Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

 "JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED"

The above mentioned line were quoted by William Ewart Gladstone. 

A court is a place where people from no matter which religion, caste, gender come to in order to seek justice for their suffering. But what if a person has to wait years and years to get justice? will it make any remarkable change in the life of the person? Sometimes the person seeking justice passes away without getting any justice. when a legal system fails to provide justice in timely manner it leads to frustration and losing faith in judiciary.

The latest RULE OF LAW INDEX released by the world justice project 2023 ranks countries based on justice system, which ranks India 79th out of 142 countries.

Some countries with the most effective legal system include; 

1. Denmark

2. Norway 

3. Finland 

while on the other hand the countries with biggest rule of law declines include

 1. Afghanistan

2. Nicaragua

3. Iran

CAUSE OF DELAYS IN JUSTICE:

1. No set time limit for cases, due to which it takes years to solve a particular case

2. Poor Infrastructure of courts and absence of computerized records.

3. One of the most significant reasons is less number of lawyers. According to a recent study there are only 21 lawyers per million people in India.

4. Delay in filling vacancies of Judges

HOW CAN WE SOLVE THE PROBLEM?

1. Litigation should not always be encouraged. that is, the judges should differentiate between genuine and frivolous litigation and discourage frivolous litigation.

2. There should be a time limit set for each and every case within which the cases must be decided.

3. People should be encouraged to do Alternative dispute Resolutions (that is, outside of court settlements) so that the workload of courts can be reduced.

4. More number of law students should be encouraged to get into litigation. 

5.  The vacant post's of Judges and others should be filled immediately.

• Let's take an example; If a person has been accused by police but not been proven guilty by court due to late judgements, is actually proved as not guilty by court after years, will it make any remarkable difference in his life? the person's goals & reputation will all go in vain. 

There also goes a saying "justice hurried is justice buried". No one expects the cases to be decided overnight. But, there should be a time frame in which it needs to be done because the delayed justice can lead to degradation of evidence, death of victims, witness and accused, which will only cause further injustice.