Nobody sees judges' work beyond those 4-5 hours in courts: Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul

Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Monday countered calls for judges to reduce their breaks in order to tackle pendency before Indian courts..During the question-answer session of a seminar on expanding legal aid organised by the District 3011 Rotary Clubs in Delhi, Justice Kaul made it clear,"Unless you understand how a judge works, you will not know (how long we work). Nobody sees beyond those 4-5 hours in courts. We have to read for 7-8 hours before that, pen our judgments during the breaks. There will not be a change unless we innovate. Otherwise, the arrears will continue. Real concern is the really old cases have been struck for long, largely criminal or family cases. Even in the country, there are divergences."He noted that efforts are being made to address the issue, but people only focus on the bad news."You see, dog biting man makes news. I told my officers to list the 2-3 oldest cases; only then people tend to notice.".In his address, the judge stated that the use of plea bargaining and alternate dispute resolution have meant that in the United States of America, only 2-3 per cent of cases go to trial.However, in India, the same is not the case since a large section of the country is averse to the concept, Justice Kaul explained."India has plea bargaining, but a large section of society is hesitant to accept that they have fallen foul of the law. But it is worth examining is that in future, at least they can sign a bond of good behaviour," the top court judge said..He went on to speak on how currently, high costs of litigation mean that many are not able to access justice."Volume of litigation is a major reason stopping us from solving cases in a reasonable period of time. I do not think any other country has so many cases. The United States Supreme Court hears 100 cases a year, here each bench hears more than 100 each week. Cost of litigation is borne by the people. In revenue cases, people reach the Supreme Court after 6 layers.".Justice Kaul said that the first step to improving things is awareness of the law."If people are not aware of their rights, how will they help themselves? Today, after socio-economic development, people are more aware. Similarly for women, earlier they were hesitant to assert their legal rights due to social reasons, but this is changing."The next step, he said, was to address the many people in jail who cannot avail legal aid."Even when they do, it is not enough or on time, and they have to spend a long time in jail before getting bail."The third step, he suggested, was to be open to and encourage mediation and alternate dispute resolution (ADR) in familial and matrimonial matters."97% of cases in California are through ADR, only 2-3% of cases go through trial. Here, how do we tackle so many trials?".Justice Kaul spoke of an order passed by a bench he had presided over, in which he had opined that persons in jail who have completed at least ten years of sentence and whose appeals are not likely to be heard anytime soon, should be enlarged on bail, provided there are no other extenuating circumstances."The President also spoke about the issue. The government perhaps might act, as I presume it listens more to the President than to us," he added.The top court judge also admitted that it was the ground reality that the rich, by virtue of being able to afford better lawyers in criminal matters, have to spend the least time in custody before being released, on bail or otherwise..On frivolous public interest litigation (PIL) flooding the courts, he opined,"PILs are also a very important remedy, so frivolous pleas being filed should not be a means to discredit them. Many are thrown out at the threshold, but it is for the judges to decide the same once listed.".Retired Delhi High Court judge Jayant Nath and Senior Advocate and Member of Parliament Vivek Tankha also spoke on the occasion..[Follow our coverage of the event]