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GRAM NYAYALAYAS – COURTS OF NAMESAKE EXISTENCE?
GRAM NYAYALAYAS – COURTS OF NAMESAKE EXISTENCE?
Invariably, equality and justice are two main facets of India's vision of a new, democratic, and Constitution-based India. The ideals of equality and fairness are upheld by the administration of justice by the state apparatus. India's judiciary is marked by structural issues, including corruption, delays, suspension, rising costs, minimal legal assistance and a lack of properly trained legal professionals. Ministry of Law established Gram Nyayalayas in 2009 with the goal to provide a cost-effective grass-root forum to resolve legal matters for the poor living in villages. The Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008, [1]laid the foundation of Gram Nyayalayas in the country.
These mobile village courts are established in the rural areas for quick and easy access to the justice system. They aim to provide inexpensive justice to people on their doorsteps in rural areas. These courts try criminal cases, civil suits, claims or disputes stated in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule of the Act, and the Central and State Governments may amend the scope of the cases, in accordance with their respective legislative competences. Recently, last month, the apex court directed the states, which are yet to come out with notifications to establish gram nyayalayas, to do so in four weeks.
By far only 11 states have come out with such notifications and out of them only 3 have established Gram Nyayalayas. The country has only 208 such courts functioning, contrary to the target of 2500 in the twelfth five-year-plan. The Gram Nyayalayas have utterly failed in realizing the dream of Gandhiji and are namesake entities of the judiciary.
Shortcomings faced by the Gram Nyayalayas
The infrastructure and safety are considerably inadequate. The unwillingness of police officers and other state functionaries to invoke the jurisdiction of such courts, the lukewarm response of the judiciary, the non-availability of notaries and stamp vendors, the question of concurrent jurisdiction of regular courts, etc. are some of the problems posed by the states in the way the courts operate.
Furthermore, the spirit of the legislation includes the establishment of Gram Nyayalayas where it would be of maximum possible benefit to the villagers, but in practice, some of the Gram Nyayalayas are established with parallel jurisdiction in towns, along with other regular courts. Gram Nyayalaya is sometimes present at the premises of the district court, which destroys the sole purpose of making such courts.[2]
Most of the stakeholders, including litigants, lawyers, police officers, and others, are not even aware of Gram Nyayalayas' presence in the premises of the district court, and no conferences or seminars have been organized to raise awareness about this institution.
The successful operation of Gram Nyayalayas can minimize the pendency of cases in subordinate courts by about 50 percent and can take care that the new litigation that will be resolved within six months. But for the fruition of this result, existing loopholes have done with. This system cries for overhaul, which can only be brought by mixed efforts of judiciary and legislation[3]
[1] Gram Nyayalaya Act, 2008, available at https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2060/1/200904.pdf
[2] Gaurav Garg, Gram Nyayalaya – Analysis, Social Scientist Journal.
[3] Menaka Guruswamy, Aditya Singh, Accessing Injustice: The Gram Nyayalaya Act, 2008, Economic and Political Weekly.
- Gram nyayalaya
- village judiciary
- judicial hierarchy
