Does Goa have the infrastructure for night Courts? By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
Last week there was a buzz again in the government circles of conducting night courts in the state to tide over the mounting cases. The rationale behind it is to speedily dispose cases in a bid to serve justice to the litigants at the earliest. As of now civil cases takes almost decades to be decided and in some instances even the litigants have expired before the matter decided.
The government in its wisdom to bring about promptness in deciding the court cases is toying with the idea of night courts. Ironically this is not something new because way back in the year 2004, the government had first mooted this concept. Of course it was not an indigenous plan but a copy of the concept that is being used in Singapore. The readers might be aware the uniforms of the Goa police were also changed from khaki to white and blue and then after spending huge amounts of money on the design, this uniform is now relegated only to the traffic cops. So the concept of night court was also part of the study tour that the politicians of that time had undertaken to turn Goa in Singapore.
The question that the government needs to ask itself before spending the money to conduct night courts is, does the state have the infrastructure, logistics or the facilities required in place. For example till today a large section of litigants’ still use public transport to attend cases, what happens to these litigants if their matters are placed on the night board when public transport in the state comes to a standstill by 8.00pm. Then the government should make clear whether the same judges would have to put in extra hours or will there be set of new magistrates and judges to conduct night courts. In case of different set of judges, superintendent and other staff, the government has to invest in new court houses. Or will the present court halls be designated differently during night courts.
Now let me take the case of criminal matters, in most cases the accused has to be present for trial, what happens if the accused is custody. According to jail manual an accused cannot be moved out of custody after 6.00pm. Can the state afford to infringe upon the jail manual directions and attract Human Rights litigations?
Then does the government expect the lawyers to work overtime that is to say after completing the day’s work to attend courts again in the night. When will they get time to study their cases to present it before the courts? Or does the government expect the advocates to be day lawyers and night lawyers? Justice should not only be served but seen as served.
The government has not applied its mind to study the reasons for the delay in disposal of the cases. First and foremost the situation is not alarming as in other states of the country. Furthermore as of today there is not much of a shortage of judges in the state and in some cases there are not many cases in far-flung courts like Valpoi, Bicholim, Pernem and Canacona. But one judge cannot be made to shuttle between two courts or jurisdictions, because it would be mockery of the judge’s position and status.
The only plausible reason that could be attached to pending number of cases is the liberal practice of repeated seeking and granting adjournments of cases during trial. Of course adjournments are granted as principles of naturaljustice and secondly to give the advocates time to prepare their case before presenting or arguing it before the bench. But lawyers being lawyers tend to take advantage of the system and seek adjournments firstly for frivolous reasons and secondly to attend cases in higher courts.
Arguing further, very frequently the diaries of the advocates are heavily loaded then the court board and if one is frequent visitor to the court, you can see that the some of the lawyers literally do a marathon from one courtroom to the other and sometimes from one courthouse to the other. Of course junior lawyers are sent to attend some of the cases but most of the time their instructions is to take a date (adjournments) and in some cases even the litigants themselves are directed to take a date because of unavailability of the lawyer.
However the silver lining in the dark clouds is that the new generation of judges tend to be more restrictive in granting adjournments and want disposals of the case as swiftly as possible. But the malaise does not lie only at the judiciary; there are other forums like the director and deputy director of panchayat, Mamladars, Deputy Collector, Rent Controller and even Consumer Redressal forums.
Let’s take us the case of mamladars, besides attending to district duties they also have to decide cases under Mundkarial and Tenancy Act. Worse still they are also burdened with Election duty, so how can these authorities dedicate time for faster disposal of cases. The situation in case of Consumer Redressal Forum is even worse because president and members of the Forum are not government servants but individuals who do more of voluntary service to the public. In case of expiry of their term the government takes its sweet time for appointment of the same and in absence of the president no case can be decided.
On paper we have Alternate Dispute Redressal Forum where cases could be decided even before going to trial but this forum has been rendered defunct. Similar is the case with Conciliation Centre, this forum has no powers at all to pass any orders. The government instead of thinking of setting night courts should first get its act right, make laws to strengthen existing forums. For example if Alternate Dispute Redressal Forum and Conciliation Centre are strengthened 50 percent of the existing ceases will be solved immediately.
Fast Track courts and Lok Adalats have proved that innovations within the existing system will enable the judiciary and other forums to dispose cases at a faster rate. Only the government has to develop the zeal for itself to work towards the goal but of course strengthening these forums is not profitable because night courts mean recruitment of staff and that is profitable. (ENDS)
=========================================================== First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - September 16, 2010
