5. What judicial reforms are needed in India?

Towards this what measures have been taken by the

governments at the centre? Examine.

Introduction :
Legislature, Executive and judiciary are the three organs of our government. Whereas the executive
and legislative power was divided between the Union and States , the judiciary was integrated. This
was done so as to ensure that justice was uniform for one and all.
The makers of our constitution had high hopes from our judiciary system. Infact the makers of our
constitution regarded the constitution as the life line of the system , it was to be the supreme law of
land and Supreme Court, the highest court of law was to be the guardian of the constitution.
However of late our judiciary has been coined as lethargic and that there have allegations of
corruption , favoritism and misbehavior even in the top levels of judicial system. Hence it was felt that
judicial reforms was the need of the hour.
Problems with our Judiciary :
Our judiciary is very slow. There are huge amounts of litigations pending in the courts.The cases go
for a very long time sometimes even for a lifemtime.Infact Nana Palkhivala an eminent had observed
once, the progress of a civil suit in our courts of law is the closest thing to eternity we can experience!
The high Courts, the second highest seat of justice in our country, have taken on themselves too
much, making it impossible for them to be able to render justice speedily and efficiently. The writ
jurisdiction became pervasive and everything under the sun is somehow made a subject matter of the
writ. For instance, the transfer of an employee in a public sector undertaking has become a matter of
writ jurisdiction by very involved and dubious logic.

The delays, the habitual use of English as language of discourse even in trial courts and the extreme
complexity and the tortuous nature of our legal process made justice highly inaccessible to a vast
majority of the people. It is estimated that India has only about 11 judges per million population, which
is among the lowest ratios in the world

The civil and criminal procedure codes and the laws of evidence have to be substantially revised to
meet the requirements of modern judicial administration. While the principles underlying the
procedural law are valid even to day, in actual practice several procedures have become
cumbersome, dilatory, and often counter-productive.
Recently there has been reports in the section of media about issue of corruption in imparting of
justice and favoritism in appointing judges. In fact in the recent past the supreme court In a strong

indictment of the Allahabad High Court, observed that "there is something rotten" there and raised
serious questions over integrity of several of its judges
Steps taken by Government for Reforms:
The government has very recently passed the Nartional judicial appointment bill, it has also by 121 st
constitutional amendment , amended the constitution.
Change introduced is with respect to appointment of Judges of SC and HC, the earlier collegium
system has been replaced by a Judicial Appointment Commission.
This commission shall have the CJI,two senior most judges of SC, law Minister and two eminent
person to be appointed on the recommendation of PM,CJI and LOP.in case if two members veto a
candidate, he cannot be appointed as Judge.

Further Reforms required:

Though the recent step is right move towards reforms however there is still a lot to be done.Some
suggestion in this regard are as follows;
The Judges like CAG should be barred from any further appointment. This shall ensure that the
judges remain free from pulls and pressure from the high and mighty.
More number of High Court Judges needs to be appointed as there a large number of cases
pending.Further setting up of fast track courts at various level is required to ensure that justice
delayed is not justice denied.
Setting up of an All India Judicial Service under A312 shall ensure that all the offices of the District
and Sessions Judges should be held by persons recruited to such a service after adequate training
and exposure. Only such a meritocratic service with acompetitive recruitment, high quality uniform
training and assured standards of probity and efficiency

would be able to ensure speedy and

impartial justice.
The National Mission for Justice delivery and legal reforms should be effectively implemented, in a
mission mode.
The e court Integrated Mission Mode Project under Nationa eGovernance Plan should be
implemented in a time bound , result oriented manner.
The Permanent bench of High courts should be increased, in many states there is only one Principal
seat.In such states at least one permanent bench should be established at location other than
principal bench to increase people accessibility.
The state government should fast track formation of Gram Nyaylayas in order to provide timely justice
to citizens at their doorsteps.this step would prevent people from moving to higher courts for seeking
justice.

Further Negotiable instrument act should be amended similarly Motor Vehicle Amendment act should
be amended in order to check increasing litigations relating to cheque bounce case and challan
related case respectively.
Thus we can be seen, there is an extremely strong case for urgent and far reaching reforms in our
judiciary.The government of the day has move in the right direction by passing NJAC bill however it
should not get complacent as still a lot of reforms needs to be done.

References:
http://www.loksatta.org/cms/documents/advocacy/Jud%20Reform.pdf
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=77346
http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/national%20judicial/Bill%20Summary%20-%20NJAC
%20Bill.pdf
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-10-22/news/43288689_1_pranab-mukherjeejudicial-reforms-judicial-system

6. Write a note on the significance of the Constitution (One Hundred And Twentieth Amendment) Bill
2013.

Constitutional Amendments

The Constitution (120th Amendment) Bill, 2013

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2013 was introduced in the Rajya
Sabha on August 24, 2013 by the Minister of Law and Justice, Mr. Kapil Sibal.

Pursuant to a review of constitutional provisions providing for the appointment and transfer of Judges,
and relevant Supreme Court decisions on the matter, the need for a broad based Judicial Appointment
Commission, for making recommendations for selection of judges was felt.

The Bill seeks to enable equal participation of Judiciary and Executive, make the appointment process
more accountable and ensure greater transparency and objectivity in the appointments to the higher
judiciary.

The Bill proposes to insert a new Article 124A, and amend Article 124(2) (a).

The proposed Article 124 A contains two clauses; Clause (1) provides for a Commission, to be known as
the Judicial Appointments Commission.

Article 124A(2) enables Parliament to make a law that provides the manner of selection for appointment
as Chief justice of India and other Judges of the Supreme Court, Chief justices and other judges of the
High Courts.

Furthermore, Article 124A (2) enables that law to lay down the following features of the Commission: (i)
the composition, (ii) the appointment, qualifications, conditions of service and tenure of the Chairperson
and Members, (iii) the functions, (iv) procedure to be followed, (v) other necessary matters.

Consequently, the Bill amends Article 124 (2) (a) of the Constitution, providing for appointment of
Judges to the higher judiciary, by the President, after consultation with Judges of the Supreme Court
and High Courts in the states.

The bills has lapsed and instead a new constitutional amendment bill (121st Amendment ) has
recently been passed.
References; http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-constitution-120th-amendment-bill-2013-2905/