Author: Sahitya Mishra

Indian judiciary is the sky of infinite hopes for the people of each sectors of the country. In the recent times questions has been raised over this prime institution of the country , incidents like finding of crores of rupees from the premises of the judge of a High court, many times huge allegations made over the judicial system from its own fraternity, raises an alarming concern
over judiciary which shakes the faith of the general public at some extent. Considering all these aspects ,here the question arises that ” should the judicial system be more accountable among the all three organs of the government ( i:e -The Legislature, The Executive and The Judiciary) , and is The Judiciary still a hero in modern democracy or are all these just a romanticism ?

Abstract

At present time in Indian governance The Judiciary has ranked as the apex institution, so its accountability is also much greater than any of the other institutions . This article is related to the laudable work of the judiciary along with the recent criticism faced by it over its various acts . This article would end with a view to justifying the judicial acts with the help of a few schools of jurisprudence along with its renowned scholars and jurists which would be accompanied by the author’s view , inline with the current situation of the judicial system in the country.

Introduction

Judicial system in its literal meaning or in very general terms existed in India since the ancient times where the Kings or the Rulers were supposed to hold the responsibility of providing justice . Here the kingship is based on the kinship so practically
the position of supreme judge of the country became hereditary in nature . Later in the time of British rule the courts were formed and first Supreme court of judicature at fort William also formed in 1774 at Calcutta , west bengal. But these courts does not have achieve the level of faith , acceptance, and belief from the soul of the citizens of this country, which The Supreme court of India has in 2025. As the Supreme court of India has gotten its authority directly from the Constitution of India , which is given to the people by themselves .
Due to all these the responsibility of this paramount institution is also the most in concurrence with its wide work ambit .
Judiciary – A Fountain of Justice –
In India the place of judiciary is considered to be sacred and is of pious nature and the Indian judiciary has always maintained that character by its fair and neutral judgements . There are multiple case laws can be piled up in justification of these arguments like – Keshavananda Bharti vs. State of Kerala . ( 1973 ) In this landmark judgement The Supreme court has protected the spirit of the constitution and held that ” the basic structure of the constitution can not be amended because without it the constitution would not remain the same as it was designed by the constituent assembly “. In another case with high political pressure where the gravity of judgement not decreased due to the decision of majority of the bench , the case name is A.D.M Jabalpur vs. Shivakant Shukla. (1976) – ” In this case Justice H.R. Khanna delivered a powerful dissent against the majority decision , arguing that the right to life is a fundamental mental right and it can not be suspended even during the emergency period and the aggrieved person can knock the door of the supreme court. Along with this the writ of Habeas Corpus also
maintainable by the court in such period “. In both circumstances mentioned above there is a tussle between executive and Judiciary and in both cases Judiciary had shown its character . Further in 1985 in the case of Mohd. Ahmed khan vs. Shah bano Begum- In this case The Supreme court in spite of an enormous social pressure from the society has provided justice to Shah bano Begum . Apart from the plethora of the cases the Indian judiciary also performs the function of checks and balances over the action of Executive and Legislature and many times asks for the explanation for their action like recently The Supreme Court has questioned the Governor of Tamil nadu for holding his assent over the bills pending to him from months without any justification . The court of law took cognizance over any matter reached to it via Plea , Application or Suo moto for the welfare and maintenance of a civil society .

From the eyes of criticism

All the previous statements collectively form a negligible part of a very bright and wonderful truth of the Indian judicial system . But in the same time various acrid questions have been raised over this paramount organ and the most famous one is
about the selection process of the judges of The High courts and Supreme court , here most of the times the relationship between the current or previous judges of the court with the newly appointed judges has been found . Although there is appointment of first generation judges as well but a few . In the recent past Indian judiciary in under the eyes
of criticism because of its a few infamous judgements as well like in a case “where a single judge of the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench has acquitted an accused holding that an against minor would amount to sexual assault only if there was skin – to -skin contact. This decision of the court later got criticised and overruled by the Supreme Court of India . Apart from this there was a case in 2019 ,where , a former junior court officer alleged that she was sexually harassed by The Chief Justice of India , in this case the same judge on whom the accusations was made , positioned as the member of bench and denied the allegations. ” In the views of some legal scholars it was a violation of the principle of natural justice as “No one should be the judge of his own case “.
Recent discovery of Crores of rupees from the servant quarter of a judge of The Delhi High Court which is under the premises of the residential quarter of the justice, raise an alarming concern over the accountability of the judges of these higher courts.
Along with all these allegations there are still few problems which are surrounded the judicial system and due to which it faces the criticism from the legal experts like , Former judge of The Supreme Court of India and Supreme Court of Fiji “Justice Madan B. Lokur” in his recent article 4 in ‘The Hindu Newspaper ‘ has pointed out the effects of Sec.152 of
BNS (2023) which makes a person accused of endangering the sovereignty of India. Due to this any political writer criticising any policy of Government faces the allegations under section 152 BNS (2023) from different parts of the country and the alleged person has to move in that city to face the trial on its own expenses even though the allegations found to be useless or fake no reimbursement awarded to the such person for his mental and physical suffering . This can be politically motivated as well to suppress the freedom of speech. Apart from this the judicial processes are very long and time taking
and manual procedure based which takes away Judiciary from the reach of common people of this country. Very recently the previous Honorable Vice – President of India Mr. Jagdeep Dhankar has questioned the over interference of the Supreme Court in the Executive affairs.

A Line of Justification

All the discussion made in the above paragraphs , might be creating a concern among the people over the Judicial system. But all these never meant that the Judiciary is ineffective or got compromised in any phase due to any reason . The most beautiful thing about the Indian judiciary is that it has a reason and explanation behind most of the acts and judgements given by it .
Jurisprudence is a dynamic and still evolving subject so many times justification over the same subjects got changed due to change in time period. As explained in the Realist school of Jurisprudence “The law is not merely a set of rules and principles , law is what judges decide and it depends on various factors, like the experiences and the own thoughts of the judges and the society from which he adopted the basic understanding etc. Due to these reasons the decision of the different courts gets changed over the same matter of facts.
The Indian judiciary has relentlessly working to provide justice and satisfaction to everyone whomsoever comes to it .In case if any party not satisfied by the decision of any court then he/she can approach to the higher court till the Supreme Court and even after the Supreme Court ,there is the provision of filing the Review petition, Curative petition and approach to President as well. Having all these processes the judicial system aimed to provide justice to every citizen of the country and no one should be left unheard.
The overall discussion never aimed to justify the unjust acts of any institution but it aimed to give its humble regards to the Indian judiciary for its different works in different time phases having different priorities for the welfare of the state.