Political Science 4. Judicial System

January 28, 1950

Explanation: Two days after the official adoption of the constitution, an Act of Parliament led to the creation of the Supreme Court. Initially, the court chambers were inside the Parliament itself, until the new building was constructed.

62 years

Explanation: A High Court judge can remain in his seat upto 62 years of age. However, he can resign earlier. There are no other term limits.

President

Explanation: The Supreme Court Judges are appointed by the President, on the recommendation of a collegiate-comprising of The Law Minister, The Chief Justice and prominent members of the justice community.

Revenue Secretary

Explanation: The Revenue Tax Board is the highest court to deal with revenue cases, and is headed by the Revenue Secretary of the state, a sit functions under the High Court.

1985

Explanation : For those parties who wish to settle the case amicably, without getting into a legal hustle, Lok Adalats were created in 1985.

The Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the country. It performs many functions, including:

a. Original Powers: These include- i) conflict resolution between the Union and the States, and between the States, ii) taking case pertaining to the Fundamental Rights of citizens, iii) Interpreting the Constitution, passing on writs and ensuring that new legislation do not violate the basic principles of the Constitution.

b. Appellate Powers: Citizens can approach the Supreme Court against the judgements delivered in their case by the lower courts. The Supreme Court may accept such appeals and even reverse the judgement of the lower court.

c. Advisory Powers: The Supreme Court may offer advice to the President in matters of public interest. These are not binding on the President, and he may consult the court for legality of agreement between and within states, or States and the Central government.

d. Court of Record: The Supreme court serves as a court of Record, which means that any judgement in the Supreme Court serves as a precedent and can be cited in other cases.

e. Advisory to the States: Just like the President, the states can also approach the Supreme Court for advice

f. Public Interest Litigation: The Supreme Court can directly hear cases in matters pertaining to human rights violation, if appropriate PIL is filed and the court deems it necessary in public interest.

g. Special Writs: The court can take away and hear cases without them being heard in lower courts, can ask lower courts to reverse their decision, can ask anyone to appear before the court and can punish individuals who do not abide by the orders of the courts. There are special writs for these provisions like quo warranto, Habeas Corpus, Prohibition etc.

The High Court is the highest judicial authority in the state, and performs many functions like:

a. Resolving civil and criminal cases.

b. Resolving cases associated with marriage affairs and contempt of court

c. To take cases against the judgements passed by the subordinate courts.

d. To direct transfer of cases from the lower courts to the High Court through issuing of writs

e. To monitor the working of the subordinate courts and ensure that no illegal activities occur within the court rooms.

f. To take PILs against human rights/fundamental rights violations

g. To serve as a court of Record

h. To appoint and regulate staff in the subordinate courts.

The civil courts have the following subordinate courts under them:

1. Court of Subordinate Judges

2. Court of Additional Subordinate Judges

3. Court of Munciffs

4. Court of Additional Munciffs

The above order refers to the order of descending powers of the court. The court of munciffs is the lowest order of court in the civil system of justice.

The criminal courts in India have the following features:

a. Established in 1974, these courts are also called District Magistrate Courts, and function under the High Court

b. At the district level, the highest authority lies with Sessions Court, presided over by the District Judge. This court works with cases or robbery, dacoity and murder.

c. While the sessions court has the power to issue life sentences and even death sentences, these need to be ratified by the High court.

d. The following courts are under the District Court:

1) Chief Magistrate Court: This court cannot give life sentences or death sentences

2) First Grade Magistrate Court: This court is limited to judgements upto 3 years in prison or Rs. 5000 in fine or both, and can hear appeal from second and third grade magistrate courts.

3) Second Grade Magistrate Court: This court can impose upto two years in prison and/or a fine of Rs. 1000. It cannot hear appeals against third grade magistrate courts.

4) Third Grade Magistrate Court: This court can impose fines upto Rs. 50 or an imprisonment of over 1 month.

The following are important features of the Revenue Courts:

1) Revenue courts are empowered at the district level, and take cases involving land tax, land records, tehsildaari etc.

2) The Revenue Board: This is the highest Revenue court, and operates under the High court. It functions under the Revenue Secretary, and takes up appeals against the judgements in the lower courts.

3) The structure under the Revenue board comprises of (in ascending order):

a) Tehsildaar Court, the lowest court with Tehsildaar as its judge

b) District Sub divisional Officer’s court, with Assistant Commissioner as its judge

c) District Magistrate Court, presided over by the Deputy Commissioner

d) Commissioner’s court, presided over by the Divisional officers

Each of these can hear appeals from the courts below them in power.

The reasons behind setting up of Lok Adalats were as follows:

1) The process of dispensing justice is extremely tedious and expensive.. hence, the government set up Lok Adalats to quicken the process of providing relief claims, especially in cases where the parties are interested in a compromise.

2) It has three main features : 1. It lays stress on compromise. 2. It is fast and cheap. 3. It reduces the judicial burden on other courts.

3) Lok Adalats take up cases relating to daily life problems like transport accidents, tehsildaari problems, marriage and alimony, worker’s problems etc.

4) These courts are established by either the District Law Authority or the Taluk Law Authority. Two mediators will be present.

5) The judgements given by the Lok Adalats are final and binding on both the parties, and appeals cannot be filed against them.

I have collected the following information on courts:

1) The judicial authority is split between courts at district, state and national level. However, this does not mean that every state has its own court.

2) At the district level, there are criminal, civil, revenue courts and lok Adalats. Each of these has a hierarchy of courts beneath them, which move from district level to the level of the taluk. They all, however, are under the High Court.

3) The High Court is located in most state capitals. However, not all states have their own courts. Punjab and Haryana share a high court, and all north eastern states have a common high court at Guwahati.

4) The Supreme court is at the apex, and is presided over by Chief justice and 30 other judges. It has appellate authority, functions as court of record, provides advice and also protects the fundamental rights of the citizen. It also interprets the constitution and issues special writs.

5) The legal process of India is very tedious and expensive. Hence the government provides for legal aids and funds to cases, especially at the High Court and Supreme court level. Several other NGOs also provide funding to the parties, who are seeking justice while dealing with crippling poverty.

The following members of Karnataka High Court Bar have served as Chief Justices of India:

1) Engalagupe Seetharamaiah Venkatramaiah : He served as Chief Justice, for 181 days, in 1989.

2) M.N. Venkatachaliah: He held the post for two years, starting in 1993.

3) S. Rajendra Babu

4) H.L. Dattu, who held the chair for a year in 2014

I watched the proceedings of the court and observed that:

1) The lawyers do not shout their arguments in the room like it shows in the movies. Instead, the stand close to the bench of the judge and whisper/softly convey their ideas to the judge.

2) The courts often deal with dangerous criminals, as all legal proceeding start downwards to the top

3) The courts can pass death and lifetime imprisonment sentences, but such decisions are to be ratified by the High Court

4) The rooms of the court are often dingy and poorly ventilated

5) The courts are sub-divided by functions. Also the size of the court complex varies from city to city.