When will the vacancies in judiciary be filled?
Legislature, executive and judiciary are three significant pillars of constitution. For democracy to work well, there has to be good coordination between all the three pillars. They have to balance and co-exist, along with complementing each other. This is the most important requirement. But in the recent times, one rarely sees any well-coordinated effort between them. This has led to unrest among judiciary as well. Thousands of jobs in lower courts are lying vacant across the country. This has led to delay in cases being concluded.
Supreme Court has been insisting that they be filled at the earliest but to no avail. Last week Supreme Court even expressed its displeasure over the vacancies not being filled up. This is not a good development. Many posts of judges in lower courts have not been filled up. Staff recruitments are also being delayed. Considering the increase in population, courts need to add more space to their infrastructure for quick disposal of cases. Courts need judges’ quarters to be built sooner than later. The Supreme Court and High Court have fixed a time frame for this work to be completed. SC has expressed extreme displeasure over the functioning of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya pertaining to this work.
Karnataka’s time will come on December 5. Kerala, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand states are also in the same boat. Across the lower courts, there are about 2,20,836 jobs in the country. About 5,133 posts are vacant till now. Supreme Court has drawn the attention of states regarding this sometime ago and directed them to submit a report on the work done so far regarding the matter. But nothing has worked.
Judiciary is not getting as much support and facilities as the other two pillars – Legislature and Executive – get. Supreme Court has been often begging the central government to fill the vacancies at the earliest. Few months ago, justice T S Thakore had shed tears before PM Modi at an event that was organized to inaugurate the conference of chief justices of High Court, along with CMs from the states. The population of the country has increased manifold. Undecided cases growing in numbers with every passing day. Since the post of justices are lying vacant, cases cannot be concluded. And this delay should not happen since this also causes delay in imparting justice to the aggrieved.
Judiciary seeks increase in the number of justices from 21,000 to 40,000. But the government, especially executive, isn’t responsing favourably is the main grouse. This has led to thousands of undertrials languishing in jails across the country. Their futures are dark now. When justice Thakore wept over this issue before the PM, Modi had assured resolution of the issue sooner than later. But nothing has moved from then to now.
Earlier, there were ten judges to every ten lakh people. Indian Law Commission had recommended that this ratio be increased to 50. Supreme Court had given concurrence over this matter and Parliamentary committee to had said yes to this. But none of this worked to meet a logical end. Now, every ten lakh people have only 15 judges to sort out their cases. By 1987, the required number was 40 judges per ten lakh. Now the population has grown manifold. Lower courts have 2.84 cases pending. Supreme and High Court put together this number comes up to 3.5 cr in all. Majority of the cases are awaiting hearing since the last five years. Thousands and lakhs of undertrials are waiting for the next date of their hearing. At times like this, the paralysed working style of executive is condemnable. Democracy cannot be upheld by ignoring judiciary. Hence the central government has to immediately attend to this issue as soon as possible.
Though the matter as grave that the Chief Justice of Supreme Court shed tears before the PM, nothing has worked. What does that mean? The centre is callous about the judiciary. If this continues, this will cast its shadow on the entire nation and systems that work within. Human rights would be violated because undertrials have to languish in the jail owing to no hearing of their case. The government needs to wake up sooner than later over this and fill up the posts of Judges in the courts, including high court. If this can be attended to, the future crises regarding this can be averted.
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Woman, 2 sons found dead in Delhi home; suicide suspected
New Delhi (PTI): Three members of a family were found dead inside their home in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji on Friday, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide, officials said.
Police said the incident came to light around 2.47 pm when a police team reached the premises to execute a court order related to possession of the property. When repeated knocks went unanswered, the staff used a duplicate key to open the door.
Inside, officers found Anuradha Kapoor (52) and her sons, Ashish Kapoor (32) and Chaitanya Kapoor (27), hanging from the ceiling, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said in a statement. All three were declared dead.
A handwritten note was recovered from the room, suggesting the family had been struggling with depression.
"The handwritten note indicates emotional distress faced by the family due to which the family may have taken the extreme step," the officer said.
The bodies have been shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) mortuary for post-mortem and other legal formalities under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), police said.
Residents of the neighbourhood said they were shocked to learn about the deaths, adding that the family kept largely to themselves.
Pankaj Kashyap, a resident of Girinagar, said he learnt about the deaths while leaving for work. "I live and work here and was leaving for work when I saw many people standing outside and talking. That is how I got to know that three people had committed suicide. I also saw several police vehicles outside, but I do not know much beyond that," he said.
Baldev, another neighbour, said the family had been living in the newly constructed house for around two years. "We only knew that a mother and her two children lived there. They had moved into the newly built house around two years ago. We did not interact much with them. Today we heard that all three have committed suicide, and whatever we know is based on what people here are saying," he said.
Another neighbour, Ramesh Kumar, claimed the family had earlier attempted suicide.
"About fifteen to twenty days ago, the two sons in the family had attempted suicide and police and ambulances had come. That was when I first got to know who they were. I do not recognise them by face, but we saw the ambulances and police take the two sons that day. Today again we saw ambulances and police arriving, so everyone came out to see what had happened. I do not know how long they had been living here, but this is all we know," he said.
Police said they are examining the family's financial condition, social circumstances, and other factors that may have contributed to the incident. Further investigation is underway.
