Faith in judiciary has eroded considerably, need to find out what went wrong: Justice AS Oka

Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka on Wednesday said that public faith in the judiciary has eroded considerably as it has not been able to provide quality justice to people. .Justice Oka said there is a need for research and data to find out where the judiciary has gone wrong."Have always believed judges should not live in ivory towers. Have been interacting with all stakeholders and my personal view is that judiciary has not fulfilled the common man's expectations and rather is lagging behind. Whatever faith they had earlier has eroded considerably due to various reasons, mainly that we are not able to provide access to justice and also quality and cost of justice. We never applied our mind as to where we are going wrong. We have to find out what we should have ideally achieved," the top court judge said.He further opined the neglect faced by the trial courts is one of the reasons for the judiciary not living up to the expectations of the people.He remarked that people talk only about Supreme Court or High Courts as if the courts in districts do not exist at all..We never applied our mind as to where we (judiciary) are going wrong. We have to find out what we should have ideally achieved.Justice AS Oka.Justice Oka was delivering the Second Shyamala Pappu Memorial Lecture on Access to justice in the context of 75 years of the Indian Constitution.Supreme Court judge Justice KV Viswanathan and Supreme Court Bar Association President Adish Aggarwala were also present at the event. .In his address, Justice Oka said the subject of 'access to justice' was dear to him as it has a prime place in the Constitution. He clarified that the views being expressed by him are his personal views and not of the Supreme Court. "I have always believed that after India became republic, every citizen had very high expectations towards easy access to justice. It is not simply filing complaints before courts of law or police. It has to be quality and expeditious justice at reasonable cost," he said..Justice Oka stressed on the need to examine whether the judiciary has gone wrong and find out "what we should have ideally achieved". He added that filing of cases itself does not mean access to justice. "We must look back at the 75 years and audit whether courts have achieved common man's aspirations and expectations.".On the neglect faced by the trial courts, Justice Oka said that for years they have been described as lower or subordinate courts. However, he added that every court is a court.He further said that he always tells trial judges not to carry any inferiority complex as they are doing the same work "as those on Constitutional courts.""There may be purpose of hierarchy for running administration but real place where common man gets justice is these courts," he remarked..Justice Oka also blamed the low judge-to-population ratio for failing to meet people's expectations and flagged the lack of infrastructure in the trial courts."In most trial courts, it is so poor. In Maharashtra, I ensured 11 court complexes were constructed through an order of writ of mandamus that was continuous," he added.In this context, Justice Oka also highlighted the "remarkable rise" in matrimonial disputes and said the family courts are flooded with multiplicity of civil and criminal proceedings in the form of custody battles, domestic violence complaints and revisions or appeals. "In Supreme Court, how many transfer petitions we get, most are matrimonial cases. Genuine litigants have to thus wait in queue for a long time. Social change so also has a role to play," he said..Speaking on pre-litigation conciliation measures, Justice Oka said they have to be done on larger scale and have to be backed by law."Legislature will have to step in. In Matrimonial cases such avenues towards settlement [are] needed," he said..Justice Oka also questioned the priority given to commercial courts and said there was a lack of policy for prioritisation of cases."Our courts I believe are for common man, but now we have dedicated commercial courts with all modern facilities. But they do not constitute even 5% of total cases. It is my view, why are giving them so much priority and dedication," he demanded. In this context, he particularly stressed on the importance of giving priority to criminal appeals. "Look at disastrous consequences of when accused is on bail and appeal pending, they have to go back in jail after 15-20 years suddenly. ".Speaking on the legal aid, Justice Oka said many people cannot approach courts due to poverty and there should be amendments to legal aid income criteria. .In conclusion, Justice Oka reiterated his remarks on the need for audit of judiciary. He said there was a need for research and data to find out where the judiciary has gone wrong. He also spoke about docket explosion and said there are a large number of citizens who do not even think of approaching courts even as they keep facing injustice. "This is also a challenge. Organisations have to ensure people do not keep silently suffering. Idea to say all this is to start a thinking process," he added..[Read live tweets from the event]