THE administration of justice is the basic responsibility of a state. The setting up of a `parallel judicial system` by a religious organisation has overarching implications.
The fact that many aggrieved persons have taken recourse to the so-called Sharia court for the redressal of their grievances signifies that the judicial system of the countryisfastlosingthe conñdence ofits people. State institutions are getting weak with every passing day and the judiciary is no exception.
In addition to thefact thatourjudicial system strongly favours the haves over the have-nots, the major problem is the amount of time that is usually required to decide a case. Once a case is instituted in the court, it takes years, sometimes decades, to finally get a decision.
All this contributes to the lack of trust and confidence in the system. The entire system has fallen prey to the highhandedness of some unprofessional lawyers.
The incidents of misconduct in courts and manhandling of judicial officers by lawyers are not rare these days. Judicial officers try to avoid any incident with a bar member and compromise the court working.
The courts are full of false and frivolous litigations. The judge may be aware of the malice in many cases, but false prosecution continues.
The system provides a mechanism for discouraging frivolous litigation through the imposition of fines in civil cases and punishment in criminal cases, but these are seldom applied in court. There is a need for suppressing malicious prosecution to lessen the burdenon courts.
If nothing is done to change this, we should be ready for a parallel system.
