Indian Judiciary

Indian Judiciary

The judiciary is viewed as an arrangement of courts that decipher and apply the law to the residents of the country. Any resident can arrive at the judiciary when a law is abused. The judiciary assumes a significant part in the working of the vote-based system of our country as it is the third organ of the public authority.

Functions of the Judiciary: 

Debate Resolution: The legal framework is answerable for settling questions between 

– among residents 

– between residents and the public authority 

– between two state legislatures 

– between the middle and state legislatures.

They have specific strategies for the same.

• Judicial Review: Judiciary is the closing practitioner of the Constitution. Thus, it also has the power to stay any laws passed by the Parliament if the judiciary believes that the law may potentially violate the Constitution’s essential structure. 
• Maintaining the Law and Enforcing Fundamental Rights: Every resident of India can move to the Supreme Court or the High Court if they believe that their Fundamental Rights have been violated. For instance, in the Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity versus State of West Bengal instance of 1996, Supreme Court invoked Article 21 to ensure Right to Health is provided to every citizen of West Bengal. They further guided the West Bengal government to repay compensation for any harm that the citizen may have suffered and asked to design a plan for essential medical services in case of an emergency.

Structure of Courts in India:

Three different hierarchies of courts are present in our system. These are:

• Supreme Court: It is the apex-level court for the whole country. The court is situated in the national capital, New Delhi, and the head of the court is known as Chief Justice of India.
• High Court: Each state has a High court, and it is considered to be the highest court of authority in that state. 
• District Court: These are normally at the district or Tehsil position or in towns, and they hear numerous kinds of cases. Each state is sundered into districts that have district courts presided over by a District Court Judge.  
• Integrated Judicial System: Succeeding features makes our Judicial system an integrated one.
• Pyramid Structure: The structure of the courts from the subordinate to the topmost position resembles a pyramid. Judgments given by high courts are binding on the lower courts. 
• Appellate System: People have the right to make an appeal to a higher court if one doesn’t feel justified by the judgment given by the lower court.

Independence of Judiciary: 

• Independence of the judiciary allows the courts to play a central role in ensuring that there is no misuse of power by the other parts of government, i.e., legislature and the executive.
• It also plays a crucial role in protecting the Fundamental Rights of citizens as anyone can approach the courts if they believe that their rights have been violated.

Our Constitution envisions the independence of the judiciary and ensures it by:

• Separation of Powers: The legislature and the executive cannot interfere in the work of the judiciary. These courts are not controlled by the government and do not act on their behalf.
• Appointment of Judges: Just as the Supreme Court, all the Judges in the High Court are delegated with almost no impedance from different parts of government. Once selected to this office, it is undeniably challenging to eliminate them.

Accessibility of Courts to the people and its issues: 

On a fundamental level, all residents of India can arrive at the courts in this country. Nonetheless, there are a few issues that hamper the entrance of equity to the typical individual that is as per the following: 

• The complexity of Legal Procedures:
  • Legal procedures involve a lot of money, paperwork, and a lot of time. This makes the idea of going to court to get justice often remote.
  • To increase access to justice, the Supreme Court in the mid-1980s contrived a component of Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
• Different interpretations of the Fundamental Rights:
  • Access to courts is access to justice. However, there happen to be some court judgments that may go against what is best for ordinary folk.
  • For example, the judgment of Olga Tellis vs. BMC set up the Right to Livelihood as a feature of the Right to Life conferred by Article 21. Later judgments started viewing the slum dweller as an encroacher in the city.
• Justice delayed is justice denied: The courts inordinately take a long number of years to hear a case. Huge vacancy in the judiciary, particularly in the subordinate courts, contributes to it. 

Despite these issues, one cannot deny that the judiciary has played a significant role in democratic India and works as an authority capable of keeping the powers of the executive and the legislature and the Fundamental Rights of the citizen in check.

Conclusion: 

The Judiciary is often referred to as the 3rd pillar of democracy. Any citizen can reach the Court whenever a law is abused. Judicial review is one of the ways to protect the rights of citizens if the Court believes that the law has potential to violate the basic construction of the constitution by exercising its power to stay any law passed by the parliament. Every citizen of India can move to the Supreme Court or High Courts if any injustice has been done to them.

The different hierarchies of the Judiciary are: 

The Supreme Court: It is the apex level Court of our country situated in the capital of our country.      

High Court: It is the highest court of each state situated in the capital of each state.istrict/session Courts: These are the courts at the district level in which civil and criminal cases are heard and solved.