized. Historically law-making was the work of legislature implementation belonged to the executive while interpretation and adjudication lay in the hands of the judiciary. The Indian Constitution is the greatest written constitution in the world. It provides for three fundamental organs on which democracy rests. These are (a) Legislature (b) Executive and (c)Judiciary. Law is made by the Legislature. There are two houses – Loksabha as well as the Rajya Sabha. Bills are prepared and passed in Lok Sabha with a majority of votes in favour.
After that, it is forwarded to the Rajya Sabha for consideration, if approved there, it then goes to the president who assents to it. As soon as he signs it, however, the bill becomes law. The other most important organ of the constitution is The Executive which enforces the law. If not enforced properly, the Judiciary can punish them. The judiciary plays an important role here; punishing either the guilty or wrongdoer thus making sure justice does not discriminate against people because they are women, men or belong to high or low caste. So therefore, the judiciary is supposed to perform its duties in a manner that there should be no denial of justice on account of sex, race or religion.
This unique three-tier system makes our constitution the biggest which is found throughout the world. In India, every court without exception is totally mired in a backlog of cases and this pile-up continues to mount each year. The malady of procrastination has destroyed people’s faith in the ability of courts to attend to their grievances and give satisfactory and timely relief.2 Given that we have the second largest population in the world, our courts and judges are heavily overburdened. With this in mind, the Supreme Court, in 2012, sanctioned the National Court Management Scheme (NCMS) aimed at establishing a framework for case management. According to the scheme, however, annual new case filings might rise to about 150 million by 2040 due to increasing literacy levels, per capita income as well as population growth necessitating at least 75000 judges. Let us now discuss the Judiciary’s Role In Indian Democracy And the Pendency Of Cases At Three Levels Of Courts Namely the Supreme Court High Courts And Lower Courts.
Role of Judiciary
In democratic countries, the judiciary is given a place of pride, honour and dignity. The role of the judiciary in a democracy is that of multi-faced activism and creativeness[1]. A democratic society lives and swears by certain values – individual liberty, human dignity, rule of law[2], constitutionalism[3], limited government etc. A well-organised, strong and impartial judiciary is essential to achieve these values on which a democratic system thrives. It is the function of the courts to infuse these basic values into the country’s legal and constitutional system. From this point of view, the role of the judiciary in a democracy becomes crucial and significant.
The constitution of India forbids making any judgment that is biased and unfair. This, in turn, has bestowed on the judiciary the role of deciding cases according to the law whenever there is a conflict. It is because of this authority that the judiciary is an independent arm of the government. The courts in India are not under the control or authority of any political body, such as the government. The independence allows this body to check on any kind of misappropriation by any part of the regime.
Separation of Power
Independence Of Judiciary Calls For ‘separation Of Powers’. The concept behind “Separation Of Powers” means that both the Legislature and Executive cannot interfere with Judicial processes. Montesquieu, the French scholar, stated that, “There would be an end of everything, were the same man or same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers[4], that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals.”[5]
Therefore, for Judges to be able to effectively discharge their mandate without external interference from other branches, their appointment into the Supreme Court and High Courts must not be influenced by other organs. Also, once appointed by the Judiciary it is difficult to remove a judge from his/her office.
Hierarchy of Courts in India
The judicial system is one among three pillars around which a democratic state revolves.[6]In order for these three organs to ensure efficient running democracy, they have had to introduce checks and balances systems notwithstanding that all three are meant for enhancing effectiveness in democracy.
To satisfy the obligation on the shoulders of the judiciary, the judiciary is separated into three degrees of Courts in India.
- Lower Courts: Lower courts are established in each district of the state. Generally, people file a James Lawsuit to the district courts to resolve the Dispute except for a few circumstances like the violation of fundamental rights, Public Interest Litigation, etc
- High Courts: Every state has its own high court except for Haryana and Punjab They have a common High Court in Chandigarh, and Delhi being also not a complete state but, a National Capital Territory has a High Court. This is indeed the highest judicial authority of the state. The judge, aggrieved by the order of the District Court, can appeal to the High Court for the appeal. One can go to the High Court in case of a few exceptional cases like Writ petition, etc.
- Supreme Court: It is the apex court of the country and stands above all Lower and High Courts of the country. The decision made by the Supreme Court proffers the justice which stands supreme and binding on other subordinate courts and it is final and binding on the parties of the case. Due to this integrated Judicial system of the country, all the courts have a strong bond with each other and thus, the decision arising from Supreme courts is binding on higher courts, higher court decisions are, in turn, binding on, the lower courts. If anyone is not satisfied with the judging of a lower court then he can appeal to the high court, again if anyone is not gratified with the judging of the High court then, again she may go to the Supreme Court.
In this country, where the judicial system is fully integrated, there’s a strong connection between all the courts. Higher courts are obligated to follow the ruling of the Supreme Court, while lower courts must follow those of higher courts. If a person is not satisfied with the ruling of suprême courts, they can file an appeal in the high court. If someone is dissatisfied with their own ruling, then they have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court for relief.
Criminal and Civil legal system
The Indian legal system generally comprises two primary segments- Criminal Law and Civil Law; the rules differ from each other wholly. The Supreme Court as the highest legal authority oversees criminal and civil matters.
➢ Criminal legal system: The legal system of criminal behaviour includes the behaviours of citizens that the law deems an offence or crime. A criminal case is a process that starts with filing a report with the local police, generally being called a First information report, which then begins an investigation of the same and then the matter is finally forwarded to the court which then gives its final decision on the matter.
➢Civil legal system: The civil legal system, on the other hand, addresses disputes
in case one’s legal rights and human rights are violated. A petition is filed by the concerned parties to the appropriate court. Eventually, the court gives a resolution and a judgement; in this case, is presented to the matter of dispute.
The courts are mandated to punish people involved in unlawful acts. Hence, the court interferes in, irrespective of whether the dispute is individual-versus-government or government-versus-government or even the state-versus-central-government.
Judicial review
It is the power of a court to adjudicate upon the constitutionality of legislative and executive acts. If the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary have been found to injure the constitutional values and reject the rights however which have been found to be definite under the Indian Constitution to the Indian people. In such conditions, the judicial review is very major because it acts as a protector to defend the rights of the person.
Almost all fundamental rights of individuals are characterized in our Constitution. If any individual feels that any of such rights are violated, they can move towards the Supreme Court or the High Courts under Articles 32 or 226 respectively of the Constitution of India.
In short, we can sum up by saying that absolute power with accountability would keep the government restrained which in a way would safeguard the rights of individuals. There is another concept working in harmony with the doctrine of separation of power is the checks and balances. Theoretically speaking, it means that no organ to be given unaccountable powers. In India, the executive is individually as well as collectively responsible to the legislature, although due to the advent of the anti-defection law, if there is any dissent from[7] the legislator, he is threatened with removal which can cost his constituency being unrepresented.[8]
The judiciary is a vital organ in protecting the rights of an individual in a democratic society. Hence Judicial Conduct plays a very important role. Judicial Conduct is a set of standards of ethical conduct that the public expects out of its justice delivery mechanism. It explains to the public how judges behave. This would help them to secure their respect and support for the judiciary. Judicial Conduct includes concepts such as Independence, impartiality, integrity, propriety, equality and finally competence and diligence[9] based upon the Principle of the Rule of Law.
[1] MP Jain, ‘The Role of the Judiciary in a Democracy | Journal of Malaysian and Comparative Law’ [2019] ejournal.um.edu.my <https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/JMCL/article/view/15152> accessed 17 April 2024.
[2] ‘INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION of JURISTS’ (1965) <https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/1965/02/dynamic-aspects-rule-of-law-conference-report-1965-eng.pdf>.
[3] Giovanni Sartori, Constitutionalism ( American Political Science Association 1962).
[4] Montesquieu, ‘Montesquieu Separation of Power – 2304 Words | Bartleby’ (www.bartleby.com1784) <https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Montesquieu-Separation-Of-Power-PJEB3WXL26> accessed 17 April 2024.
[5] Durga Das Basu and AK Nandi, Administrative Law (1998) 23.
[6] Aarti Shukla, ‘Long and Short Speech on Role of Judiciary in the Country Today in English in Simple and Easy Words’ (IndiaCelebrating.com27 August 2018) <https://www.indiacelebrating.com/speech/speech-on-role-of-judiciary-in-the-country-today/> accessed 17 April 2024.
[7] Ms Mahima Sikka and Dr Divya Khurana, ‘The Role of the Judiciary in Preserving the Rule of Law’ [2023] Onomázein 1065 <http://www.onomazein.com/index.php/onom/article/view/324/288> accessed 17 April 2024.
[8] Harsh Gupta, ‘Defecting from Anti-Defection’ (mint7 June 2009) <https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/wtY0yGwCtxQ7URWxrlfXpL/Defecting-from-antidefection.html> accessed 17 April 2024.
[9] ‘THE BANGALORE PRINCIPLES of JUDICIAL CONDUCT’ (2018) <https://www.unodc.org/documents/ji/training/bangaloreprinciples.pdf>.
Author: Shivanshi Sarwang
