Sunday, November 4, 2018

HUMAN RESOURCE: A RATIONAL THOUGHT TO REDUCE PENDENCY IN INDIAN JUDICIARY




It has been a tremendous learning journey in judicial services as Court Manager since five years. Being a Human Resource expert my experience obligated me to think differently. This journey with judiciary influenced me to see the things in human resource perspective. Most of the issues in judiciary always compelled me to connect with human resource techniques in my thought process to find solutions to the issues regularly we face in administration.

We all know and heard about the growing pendency of cases in Indian Judiciary, roughly the record says 3.5 crore pendency of cases as on date. There is no doubt about the judicial officers and the judicial system putting tremendous efforts in delivering justice. However, the pendency is growing endlessly, there are several methods, techniques and plans being adopted regularly to reduce pendency at Hon'ble Supreme Court and High Courts. However, the result is not very impressive or not notable. After spending 5 years in judicial services and  being a Human Resource specialist, I have a different take on the existing problem in judiciary i.e., pendency of cases and trying to find solution for the same through proven and adopted human resource methods. 
The perspective of looking at any organisation or the system is different from person to person. Some may look at an organisation as a profit centre or Company, service center, an office to help others, a factory with machines etc. However; I look at any organisation in the perspective that more than anything else, first it is alive and not just a lifeless office, factory, Company etc. People are the nerves, blood, bones, spine, etc., of an organisation. It breaths, enjoys, falls sick, etc., through the people working in it. Without human beings it’s just a space with walls and machines. That’s why I advocate, that organisations are alive. When so much is connected with human beings, there should be something special about the human beings, and that's I believe is ABILITY! An organisation’s productivity can only be enhanced by motivating the employees through various human resource techniques. Therefore, we should be looking at the people working in the system in a special way rather than a conventional way. Salary and perks are the very basic necessity of any employment and only on that basis the organisation cannot be run efficiently. For soldiers, patriotism is a high priority and that sense drives them to fight against enemy. The same army system or example can-not be applied everywhere and ask the resources to work like a soldier. We should not forget that they are soldiers and are trained differently. 
The policies and processes are laid to ease the work of the people working in an organisation and do the work effectively. Policies help us to work with consistency and processes help to complete the work in a specified time efficiently. Organisations update the policies and processes time to time to overcome the redundant and irrelevant processes. Every organisation has its own policy and accordingly the system functions. However, organisations still fail, ineffective, suffer heavy attrition, incur loss, etc. When an organisation has everything in place, many of the times they fail. Even in the case of Judiciary, the system is set, every step has its own policy and processes, have judges, have courts across the country. But still there is so much of pendency. Since 2 to 3 decades the same issue is discussed again and again. Many measures are continuously experimented to reduce pendency. Time-to-time more and more judges' posts are created, new courts are sanctioned across the country. Some or the other measures are taken time and again. However, still the pendency question persists. It must be related to the spine of the organisation, Human Resource. There is a need to give a rational thought on enhancing human resource productivity to tackle pendency.
Judges are the backbone of the judicial system and they are the crucial resource for the supreme organisation. Looking at the huge pendency in judiciary, I would like to look into the issue in a different angle. When we say the organisation is alive through its employees, then the problems also may be related to human resource, why not? Why should we hesitate to look at the issue in this angle? The judicial system has strong financial support, strong policies in place, processes are in place, has quality human resource (Judges) and other required resources are in place. However, the system is not able to perform to its full potential.  We are not questioning about the judges performance, we are discussing the short comings in the whole system. For industries machine are the crucial part, for transport the vehicles and in the same way judges (Human Resources) are the crucial part of the judicial system. The focus of this study is on the human resource working in judicial system, there is a need to find solution to the heavy pendency of cases in Indian judicial system through human resource perspective and various human resource techniques like performance management, motivation, employee satisfaction, training, work-life balance, TQM, etc.

Any lawyer or employee in judicial department knows the hec-tic schedule of judges from lower court. Here in India the lower courts have on an average pendency of 2000 to 3000 cases in a fairly bigger city. And the same pendency goes up in metropolitan or tier-1 cities, and may be little lesser in small cities. To cope with this kind of cases pendency the judges work very hard, spend lot-of time in the court hall.

All these years I have been observing the working schedule of judges in lower court judiciary. Judges enter the office in the morning well before the time to adjust the schedule. Most of the time there will be dictations pertaining to the cases before heading to the court hall in the morning. There will also be urgent unavoidable activities like administrative, finance, infrastructure, directions from the higher courts, protocol, important signatures, etc.  Including court hall function, rest all of the administrative needs to be addressed during the lunch time and in the evening.

Judges have busy schedule in the court hall for the entire day. By the time they reach home after office hours, again they need to spend time to prepare for the next day. What I feel is a judge is working more than 8 to 9 hours a day, and that's hectic. And there is no time to rest on weekends also. Only one day i.e., Sunday is off for the judiciary in Karnataka and that day also there will be programmes, meetings, conferences, etc., most of the times. Every month 2nd Saturday is given off and that is the only day given extra off in a month. However, there will be “Lok Adalat” conducted to provide an opportunity for early relief for the litigants through mediation. The whole day they work on this programme on second Saturday. Considering all the above, judges work way beyond 48 hour per week, which is way higher than a normal human being can work. 

The industrial revolution made it possible for a larger segment of the population to work year-round, because this labour was not tied to the season and artificial lighting made it possible to work longer each day. Peasants and farm labourers moved from rural areas to work in urban factories, and working time during the year increased significantly.[9] Before collective bargaining and worker protection laws, there was a financial incentive for a company to maximize the return on expensive machinery by having long hours. Records indicate that work schedules as long as twelve to sixteen hours per day, six to seven days per week were practiced in some industrial sites. [Citation needed]

1906 – Strike for the 8 working hours per day in France
Over the 20th century, work hours shortened by almost half, mostly due to rising wages brought about by renewed economic growth, with a supporting role from trade unions, collective bargaining, and progressive legislation. The workweek, in most of the industrialized world, dropped steadily, to about 40 hours after World War II. The limitation of working hours is also proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, [10] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, [11] and European Social Charter. [12] The decline continued at a faster pace in Europe: for example, France adopted a 35-hour workweek in 2000. In 1995, China adopted a 40-hour week, eliminating half-day work on Saturdays (though this is not widely practiced). Working hours in industrializing economies like South Korea, though still much higher than the leading industrial countries, are also declining steadily.

Technology has also continued to improve worker productivity, permitting standards of living to rise as hours decline.[13] In developed economies, as the time needed to manufacture goods has declined, more working hours have become available to provide services, resulting in a shift of much of the workforce between sectors.

Economic growth in monetary terms tends to be concentrated in health care, education, government, criminal justice, corrections, and other activities that are regarded as necessary for society rather than those that contribute directly to the production of material goods. [Citation needed]

In the mid-2000s, the Netherlands was the first country in the industrialized world where the overall average working week dropped to less than 30 hours. [14] 

BETTER WORKING ENVIRONMENT FOR SUPPORTING STAFF:

The role of supporting staff is an important aspect in successful court management. Judicial officers need better staff for better performance of judicial and non-judicial functions. The staff need facilities, motivation and better work environment. Some of the important points are discussed below.

  • Ministerial staff is just not a supporting staff for judicial officers, but also back-bone of the back-end processes in judicial system. There should be a better harmony between judicial officers and ministerial staff. 
  • Better working environment to be provided to the ministerial staff with hygienic and safe working space. 
  • Better technology and equipment to be provided to manage daily tasks.
  • Training on practical processes, modern technology, better working techniques to be provided timely.
  • Appreciation from the higher authority in an effective way. 

 A COMPULSORY WEEKLY OFF:

 As discussed above to enhance the productivity of human beings is to provide rest to the mind and body.  One or two days weekly compulsory off to be given to all the judicial officers, strictly followed. No meetings or any official work should be assigned. 5 days’ work in a week, the discussion is going on in India now-a-days is because of the level of stress human resources are going through. The mental and physical stress may bring down the productivity of the human beings. Judicial officers should be given timely rest in a week along with the summer vacations already provided.

RECREATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR JUDICIAL OFFICERS:

Indoor Sports breaks:
Indoor sports breaks for example Carrom, table tennis, Chess, Squash, etc., to work as stress buster after lunch for a short period of time to feel fresh and work again with enthusiasm. This is practiced already in private sectors and which has proved helpful for employees to be more productive. Many physical ailments like Blood Pressures, High blood Sugar count, heart ailments are because of the stress in the working environment. These above activities positively gives long term benefits to the human beings as well as the system.
Meditation Rooms:
A peaceful place for judges where they spend 10 to 15 minutes alone with no disturbance.      A meditation room which helps judges to rejuvenate and ready for work after lunch or break.
Unit wise family outings:

Families are integral part of our work culture, involving them in the get-together activities will enhance the one-ness in the organisation and which will act as a feel good factor for human beings and the result would be positive. The employees as well as family members would be stress free and relaxed. This would enhance the productivity once they return to the work again.
The idea of this article is to bring the focus on the judicial officers who are working hard in this country. The focus point is, if there can be any measures tried or experimented to motivate and increase productivity of judges. Increased productivity can bring in the tremendous result than increasing the unproductive lot of workers.

I request the judiciary to read this article as a new thought and nothing but a good intention.

-Vijay G
Court Manager
Bangalore



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