HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

Court Management : A Prospect

Hon’ble Mr. Justice J.K. Mathur

Judge, High Court, Allahabad

Allahabad High Court is celebrating its 125th anniversary. It has had a century and a quarter of glorious purposeful existence, which any institution can be proud of. It never did hesitate in dispensing whole-some justice even in hostile political climate either before or after independence. Its contribution in formulating principles of law, especially during the formative years of contemporary Indian jurisprudence has been second to none. It generated a socially responsive intellectual ethos in which some of the tallest men in the profession, equally outstanding in the socio-political sphere, were nurtured. These person are ones of whom Nation can boast. The Court has all the reasons to be blithely contented about its realizations and to celebrate its glorious achievements.

Past magnificence is delightfully soothing to bask in, yet it is equally onerous in casting responsibility to live up to expectations aroused and to continually maintain the level of excellence. The responsibility is rendered all the more heavy by the faith people have reposed in this limb of the system and by the pivotal role assigned to it in the working of the system by the Constitution.

One of the most serious problems amongst many others the court is facing today is that of numbers. There are almost 5 lakhs cases pending and more pouring in everyday. From nodal problem of swollen docket sprout other maladies, like delay, inability of cases to climb the list in time, increased emphasis on interim orders, inadequacies in support mechanism, dearth of judicial time and consequent lack of administrative supervision etc. Sometimes petitions cannot be decided before they are rendered in fructuous, or the appeals heard before the sentences has been fully or in substantial measure served.

This on one hand results in a virtual denial of justice in some cases, and on the other makes the interim orders passed in the petitions, increasingly important. Another consequence of accumulation of cases, and of interim orders being issued is a constant tug of war between one set of litigants who have obtained interim orders, trying to see that the case is not listed, and ones against whom interim orders have been passed, making all the effort to get the cases listed so that the court may have an opportunity of hearing them and reviewing the interim order. This conflict of endeavour has a potential to distort the credibility of the process of listing.

The circumstances under which interim justice is administered are such that the orders may not be fully informed. The ultimate safeguard of the adversary system - hearing both the parties, is not available at that stage. A number of parties are not before the court when interim orders are passed against them. Even in cases where they are represented by their standing counsel, the representation is almost formal and is usually inadequate. They do not have instructions on facts, generally and get no time to study and place the entire relevant law. Because of these half backed orders, which sometimes continue for a sufficiently long time, the projection of the court in dispensing justice, suffers.

There has been an enormous increase in laws and precedents, and an equally increasing disinclination amongst some of members of the Bar in making themselves aware of these tools. These lawyers usually represent the economically weaker litigants. A total and exclusive reliance on parties counsel, in such cases is bound to result in miscarriage of justice.

The disability of the court in dealing with the increasing numbers of cases and with every multiplying number of expectant litigants is compounded by an antiquated administrative support mechanism and equally outdated practices and procedures, none of which have been scientifically reassessed for their effectiveness in dealing with the emerging challenges. The inefficiency of the administrative infrastructure can also adversely affect the judicial functioning.

With this contemporary scenario, standing highlighted against the back-drop of a dazzling past, merely eulogizing the lineage will further highten the contrast, unless this occasion of stepping into the next quarter of century is also used to pause, think and make an endeavour to refurbish the system to meet the existing challenges effectively. An attempt has to be made to render this grievance redressal mechanism an effective sentinel of citizens’ rights - a role assigned to it by the Constitution and performed by it traditionally.

Numerous Committees and Commissions, since the Chief Justice Committee (Rankin Committee) to the Committee of Judges constituted by the Government of India on the recommendations of the Chief Justices Conference, which submitted its report recently, have addressed themselves to the problem of arrears and consequential delays. The suggestions made are based on subjective opinions and perceptions. The process in its entirety has never been examined to find weak links, which need be strengthened or replaced.

This paper seeks to forage into the new pastures of modern techniques and technologies to search for remedies suited to deal with the problems facing the system.

These methods helped the industries come to grips with the situation when their sizes swelled because of mechanization and also aided the business activity when it expanded manifold. Some of the techniques have been used by the Government also. There is no reason why some of them may not be adapted to help the judicial system.

1. Computer Application

One thing that is almost a synonym of modernity and has captured the imagination about its potential uses is Computer. Almost all organizations are using it for various functions. It can decidedly be of immense use in performance of a number of jobs even if one has numerous component tasks. It can efficiently receive, classify and store information to be retrieved in any set of classifications.

The courts in some of the advanced countries have already started using the Computer for recording evidence, listing cases, storing reference material, and various others of more sophisticated functions including conveyancing. Even in our country the Supreme Court has started using it for listing and tagging.

Computer can, however, function only if we feed it with information duly analysed to the smallest bit, and also inform it about the manner in which it has to be processed. Its performance is much quicker and free of human errors. Yet it will not innovate methods. If the method programmed is defective or data incorrect, the results will be erroneous.

The Computer can be effectively used in some of the following areas:

a) Listing : High Court functions in benches, each of which deals with a specified nature of cases. All the cases pending and instituted may be classified accordingly. They can then queue into the list, according to seniority. This will avoid the erratic listing of cases, which raises serious and not always unfounded doubts about the credibility of process of listing. Bench time has to be forecast. At the preliminary hearing, the court can find the time likely to be taken in hearing each of the cases and that information can be used to determine, the number of cases as may be listed on a specific day for a given court time.

Prioritisation - There is a class of cases which need quicker attention of the court when they relate to liberty or would be rendered in fructuous if not decided within a given time or when delay will result in irreversible hardship to a party.

Usually priority is granted to individual cases on mentions made in the court or on application being moved. The grounds on which priority is granted may be identified, and all the cases, which respond to the criterion so fixed, may be afforded priority. It will induce objectivity in the process of prioritisation and remove another irritant to persons whose cases are not prioritized and who perceive individual prioritization as a favour.

In appropriate cases the Chief Justice may afford priority to a case even if it does not fall in any of the categories specified. But, it should be done only rarely and for stated reasons so that the court may consider prioritising other cases.

Part-heard - Still another class of cases which need be provided for in the list are the part-heard cases usually carried forward from day to day or sometimes to be fixed for a later specific date. At the time courts fix dates in such cases, they do not have any information available about other cases including part heard ones already fixed on any date. As a result sometimes more cases than can be handled are fixed on a date, while there are days when more cases can be accommodated.

Allocation of Court Time - This situation can be easily handled. On each of the days, specific time slots can be fixed for ordinary cases, prioritized cases and part-heard cases. If a terminal and a screen are made available to each of the Bench Secretaries/Courts showing the availability of the time and number of part heard cases fixed with approximate time to be taken for each of these on each of the days, it would facilitate fixing only such number of cases as can be taken up on a date.

For effective and meaningful listing it will be necessary to determine the time to be allocated for part heard, prioritized and ordinary cases, for each day for each of the benches and also the time to be made available for fresh/preliminary hearing and regular hearing of cases. The cases would climb into their respective slots in the list according to their seniority.

The listing can thus be made more efficient purposeful, and objective, making the process defensible against the criticism of subjectivity and arbitrariness.

b) Plural Determinations : Another important function which a Computer can perform is to bunch cases disposable by a substantially similar order, because of their having the same or substantially similar questions to be decided.

One basic exercise necessary for plural disposals is to indicate the question of law involved in each of the cases. Whenever a petition is filed, the counsel should be required to state clearly the questions involved. The court at the stage of preliminary hearing should, if the petition is admitted for hearing, check the accuracy of the formulation and either indicate that it is correct or formulate the question himself, as is being done in second appeals.

In respect of pending cases, this can be done either by making some officers study the cases and formulate the issues, or the Judges doing it when any one of the cases comes before them for an interim hearing. Computer is to be briefed about the questions involved in each of the cases.

(i)           Whenever a case is listed for hearing, all the cases involving substantially similar questions can be tagged along, and a single hearing may sometimes dispose of a number of cases.

(ii)         Whenever there is any authoritative pronouncement by the Supreme Court or by the High Court on a question of law, all the cases pending in the High Court, and raising the same question can be immediately thereafter listed and disposed of.

(iii)       Whenever there is any legislative change in law likely to affect the remedy sought in a case, and is such as renders any petition in fructuous or which has the potential of rendering the contest to a petition ineffective. The cases so affected may be retrieved by the Computer. They can be heard and finally determined, if found to have been rendered in fructuous by law, or if they have to be necessarily allowed.

(iv)       The petitions may also contain, if necessary, a mention of the date/event, which will render the petition in fructuous. An attempt should primarily be made to see that they are decided before such date or happening of event, if they cannot be so decided they may be listed after the said date or happening and finally decided.

The last three exercises will help clearing up the docket of cases, which clog the list and have to face a specific result. This will help in effectively dealing with the numbers.

c) Management of Information System (Judicial) : With the legislative field ever increasing and numerous benches in the High Court and the Supreme Court rendering presidential decisions every day, for effective decision making, the court has to have the entire information about the latest provisions of laws legislated, rules framed, cases decided and academic opinions about provisions of law and decisions rendered.

All this is available in a number of different periodicals and books. The number of the journals and law report has grown so much that there is hardly a library which can claim to have all the material. An average lawyer has only a small fraction of it available to him. Even if he has access to some of these there are certain resistal factors which keep the information from reaching the court while passing an order or deciding a case. Firstly, there are not many young lawyers who take to books, as they should. They may be innocent of even the relevant provisions of statutory law, more so of the precedents and academic opinions

Secondly, the material is not placed before the court if it does not suit a lawyer even if the lawyer is aware of it. While hearing a case even with both sides represented, the court cannot always be sure of getting all the relevant material because of these reasons. It is worse when the case is being heard at a preliminary stage. With only one party effectively represented the court can be certain of not being communicated the entire relevant law. Thus, the interim orders, which are passed, do have the possibility of being not well informed. This situation can be rectified effectively if the entire information about laws, precedents and writings is fed into the Computer. The petitions will have the question of law indicated on them for the purpose of listing. This information can be used to have a print out about the latest legislative provisions and cases etc. available to the court at the time of the preliminary hearing. This will help the court in considering the entire law in deciding to accept the case for hearing or to issue interim order.

At the stage of hearing again a printout can be made available to the court and counsel. It will ensure consideration of the entire legal material and will also reduce the time spent in citing and reading from cases.

Computerising of the information system is imperative to maintain the quality of decision making in the changed context of workload and reluctant flow of information along the traditional conduits of the bar.

This incidentally will also keep an effective control over the inlet of cases. It is not infrequently that certain petitions are admitted for hearing while the law is clear about their being not maintainable. It results from partial information alone being made available at that stage. Equipped with the latest contemporary legal provisions, a court can effectively sieve out the petitions, which are not maintainable but filed only to enjoy the unentitled fruits of uninformed interim justice.

It will also offset the disadvantage a poor litigant has in not being able to engage a very efficient lawyer. This information can also be made available to all the courts in the State, by providing terminals to them. The benefit can, thus, be multiplied manifold.

ii). Administrative

In administrative management Computer is well established in its usefulness and manner of use.

In administration of courts it can help additionally in-formation of benches and non-listing of cases before a specific bench, if it is fed with the specialization of judges and the personal factors due to which they would not hear cases of specific parties or cases in which specific counsel appear.

About officers in the High Court and in the District the Computer can store information regarding their specializations, performance appraisal, posting and details of salaries, allowances and deductions. The information about performance and postings can then be placed before the court while deciding about placement, promotions, or efficiency for crossing bar. It will be unencumbered by fear of its having been doctored.

It can also help in financial and material management, in preparing accounts, pay, bills, with increments and deductions budgeting etc. and in inventory control.

d) Computerised Typewriters : can be used for printing the judgments/orders. It will be easier to correct them for final issue and copy to be prepared immediately, eliminating the time, and labour taken, and possibility of human error in preparation of copies. Issue of wrong copies can be checked and the long queue at the counter of copying department substantially reduced.

e) Management of Record : With about 5 lacs of cases pending and records of cases decided in last 125 years Computer can be of immense use in maintenance of records.

It can keep a track of all the pending cases if all the movements of records are fed to the Computer. All the orders passed can also be fed into it to facilitate compliance of orders and also for the orders to be available to the litigants for their information on the press of a button.

Records of a substantial number of decided cases are to be stacked in the court. A part of the record is to be maintained permanently. It has also to be frequently reviewed for a copy to be prepared.

A study can be made afresh to see the part of record of which copies are most frequently asked for.

Instead of retaining the entire record, after 10/15 years a microfilm can be prepared having all the judgments and other important papers duly identified being preserved to be retrieved for preparation of a copy whenever needed. This will reduce pressure on stacking space and also facilitate tracing and avoid handling of voluminous record.

II. Management of Court Time

One constraint, which affects the speedy disposal of cases, is court time. Better utilization of court time will necessarily increase the productivity of the system.

The manner in which the court time may be better used can be found with the help of principles of time management.

Some of the practices prevailing in the courts in some developed countries suggest themselves as models for reducing the pressure on this critical factor.

It is not infrequently that the opposing counsel does not contest validity of a point made by counsel for a party but only after that point has been argued at some length. It is also frequent that a judge agrees with a contention of a counsel after hearing him, again at considerable length. Substantial amount of time is taken in reading out from cases or other reference material.

All this time can be saved if the counsel exchange their submissions before hearing, and then inform each other about the points that they would not contest, and the ones that they would raise.

The submissions with the aforesaid endorsements can then be given to the court in advance, and the oral arguments restricted to points on which the judge need be convinced. This will lend a focus to the process of hearing and will save a lot of court time, which may be used to decide other cases.

Pre-hearing conferences, written submissions and hearings only if necessary, and those too for a limited duration are some of the practices prevailing in the United States. There is no reason why we, having much more pressure on the court time, cannot adopt it.

III. Reassessing the Procedure

The procedures in the courts were designed when the caseload in quantity and variety was much less. With manifold increase in numbers, not only has the judicial time more demands to meet, the administrative functions can also not be well supervised. Values are changing fast and ethical control mechanism is crumbling. The methods have to be assessed and adjusted to deal efficiently with the changed situation.

a)      Organisational Objective : Every organized activity has a purpose, the realization of which guides the constitution of its structure and selection of mechanism for its operation. The efficiency of an undertaking is also measured in terms of the extent to which it is able to achieve the objective.

If the objective is not clear the entire exercise of structuring and process selection will be a rudderless one and the object realization would be accidental rather than aimed. Various components are likely to function at cross-purposes reducing the effectiveness of the system.

Clarity of object is also essential for continual monitoring of the system to maintain optimum level of efficiency. It is therefore imperative that the object of the judicial organization, of which the High Court is a limb, be stated in clear and crisp terms.

The primary object of the system is to administer justice according to law. This statement may not evoke many dissensions. However, there are a number of quality factors, which need be settled to evolve a clear objective. Most of them relate to the extent to which rule of law has to be adhered to in dispensing justice. Role of some ostensible operators of the system in delaying or even stalling the process, requires a clear stance and also, whether the court can relieve a man of the rigours of law though finding the law to be valid. One of the important components of the objective is fixing the identity of the main beneficiary of the system whose interest is to be the primary factor for resolving a situation where it conflicts with that of other persons involved in the system.

The objective of the system with all its adjectives has to be clearly stated to lend a focus to the system.

b)      Re-evaluation of Process: (i) Cost benefit analysis of the process : The process from institution of a case to its decision has to be studied for its effectiveness and capacity to realize the objective of the system.

The entire process should be first divided into single-activity components. Each of the steps should be examined for its utility and effectiveness in contributing to dispensation of justice. An examination in the nature of cost benefit analysis would disclose its benefit in terms of its advancing the cause of justice, and cost in terms of expenses, harassment, and delay. Social institutional cost/benefit may also be taken into account.

For example, with every petition an affidavit is filled to testify to the facts alleged.

The cost in swearing an affidavit includes,

(a)          Payment to the oath commissioner/notary,

(b)         Cost of drafting and typing, and

(c)          Time and effort in getting the affidavit drafted and verified.

The benefits arising out of a sworn affidavit are:

(a)          It is taken to be sufficient proof of facts deposed;

(b)         It renders a man liable to be punished if the statement is found to be false, and

(c)          It is assumed that a man usually does not tell a lie on oath.

The assumption does not hold good today. Administration of oath has only a casual relationship with likelihood of the statement being true, having almost no deterrent effect.

And in fact no oath is almost ever administered by oath commissioners or notaries and affidavits are seldom read out to the deponent. The other two benefits are artificial creations of law. If a verified statement of a person, duly identified, is accepted as proof, and provided to entail punishment, if found to be false, a litigant will be saved cost and harassment without any perceptible disadvantage to the cause of justice. A small change in law can help in reduction of cost and harassment to the litigant and will lead to desired result unless one of the objectives of the system is to provide income to Oath-Commissioners or Notaries.

Similar analysis need be conducted about each of the steps in the process, with an eye to optimize the realization of a just decision and to minimize the cost, harassment and delay in the dispensation. Once the object is clearly stated, the analysis will be easier and the factors not essential to achieve the ends of justice can be easily discounted. Activities may be accepted, discarded, modified, or joined with another similar one as a result of examination and focused clearly on the objective of the system.

Empirical Examination

Empirical studies instead of prognostic subjective opinions of armchair intellectuals should be used in examining the effectiveness of the process or any part of it.

Whether a revision of an interim order is necessary, should be decided by actual experiential examination of cases to see the proportion of cases in which revisional intervention was actually affected as against the number of cases in which it was sought and the percentage of cases in which such rectifications could have been almost equally effectively made available at the appellate stage. The benefits, if any, have to be weighed against the delay and costs resulting from revisions.

One important cost of such process is that it may be used primarily to outrun a poor adversary, negating justice to him by mere multiplication and protraction of proceedings.

Availability of revision as a midtrial intervention has to be examined scientifically for its being permitted.

Similarly availability of multiple appeals can be examined to see if they ensure justice or merely reveal subjectivity in the decision-making. The proportion of cases in which second appeals change the decisions would be a useful index of its need. These decisions should primarily rest on empirical studies and should be experiential, to be credible.

b)      Sequencing - Using Quantitative Techniques :

The next step, after identifying the essential activities, will be to so arrange them as to minimize cost and delay, and maximize the realization of a just decision. For this, some of the quantitative techniques can be used.

Each of the activities found necessary has to be examined to see if it is necessary to have another activity performed before it can be started or if it can be run parallel to any other activity. They have to be accordingly sequenced.

It is essential to have a counter affidavit before a rejoinder can be required to be filled.

But usually it is not essential that an interim order be passed before a petition be finally decided. Proceedings in the main petition and in interim relief application should simultaneously be continued and after exchange of affidavits the petition should be finally heard, instead of an interim order being passed and only then the petition being listed for admission or disposal, Sequencing of activities if done in accordance with the techniques of network analysis will reduce time and effort, and also resultant cost and harassment in the disposal of cases.

This examination of the process would help in reducing unnecessary parts of process and in strengthening the system as an effective delivery system.

iv). Administration

High Court manages its own support system, in addition to managing the District Judicial System. Administration of each of them vies with the other for its obsolescence, and being run without any recent reappraisal for its effectiveness. Any aberration in this limb of the system is reflected in the judicial outcome.

a)      Managing District Courts : In administration of the District Judicial officers, the High Court participates in their selection, and then takes over effective control leaving only the formal issuance of orders to the State Government, having exclusive power in placements, performance appraisal, promotions etc.

The entire mechanics of administration needs reappraisal to make it effective. Some important aspects, which need be gone into are, a clear role definition of the various levels of administration, the High Courts participating in administration as against being only a detached fault-finding mechanism, a more free inter-action between various levels of administration and equally free flow of information up and down the line, & consultation in dealing with problems or in setting goals. Structural relationships have to be clear and responsive. Institutionally they are vague and lack mutual confidence today providing a fertile terrain for ineffectiveness in administration and for non-performance. Exceptions are only personal.

The persons responsible for administering the District sub-system should be exposed to the basic principles of personnel management. To be equipped for selection and placement a basic knowledge of job analysis, job description and talent identification is essential otherwise the entire process is likely to be guided by extraneous consideration and the results are likely to be correct only by accident.

Placement should be more objective and fair. Computer can be used to store the personal records and expertise, which should be used in deciding the placements.

To induce efficiency qualities of leadership motivation, and sensitivity to the responses of the contact groups is essential, in managers of the system: performance appraisal is not a mere annual branding but a positive tool for human resource development, assessment of training needs placement and promotions. It has always to be performed in the context of job requirements. Exposure to these principles will render this annual exercise more meaningful and object oriented. Today this assessment is as much reflective of the assessing officer, as of the person whose performance is assessed.

The management of information is another weak link in the system. Instead of a healthy flow of information up and down the line of control, secondaries are developed and used while inducing constrictions in the normal conduits. A District Judge is required to communicate with his next higher level, an administrative judge, only through the Registrar.

Being sensitive to the feelings of the workers induces commitment and reduces resistance. Innocent of many of these tools of contemporary personnel management, the administration cannot be effective nor induce effectiveness in the system. It leaves talents untapped and raises frustrations, reducing motivation and efficiency.

Fixing Targets - Management by Objectives (M.B.O.)

Whenever the production in an organization is to be quantified, the principles of M.B.O. can be used. The output should be quantified only after down the line consultation, taking into account the view of all the levels and after discussion at the shop floor level. This method on one hand helps the management to know the actual working conditions at various levels and their impact on the productivity, making the targets fixed after taking them into account more realistic, and on the other induces commitment of the operators of the system, who have been effectively consulted, in realizing targets so fixed.. This method should be used to fix: disposal by trial courts. Instead of universal yardsticks being evolved at Allahabad, the District Judges can be asked to plan the disposal in consultation with the officer concerned, taking into account old and lengthy cases which otherwise are shelved to meet the level of disposal set unmindful of the individual cases, courts, and a local working conditions, and capacity of the officer concerned.

b)      Management of Offices of H.C.: (i) Structure : The management of the support mechanism of the court needs being reviewed to generate effectiveness in this limb.

The first important step is to restructure the administrative set up. Different functions should be identified and the offices reorganized for more effected performance.

Delegation

It is equally important that the work be effectively supervised. It may perhaps be the only organization where only one man has been supervising and managing th entire administration, with other judges available being not used almost at all. Centralization of power is almost absolute. It is not possible for the Chief Justice alone to oversee the entire administration. As a result the functioning cannot be supervised and power nodes develop erratically at different levels. He can easily delegate the function to oversee each of the administrative units to one of the judges and retain overall control of the system. It will incidentally though importantly lend continuity to the system, which experiences sudden void on the transfer, “elevation” retirement of a Chief Justice, which averages at least once in two years, and fresh starts with different priorities and style. If the judges participation administration the new Chief Justice will either be one already involved in the administration, or, if he comes from another High Court, will have a team of Judges already running the administration to help him continue to administer. This will induce institutionalization of administration instead its being an ad-hoc and highly personalized one.

(ii) Office Management & Procedures

Specific techniques have been evolved to streamline offices, in their functioning, lay out and procedures to optimize efficiency. These methods of O and M and Work Study can be used in the offices of the High Court also to revitalize the offices. Environment of understanding and commitment can be generated in the administrative offices. With proper supervision and leadership they can be motivated to be responsive and equipped to be efficient.

Training

All the methods suggested above aim at sharpening tools of the judicial system. Yet howsoever efficient a mechanism may be, if the persons who operate the system are not efficient and motivated the system may not deliver results.

Operational expertise including motivation is provided by training.

Whenever the expertise needed for efficient performance of a job is not available in its entirety in a person required to perform it, the gap either in knowledge or in skills or even in attitudes, is provided by training. Imparted at the stage of entry it is called induction training. With new vistas of knowledge ever unfolding themselves, functions and methods changing, a man who does not keep himself abreast slides into obsolescence. It necessitates midstream updating. If any defect is discovered in operation of the process, rectification can be injected into the system only by training. Operational innovations can also be introduced into the system by training.

In service programmes also facilitates cross-fertilization of ideas.

Training will equip the officials to perform more effectively.

Judges at various levels can also benefit by training. The wherewithal acquired as a lawyer or even as a District Judge does not respond to the entire job requirement of a High Court Judge. An advocate may have substantial in-put of knowledge but he is innocent of skills of justicing and the requisite attitude. A District Judge may have voids in knowledge while having the requisite skills and behaviour.

Specific identification of training needs is a detailed exercise. But the need to have training can be disputed only if it is contended that a man who joins the bench knows all that he needs to know.

It may be pointed out that all developed countries have programmes for training of judges.

Research & Development

An endeavour to improve the system cannot be a onetime effort. It has to be an ongoing programme, to diagnose inadequacies in the system and searching for more efficient substitutions. Research can also help decision making not only by marshalling all the relevant legal provisions and precedents relevant in a decision but also providing socio-economic data base where necessary, to rest a decision on, so that it is responsive to the ground conditions.

A multidisciplinary team of men from law, management and social sciences can test the existing mechanism for efficiency and also being socially relevant and economically viable. They can also evolve an efficient and effective mechanism.

Attempt can be made to study semilit discretionary areas in justicing to ensure that such decisions respond to some basic principles of reason, and are not personalized pursuits of his own ideal of beauty and goodness by a knight, as Cardozo put it.

It is also essential to empirically test the outcome of the system for its quality. Decisions on facts especially lend themselves to verification. Unless the correctness of decisions is known and causes, which induce aberrations, are identified, no attempt can be made to improve the quality of justice.

In criminal cases the deviations are clearly demonstrable. Of 100 reports lodged in respect of serious offences less than 10 actually end up in convictions. This shows that either more than 90 percent of our population consists of liars, or there is something seriously wrong with our criminal justice administration. We have warded off criticism long enough on the alibi of proof beyond doubt. It is the man who is wronged for whom the system functions. Instead it works predominantly to decriminalize the man who commits the wrong. To carry credibility with the people we have to find the weak link in our system, replace them and improve the quality of justice.

The quality of justice is inversely proportional to its distance from truth.

This distance can be measured by a team of dedicated sociologist who can collect the actual facts, which may then be verified. When we lay them with the judicial record, the aberrating factors will stand out. Steps can then be taken to rectify them. This method is sometimes used in preparation of case studies.

To test the effectiveness of the system, to find the inefficient and distorting members of the process, to work out rectifications and to innovate more efficient substitution, it is essential to have a research and development cell manned by equipped and enthused men. This alone will make the system pragmatic and lend to it the capacity of taking the fresh challenges on.

Role of the Bar

No endeavour to streamline the courts system can be effective unless the members of the bar also participate in the effort. Role of the bar has, of late, been dichotomous. Most of the individual members of the bar continue to assist the courts in the process of decision-making. Yet as a combine they wrench themselves free of the rest of the system and in no implicit manner adopt a belligerent attitude stalling the process of justice sometimes for weeks together. What makes the situation more enigmatic is the fact that in so doing they hurt the interests of the litigants alone, protection of whose interest lends legitimacy to their participation in the system and at a more mundane plane, they work against one who provides them succour for no fault of his, real or imaginary.

The bar has to consider its precise role, which should be such as to subserve the overall objective of the system. It has then to evolve a control mechanism to take care of deviations. Discipline does not either inhibit growth or hamper freedom. This is more than demonstrated by the fact that most of the great advocates who illuminated the rooms of this court, and whom we will be eulogizing full throatedly, belonged to an era of control and discipline. They had to undergo training with a senior and were subject to control of the court. Can it be said that any of them was inhibited by these or that these affected the freedom of any of those great men.

Another important factor it has to consider is to see that every member is fully equipped to lead a litigant through the thicket of laws, precedents and procedures. The quality of service and assistance has to be so maintained as to raise the overall quality of the system.

The bar has also to share the endeavour to economise on the court time, as detailed above. The bar has to reestablish its credibility with the people and undertake the traditional role of providing leadership - this time to see that the promises held out by the Constitution and laws to citizens are realized.

Conclusion

The Court is beset by unprecedented problems and the traditional tools have become ineffective in the changed ethos. The judicial administration has to get out of beaten ruts and seek collaboration of management and social sciences to regain its effectiveness and to face the ever-emerging challenges. Each of its components has to function in unison to maximize the effort.

The above essay is a mere attempt to point out the possibilities, which appear to offer themselves as aids in redeeming the system from the ebbs. Each one of them has to be worked out in detail and tested for effectiveness.

Immediate necessity is a resolve to emerge out of intellectual seclusion in managing the system, and be willing to revitalize it with the help of younger technologies and methods, so that this court may again shine in the light of hope it may kindle in hearts of the poor deprived person, by administering robust and quick justice, and be a rightful successor of its past glory.