Judiciary Notes 8th Social Science

Judiciary Notes 8th Social Science

8th Social Science Lesson 22 Notes in English

22. Judiciary

Introduction

• The judicial system of a country needs to be efficient in order to ensure proper justice to all. India has a single unified and integrated judicial system.
• Judiciary plays an important role as an organ of the government. It administers justice, settles disputes, interprets laws, protects fundamental rights and acts as guardian of the Constitution.

Law:

It is a system of rules imposed through a government or institution to govern people.

Judiciary:

In law, the Judiciary or Judicial system is the system of courts which administers Justice in the name of the State.

Evolution of Indian Judiciary

Judiciary during ancient period

• During ancient times, the concept of justice was linked with religion. The king was regarded as the fountain head of Justice.
• Most of the Kings’ courts dispensed justice according to ‘dharma’, (righteousness and duty) a set of conventional laws, Dharmic laws governed not only the individual but also the society.
• The rebublics of Ganas had their own system of law. We find the existence of Kulika court.
• Amongst the Vajjis, there was a board of eight Kulikas for the investigation of Criminal cases. Appeal proceeded from Kula courts to Gana Courts.

Judiciary during Medieval period

• The Tughlaq period saw the compilation of the code of civil procedure.
• It was called Fiqha-e-Feroze Shahi. The code prescribed details of the procedure and the law in several matters.
• It was written in Arabic and was translated into Persian.
• This was followed till the reign of Aurangazeb when it was replaced by Fatawa-i-Alamgiri written in 1670.

Judiciary during Modern period

• The Indian judicial system and laws we have today was formed by the British during the colonial rule in the country.
• The beginning of Indian codified common law is traced back to 1727 (Under the Charter of 1726) when the Mayor’s court in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta were established by the East India Company.
• Regulating Act of 1773 made provision for the formation of Supreme Court. A Supreme Court was established for the first time at Fort Williams in Calcutta.
• Sir Elijah Imphey was appointed as chief justice of that court. In 1801 and 1824 Supreme Courts were established in Madras and Bombay.
• These Supreme Courts functioned until 1862 when they were replaced by the High Courts at all the three places.
• Warren Hasting, established Mofussil Diwani Adalat to resolve civil disputes and Mofussil Fauzdari Adalat to resolve criminal disputes.
• The appeals from these courts could be taken to Sadar Diwani Adalat (civil court of appeal) and Sadar Nizamat Adalat (criminal court of appeal).
• Lord Cornwallis reorganised the civil and criminal judicial system. Under Cornwallis, the District Fauzdari court was abolished and Circuit Court was setup at Calcutta, Dacca, Murshidabad and Patna.
• During the period of William Bentinck four Circuit courts were abolished.
• Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat were established at Allahabad. A law commission was setup by Macaulay, which codified the Indian Laws.
• On the basis of this Commission, A Civil Procedure Code of 1859, An Indian Penal Code of 1860, and a Criminal Procedure Code 1861 were prepared.
• The Government of India Act 1935 created Federal Court. It was not the highest court as appeals could lie in certain situation to the Privy Council in England.
• The Jurisdiction of Privy council was abolished by the Abolition of the Privy Council Jurisdiction Act, 1949.
• The Supreme Court of India was inaugurated on 28 January 1950.

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Judiciary and constitution

• India framed its own Constitution. Among the noble aims and objectives of the Constitution, the founding fathers accorded the highest place to ‘Justice’.
• During British period, Indian had neither law nor courts of their own and both the law and courts had been designed for the Colonial Power.
• The Constituent Assembly members therefore tried to ensure the independence of the Courts with full power of Judicial review.
• Supreme Court Rules, 1966 are framed under Article 145 of the Constitution to regulate the practice and procedure of the Supreme Court.
• The Supreme Court of India is the highest court of the land as established by Part V (‘The Union’) under Chapter IV titled ‘The Union Judiciary’ and Part VI (‘The State’) under Chapter VI titled ‘Subordinate Courts’ of the Constitution of India.
• Articles 124 to 147 of the Constitution of India lay down the composition and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India.

Structure of courts in India

There are three different levels of courts in our country.

District Courts: The Courts that hear civil cases at the district level are called District Courts

Sessions Court: The Courts that hear criminal cases are called the Sessions Court.

The Panchayat Courts: The Panchayat Courts deal with Civil and Criminal cases at the village level.

The Revenue courts: The Revenue courts deal with the cases of land records. It also assesses and collects land revenue from the land holders.

Lok Adalat:

• Lok Adalat was set up to provide speedy justice. It hears and settles the disputes in the language of the people in the public presence.
• A Lok Adalat is presided over by a retired judge along with a lawyer and a social worker. Cases are put forward without advocates.
• These cases are solved through mutual consent. The first Lok Adalat was held on 1982 at Junagadh of Gujarat.

Fast Track courts: These courts were established in the year 2000 with an aim to clear the long pending Sessions and other lower judicial cases.

Tele Law Initiative:

• To provide legal aid and service to the people in rural areas, the Tele Law Initiative was launched by the Ministry of Law and Justice in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• People can seek legal advice from the lawyers through video conferencing available at the common service centre on the ‘Tele Law’ Portal – a technology enabled platform.

Family Courts:

Family courts specifically handle family law matters. They are civil courts and are utilised for various family related claims such as Child custody, Divorce, Adoption, Juvenile issues etc.

Mobile courts:

Mobile courts will be of great relief to the rural people. It would create greater awareness about the judicial system among the rural masses, cut costs for them and render justice as their doorstep.

E–Courts:

The E–Courts project was established in 2005. According to the project all the courts will get computerised. Judicial service centre is the part of e-court. The public as well as the advocates can ask directly the case status and next hearing dates with free of cost.

Role of the Judiciary

Role of Judiciary can be classified as,

Supreme Court of India

This is the highest court of India and is located in New Delhi. According to the Constitution of India, the Supreme Court is the guardian of the Constitution and the highest Court of appeal.

Jurisdiction of Supreme Court

Original Jurisdiction:

The Supreme Court can hear dispute for the first time in that court only. It is mainly concerned disputes between the Union and one or more states and between two or more states.

Appellate Jurisdiction:

It can hear appeals against the decisions made by the High Court on the granting of certificate by the High Court.

Advisory Jurisdiction:

The Court can report to the President its opinion about a question of the public importance referred to it by the President.

Writs Jurisdiction:

The Writs are issued by the Supreme Court under Article 32 and by the High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

Court of Record:

It maintains records of the court proceedings and its decisions are finding upon the lower courts.

Special Powers:

It supervises the functioning of the lower courts.

The Litigation Process

There are two different types of legal sections in India: Civil and Criminal

High Court

• This is the highest court in the states. Every state in India has a High Court. Two or three states may have a common High Court.
• For example Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh is having one High Court. It has original, Appellate and Writs Jurisdiction.
• Below the High Court there are a Subordinate courts in the States.

Independent and impartial function of Judiciary

• The framers of the Constitution established independent and impartial judiciary in India.
• Independence of judiciary is important for the purpose of fair justice. Democratic country like India, judiciary is the custodian of rights of citizens.
• Therefore, the framers of the Indian Constitution at the time of framing of our constitution were concerned about the kind of judiciary our country should have.
• This concern of the members of the constituent assembly was responded by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the following words: “There can be no difference of opinion in the House that our judiciary must be both independent of the executive and must also be competent in it. And the question is how these two objects can be secured.”
• An effective judiciary should be independent as well as accountable.
• The independence of the judiciary is the independence of the exercise of the functions by the judges in an unbiased manner i.e. free from any external influence.

Conclusion

• Judiciary plays a crucial role in a democratic state.
• Judiciary is the custodian of the Constitution and guardian of fundamental rights. India, the largest representative democracy of the world possesses a well-structured and independent judicial system.

More to Know:

1. Public Interest Litigation (PIL):

• PIL is a litigation filed in a court of law for the protection of “public interest”.
• The Supreme court introduced this system which allows a person to approach the court with his case.
• PIL can be filed for the following reasons such as violation of basic human rights, religious rights, pollution, and road safety.
• This could be done by a written letter stating the case. This concept is unique to the Indian Judiciary.

2. NALSA

• The National Legal Service Authority has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society and to organise Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.

3. The first political philosopher, who propounded the idea of an independent judiciary, was Montesquieu, the famous French philosopher. He believed in the theory of separation of powers of the three branches of the Government – Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.

4. The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High court in the country, established in 1862, whereas the Allahabad High Court is the largest Court.

5. Smiritis

In ancient India Smiritis defined the social duties for the individual. There are Manusmiriti, Naradasmiriti, Yajnavalkya smiriti etc.