A formula for speedy justice

ISLAMABAD: The recent actions taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan have kindled a new hope as these actions have shown us a way forward to revolutionise our jurisprudence system in the best interests of the people and the country at large.

It is common knowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of cases of all nature lying pending in the courts of law, starting from the Civil Court right up to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Some registered as far back as the creation of Pakistan. Or, maybe even beyond.

People have become highly optimistic after witnessing the course of law adopted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to settle the massive corruption case against the then sitting Prime Minister and his family, including extended family members, that our legal system from Civil Court right up to the Supreme Court could be revolutionised over a very short period of time.

It is very simple to introduce the ‘time bar’ system for deciding any case. There should be clear directions that the Civil Judges should decide a case within six months. The timeframe for the Session Judges should be reduced to 4 months to decide any case coming up in their courts. The High Court should decide any case coming to them from the Civil Judge’s court within 2 months and the Supreme Court of Pakistan should dispose of all such cases within a time period of one month.

In the pre-independence legal system under the Colonial rule, the most serious crime, a murder case, was supposed to be decided within 90 days. The Deputy Commissioner used to hear the case on daily basis and would give the verdict within a time frame not exceeding 90 days. 

All this may sound very ambitious and impossible to implement. But the 5-member Bench of the Supreme Court and later the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), formed by the orders of the 3 out of 5 members of the Supreme Court Bench and further down the decision making by the three-member of the 5-member Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has abundantly proved that all this is possible. What is required is only the will to revolutionize the system and make it corruption free.

For each case filed in the Civil Judge’s court, there should be at least 2 hearings in a week. This will make 48 hearings in if the case stretches to the limit of full six months. This should be enough to make a decision by the Civil Judge. The same pattern of hearings should be followed in the Session Judge’s courts, the High Courts and eventually the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

So, in each case there will be another 48 hearings in the Civil Courts, 32 hearings in the Session Courts, 16 hearings in the High Courts and 8 hearings in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in any case that stretches that far.

There shall be no adjournments of the case without a hearing and an order be passed on each hearing. If a party or their appointed lawyer(s) do not appear on a hearing, they should be liable to bear the fee of the lawyer of the other party for the appearance on that day, pay compensation to the members of the other party who may be present before the judge for the hearing which should simply be counted on the basis of the time they had spent in the court and their income for one day as well as the travel allowance and daily allowance for food/water/tea. And the party asking for adjournment till next hearing should also pay the court expenses, calculated on the basis of the time spend by the honorable Judge, the staff of the court, the resources used on that particular day for the court including electricity and gas charges.

In the cases of Civil nature, the party loosing the case at the end should also be liable to bear the whole cost of the case, including the fee of the party winning the case. And if a quick scrutiny of the case may indicate malafide intention(s) behind filing the case, then the honorable Civil Judge may even announce a conviction, which may be imprisonment or fine or both. This will prevent filing of false and fabricated cases by people against innocent and ignorant people in the society.

Easier said than done!

Definitely the whole exercise is not so easy to implement this kind of revolutionary judicial system. It would need a whole new administrative set up to be put in place. The number courts have to be increased in lower judiciary and a large number of Civil Judges would be required to be recruited. The special judicial academies would be required to be established to select and train the judges through extensive trainings, just like we are producing our bureaucrats. And each passing out judge should be subjected to mid-career and senior level courses for promotion up the ladder in the judiciary.

Similarly, the number of judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court also need to be increased in accordance with the work load these courts are faced with.   All this may sound ambiguous and ambitious! But to revolutionise any system, revolutionary measures and steps are always needed!