TEMPLE OF JUSTICE AND GUIDING ANGELS OF SOCIETY

 

Humans are the most optimistic living beings on earth and HOPE is the fundamental nature that humans relied upon to set-up an ideal and happy society. Since centuries human beings especially Indians gradually built the societies systematically to comfort the members of the family and to lead a happy life. Developed the culture, traditions and social structures for amicable living with other groups of families. societies developed into villages, cities, kingdoms and modern countries. In the meantime, social rituals, traditions, norms, rules, regulations, punishments for crime are being developed since centuries. Vedas, religious scripts and practices are the base for the social structure  in the Indian continent. Sages and Gurus were the guiding source of the society, and were worshiped like gods in the earlier eras, hence an uncanny resemblance is there to the title of this article.

 Though the world has changed, modernized and scientific, hope and belief are still the essential part of the healthy society for humans. People visit Temples, Churches, Gurudwaras or Mosques as the last resort and pray to the god to save them from the misery. For democracy like India, the constitution and Courts are the final hope for the needy. I believe, our modern courts are the temples of justice, guided by judges who are nothing but guiding angels for the victims of the injustice in the society. 

Common man, Conflicts and governance

Evolution is constant, countries develop rapidly with technology and methods of governance. Compare to the 1900 AD and before, current world has different aspirations and challenges. A very little time humans took to turn the NEED in to GREED. Hence the challenges also grown with time.

Countries evolved themselves with all the skills to compete and grow to provide essentials like food, social and financial protection for their citizens. Countries developed their won constitution, code of conducts, governance, Law and orders etc., to meet the challenges.  Large countries like India with vast geographical setup,  it would be a challenge for the governments to regulate and govern. The systems like Legislature, executive and judiciary are the pillars of democracy and part of the society for a better living. Judiciary being the guiding source for all when other two fail. A recent instance where court took cognizance and advised government.

 Chief Justice Hon'ble Shri S A Bobde told WhatsApp:

"You may be two or three trillion-dollar companies, but people value their privacy more than money," a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde told WhatsApp.

 The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and WhatsApp to reply to a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in comparison to European users, saying, "it is the duty of the judiciary to protect citizens' privacy." "People have grave apprehensions that they will lose their privacy, and it is our duty to protect them," the top court said. 

 Countries developed economically, socially by welcoming globalization. The conflicts between human beings also grown. Conflicts in public life, conflicts in society, conflicts in social life, conflicts in family, conflicts between husband and wife,etc. Earlier Panchayats headed by the village leaders  were the authority to intervene and find a resolution for all these conflicts. The resolutions were most of the time used to be ad hoc and purely on the basis of the Panchayat head's discretion.

 There was no scientific or systematic approach to solve such conflicts, people relied purely on the basis of the face value of the head of the Panchayat or such kind of age-old system. The system and approach was ambiguous, uncertain and had space for confusions in the resolutions.

 Modern world is capable of handling any such conflicts with certainty through meticulously and scientifically built  systems. In India the constitution is the sacred document which is the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. Constitution drafted by the scholarly personalities like Dr. B R Ambedkar and the team, which is adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 26 November 1949. The constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the country's fundamental governing document. The constitution has empowered the common man by guaranteeing the fundamental rights under Article 14, 15, 19, 21 and judiciary being the guiding source in protecting the rights of the citizens.

Preserving sanctity of Constitution 

By delivering justice, Indian judicial system is upholding the sanctity of the Constitution in India. Being the constitutional authority, judiciary keeps an eye on every matter in the country for the welfare of country and it's citizens  by always guiding the government and public to follow the guidelines according to the law of the land and constitution.

 “The Supreme Court has original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. Its exclusive original jurisdiction extends to any dispute between the Government of India and one or more States or between the Government of India and any State or States on one side and one or more States on the other or between two or more States, if and insofar as the dispute involves any question (whether of law or of fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends. In addition, Article 32 of the Constitution gives an extensive original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court with regard to enforcement of Fundamental Rights”- Supreme Court of India.

We can see example that the court strongly pitch-in for the citizens welfare suo moto, “Observing that the gory killing of advocate couple practicing at Telangana High Court as “most unfortunate”, Chief Justice Hima Kohli issued suo motu notices to the State government on the matter.” - The Hindu

 GUIDING ANGELS OF OUR SOCIETY; JUDGES

 As discussed earlier, India is an optimistic country and rose gloriously like Phoenix from ashes every time against the atrocities. She was abused, looted and attacked barbarically by the Mughals, Dutch, French and English. Every time she rose stronger than ever. With hope and optimism, now India is the fastest growing economy, the force behind this hope and optimism is the constitution of India which provides equal opportunity to everyone to grow. Courts and Judges are the guiding force for the country wherever needed. 

 In the modern world, people are facing conflicts everywhere, even the misunderstandings between husband and wife are seen as conflicts and require intervention of a competitive authority. Common man looks up to the courts as the final resort and has enormous faith on the system. Courts are highly regarded for unambiguous, transparent and impartial judgments and verdicts in India.

Historical court observation on old-age people:

Hearing a divorce appeal between a couple from Karnataka, the Supreme Court said that persistent effort of the wife to constrain the husband to be separated from the family constitute an act of cruelty, and thus a valid ground for divorce – Supreme Court of India

COURT; THE TEMPLE OF JUSTICE

 People have their own practices, life style, social structure, etc., are most of the time depend on the religious faith. The same can also be seen in the animal kingdom. Each kind of animal has its own territorial behavior and social behaviors. Human evolution is on the basis of the religious faith of the people, social structures, family successions, marriage etc., are on the basis of their religious faith. countries' constitutions are on the basis of the peoples' faith as that's how the world was evolved. People have highest regard for the god of their faith, and strongly believe that the god can end their misery and also punish for the mistakes.

 Every day we come across many people with scariest situations not less than a nightmare they might have gone through. For example, a person wrongly charged by police for the crime which was not done by him, Old age parents who were thrown out of the house by their own children, a rape victim who was unable to convince the society or the police on the crime done on her, an employee who is not paid salary by the atrocious employer, a family which is socially barred on the basis of caste, a husband who is wrongly charged for dowry harassment, etc., are few of the examples of the society which are scary and equally painful situation for the people who go through it.

Court is the last refuge for these kinds of victims who need justice to lead a decent life. Courts are the savior for such victims. Emotionally speaking, when people run out of the all the options, courts are the temple of justice for such people.

Legal aid and lawyers' role

Now a days more and more people are approaching court in a hope to find solutions for their misery. Even government and courts also encouraging people through several schemes like, Free Legal aid for economically under privileged people and conducting Lok Adalat for speedy justice delivery system. Contradicting to the above some time people approach courts just to satisfy their ego, to show the power of money and harass others. However our judicial system is efficient to handle these kind of things and deliver the justice to the needy. People should approach court without any hesitation; utilize the facilities like legal aid and Lok Adalat.

 The role of lawyers in justice delivery system is important which was discussed widely. The contributions of the lawyers to Indian judicial system is undoubtedly commendable. Lawyers are seen as the helping hand for the common people in terms of legal assistance. The society expects the honest and efficient legal help from the lawyers. Lawyers being the part of judiciary, it is very important for them to be able to help the people and courts in the huge task of justice delivery system.

Conclusion

We are blessed to have a system like independent judiciary in the country which can neither be influenced nor threatened by any other force. Common man has a system to substantiate to his HOPE. The contribution of judiciary in modern and successful India is overwhelming. However, there is a lot of scope for further improvements, modernization and technologically more efficient courts in India for faster justice delivery system.

 

Vijay G

Bangalore

vijaymgdg@gmail.com

THE MISUNDERSTOOD GOD; GURU

 

The ancient scripts of India the Veda, Aagama, Upanishads and other scripts are the great source of the knowledge for Indians, perhaps to the world. Hindu culture has highest regard for GURU or Teacher. A person is inducted to the spirituality and knowledge by a guru but no one. The rituals of the induction are sacred and important in one's life in Hindu religion, it is called Deeksha. Since ancient times the Guru and Shishya (Teacher and Disciple) relation is sacred and well bonded as Guru guides disciple to acquire knowledge and achieve enlightenment. Though Guru is a highly learned soul however, guru is also a human being. The disciples acknowledge guru with highest regard and show utmost respect. However, some even consider guru as god because of the respect and regards they have for their guru. Guru is the source and guide to achieve enlightenment and realisation of god.

Love – Devotion -Worship: The highest form of love is devotion and peak of the devotion is worship. It can happen with anybody and with anything. The Sanatan dharma teaches us to worship entire nature as the nature is the source of life. We see god in plants, air, earth, water and fire. But it is not compulsive in sanatan tradition of our religion. The love for plants and trees turns into worship when realise the source of “Prana Vayu” is plants and trees. If one doesn't want to recognise this and doesn't follow then it is individual choice. As we see god in the form of nature and everything related to nature, it is obvious that we love, adore, respect and worship the teacher or Guru also as the Guru is the source of knowledge. Indians have highest regards and respect for Guru, even we refer the largest planet of our galaxy, Jupiter as GURU in Sanskrit shows the highest stature given to Guru in our tradition. Even our religion teaches us to respect the Woman as mother, first teacher or Guru, the love and respect for mother is unmatchable in Hindu tradition and the same culminates into worshiping Mother as god and we refer planet Earth as “Tayi” “Amma”, mother. It may not be the same with other religions in the world. The love and respect is an individual choice of gratitude, hence we respect guru and worship guru as god, neither it is expected nor portrayed  by guru.

Gratitude and human evolution: Worshiping Guru is highest form of gratitude Hindus develop and it is deep rooted in Hindu culture. If we closely look in to the human evolution we realise the reason behind it. Human beings are most sensible living beings in the universe, humans are evolved with empathy, love, care and humanity because of the ability to think and analyse unlike other animals in the universe. Humans are more attached to the things which are loved by them. Love can turn anything into precious. Hindus are close to the nature with tradition and rituals. Understanding the vulnerability of the nature and our dependency on it, Hindu religion cultivated a practice of loving nature and loving all valuable gifts to humanity. In order to achieve the basic, minimum and prosperous life Hindus developed the culture, rituals, behaviors, gratitude, etc., being very close to nature and love everything which was precious for human life. That’s is how the nature, earth, water, etc., are preserved and protected for centuries. We are witnessing the disaster and abuse on nature and mother earth is the result of absence of the above doctrine in the modern world. In the absence of the gratitude and love, humans destroying  the nature in such a way that no human can survive in the future if the same is continued. Hinduism and the Hindu doctrines are so in-depth, beyond just a religious practice. The Hindu dharma is just not a religion, it’s part of life. It is blend of knowledge, philosophy, agriculture, science, medicine, etc. All these things are well nurtured and part of common daily living practices which help humans heal physically and emotionally. Hinduism is a way of life towards harmony, love, health, spirituality and enlightenment. For all these knowledge one should be dependent on Guru, the knowledge is a free flowing energy only when it is given with complete will. Willingness to share the knowledge needs a bonding, a relation, love, gratitude and devotion.

Yes, it is possible only when a disciple is devoted to Guru, respects him, adores him and has gratitude. When such relation gets stronger it turns into worship, a disciple feels and worships a Guru like god. It is a disciple who chooses to worship a Guru because he sees such value in a person, otherwise Guru is just a teacher for others. The others also should look at him like a normal human being. Just because a person calls the guru or teacher god or worships him, one should not see him as god and compare with mythological godly characters depicted in the legends and stories and find faults in him.  It is not the fault of the guru, it is fault of the people if they compare him with god and try to find godly powers and attitude. It is wrong to compare a teacher or Guru to god and expect him to be as ideal as god. The problem is with people not with Gurus.

The Godman analogy: Now-a-days the terminology “Godman” is used abundantly in the media for all wrong reasons. The term is coined by the modern media and by so called intellectuals. A guru is a person who guides towards knowledge and enlightenment. For a disciple who sees value in the person accepts him as Guru and may worship him out of his respect, it is a private relation between two people. It is not a binding for others to follow the same. Calling a person Godman, then expect him to behave like god just to find faults and thrash him for not having godly gestures. This is wrong! Leave the Guru or the teacher to their disciples, do not interfere in their private affair.

Guru may be god for disciples, for others just a teacher. Other should just see the person as teacher not beyond that. Wrong thoughts, wrong expectations and wrong judgement leads to hatred. Conspiracy of bashing the Hindu Gurus just because large people see value in them is basically a insecurity of maligned mind.

Let Gurus do their job: Let the gurus do their work, do not make them god for your benefit and thrash them. Making them god against their will, aspiration and knowledge just to compare them to the unrealistic and unmatchable behaviors, powers and attitude of god. This act will make the Gurus or the teachers vulnerable for the misconception and misrepresentation in-front of the society without their knowledge. So please god sake no one has asked you to see the Gurus like gods, and expect the godly nature in them. See them as teacher and guide then there will be no unrealistic expectations. Leave them alone and do their job.

                                                                                By VijayG

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COVID_19 AND METAMORPHOSIS OF COURTS INTO VIRTUAL COURTS

CORONA or COVID_19 pandemic has brought the world on it's knees. There has been chaos in the world by Corona catastrophe on human beings. The highly infectious disease has changed the face of the communication of human beings with each other. It has changed the behavior, life style and attitude of human beings.  It also has changed the way the businesses run. Even the functioning of courts are not spared, the pandemic has got the Indian judiciary also stand still in the lock-down for some time. However, in this challenging situation the work of Judges, Lawyers and Employees of judiciary was commendable. However, in the changed scenario the functioning of the court cannot be normal. The change has arrived and judiciary has accepted the same with daily efforts and experiments in various stages of the case proceedings.  The e-courts concept was not new to the judiciary, however the pandemic has pushed it to be far more efficient with functioning of e-courts with E- Filing, Virtual appearance & hearing, etc.

              MEASURES FOR EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL COURTS

Better Infrastructure: For virtual court proceedings judiciary requires adequate, efficient and effective infrastructure. Either we need to be self-reliant by experts consultation or simply we can outsource it to the worlds renowned organisations who are highly skilled in the area. It requires huge data handling,  data security, efficient preserving of data and yet easily accessible. Some of the organisations handling government projects efficiently, viz., Defence, Passport process, Finance etc., in many countries.  In terms of courts as of now virtual proceedings are minimal. The E-Courts concept is a must in this era, it saves time, cost and human resource. The E- Court concept endorses the effective and speedy justice delivery system. Looking at the huge pendency of Indian Judiciary, the courts proceedings to be faster and effective if proper infrastructure is built. For effective virtual court proceedings we need strong and efficient infrastructure.

Data Management: The most important aspect of virtual courts or E-courts is the data management. The data could be huge in courts if E- Courts are properly implemented. With images, Text file like PDF, e-mails, voice messages, text messages, videos, etc. This data can be a huge burden on a normal server, the server needs to be customized and tailor made with the help of experts in the industry with sufficient consultation experience. Need optimum electronic storage, servers, data security and  electronic infrastructure.  Maintaining such data requires expertise in such domain, as the data is huge and critical. 

 

Electronic collaboration: The courts need to electronically collaborate with other related organizations like, Police Stations, Medical organizations, Government, Financial Institutions, etc., in terms of faster data exchange. The collaboration should be at all levels from data exchange to virtual interactions for the purpose of court proceedings.

Minimize physical presence in courts: As the financial organizations, Passport offices, Adhaar, Income Tax organization are now operating with minimal physical summoning of citizens to the organizations. Most of the transactions happen virtually. Optimum electronic infrastructure to be built in order to achieve the ideal virtual courts.

Role of BAR associations: BAR associations should be ready with infrastructure to cope with the changes in the court processes and management. The associations should also have the required infrastructure to educate, facilitate and manage the advocate fraternity. The BAR needs to make the lawyers ready to accept and cope with the modern methods of court management by providing

• Education to advocates on e-courts, virtual hearing, etc.
• Infrastructure arrangements for advocates in BAR association for adequate training
• Educate to establish virtual office to appear for court proceedings from home.
• Virtual offices for advocates who can appear in court proceedings through video conferences who cannot afford home offices.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EFFECTIVE DIGITALIZATION FOR
 VIRTUAL COURTS CONCEPT AT DISTRICT COURT LEVEL 

Virtual Filing:
In the virtual filing concept, it is better to adapt INCOME TAX departments’ method. Here all the documents uploaded in “PDF”, “MICROSOFT EXCEL”, “XML”, etc. Courts need “IMAGE” files also in many of the cases in excess to what mentioned above. To realize the ideal virtual filing concept, advocates should be equipped with all the skills required. The staff require the adequate infrastructure and can be built by the help of the experts in the digital industry. 

 

Scrutiny:
Once the filing is done with all the documents digitally, the process after the filing at judicial service centre it will be directed to the scrutiny officer. If the proper software is implemented to cater this service, the scrutiny officer can do the same virtually in the computer system and assign to the typist to assign check list and ordersheet. Virtually the same will be sent to the pending branch for recheck. Once the pending branch authiticates it online the file will be virtually assigned to allocation branch for allotment and the court hall will be allotted and accepted in the computer system itself. All this process happen within an hour of the filing of a case. Here there is no presence of advocate or papers required in the process. The same file after the process will go to the designated court hall without delay and the Judicial officer can have look at the file in the computer system virtually and proceed. Another advantage of virtual process is that, the case files are safe, proper track of the case proceedings can be recorded, human interference is minimized and errors can also be minimized.

Pending Branch:
In the pending branch, the usual scenario is, the clerk is dictating the proceeding to the typist manually and partial information is fed in to the CIS system. With the efficient ERP/CRM and AI  implementation, the manual work and the physical file can be avoided to the great extent and the process will be faster. The same file would be available virtually to High Court as well as the Supreme Court at the same time with a single click. Here requests to send the physical files from lower court to High Court or Supreme Court can be avoided and lot of time can be saved.

Record Preserving:
As discussed above, majority of the case files are stored virtually, minimal physical records be stored if needed, then the records can be managed with modern technical methods like Materials Management or Production Management techniques.

Accounts Branch:  

Efficient processing of the below heads, complete digitalization is required with better software product.

1.    Fees/Stamp Duty/Penalty/Fine/ all kinds of fees collection
2.    Cheques issuing and Deposits
3.    Expenditures
4.    Auctions and Quotations
5.    Salary and Bills

BETTER DIGITAL MANAGEMENT AND INTEGRATION
FOR SUCCESSFUL VIRTUAL COURTS

Only the best software products can perform well under the tremendous data flow, else the systems perform inconsistently. For a better digital management of judicial processes in the district courts, the software product is the basic need. The software should be able to handle the below requirements. And also along with the product the Company should provide better technical support and customer care management of the software when the staff face technical issues. The systems are available with software products in the market and they are known best in the world.

1.    Huge data handling with “Zero” Errors
2.    Accessibility of the data with ease and from anywhere
3.    Efficient report generation  of the data in required format
4.    Efficient integration with the different software of the organization

For better court management and ease of doing work, each sections of the court should be digitally interconnected and the data should flow effortlessly and the software systems interact with each other with ease then only the ideal digitalization realized. There should absolutely no human interference in any of the process. And that can be achieved with a better and single ERP/CRM software which are available in the corporate world. For example the passport system is handled by a renowned software company of India and they are handling it better with efficiency. It is highly recommended to implement the modules mentioned below with integration to each other are,

 

Human Resource Management:
For successful digital management and bring in efficient virtual court concept Human resource management also one of the major functions. A better ERP can handle all  functions in a better way, without human interference.

•    Recruitment
•    Employee personal data
•    Employee salary/Payroll
•    Promotions
•    Transfer
•    Resource movement
•    Employee relieving

 

Accounts Management:
For successful digital management and bring in efficient virtual court concept financial management also one of the major functions. A better ERP can handle all financial functions in a better way, without human interference.

•    Court Fees
•    Stamp Duty
•    Penalty
•    Fine
•    Process Fees
•    Copying fees
•    Payroll
•    Cheque or E-payments
•    Expenditures

Customer Relationship Management:
For the advocates and litigants queries and information can be handled online having no human interaction. Physical presence of lawyer and litigants other than court processes can be reduced to the great extent, which will save valuable time of court as well as advocates. CRM software are available in the industry.

Materials Management:
Usually materials management is used in huge manufacturing companies for materials for better storing techniques to access safely and systematically. A scientific method to store the required materials in certain technique. The technology can be used to store the case files, properties and furnitures in the courts. The method is useful for safe storage and easy access. ERP systems are available in the industry.

Data Management:
The kind of data courts handle is huge, currently it is in physical form, and to make it digital, it is a huge task. Courts require data management techniques like Big Data, SAP or Data warehousing kind of technology for secure and efficient handling of data. The data should be accessible with ease. Many software products are available in the industry. All the fees and deposits can be through NEFT, the reports will be available online.

                          SUFFICIENT TRAINING TO THE GROUND LEVEL STAFF

It is undisputed that the ground level employees are one among the important driving forces of the court proceedings. Looking at the staff pattern and recruitment rules, most of the official are under graduates, who have very minimal exposure to the digital technology. Today, we are moving towards the digitalization of the courts and it should be from the ground level for effective implementation of digitalization. In order to realize the optimistic vision of the digitalized courts, employees must be trained, equipped with required infrastructure and modify future recruitment rules. 

 
Training to staff deputed in Judicial Service Centre:
•    The staff should be adequately given the infrastructure like better computer  

      system, scanner,
      Digital e payment processing, etc.
•    As there will be only e-filing and e-payments interaction with advocates is 

      minimal. Therefore
      better training on digital system and management training to be given.

Training to Scrutiny staff:
•    Training on using the computer system adapted
•    Query raising digitally

Training to Court Hall Bench Clerk:
•    Computer knowledge and training to the Bench clerk
•    Training to understand the process of the file and storing

Training to Court Pending Clerk:
•    Digital file management
•    File storing and updating the file maintaining the process of the file digitally

Training to Accounts and Administration Branch:
•   Human resource management system and Financial management system
Training to be given to the staff as the entire process of human resource and finance management can be integrated and work in coordination.
Training to Stenographers and Judgment writers:
The orders and judgments are part of the file and should be assigned to the concerned file digitally with a single click. The training is crucial in this regard. The file, data and details will be ready with file in the system, the order and judgments should be assigned to the file, the same would be available to the system anywhere required.

CONCLUSION

As we are moving towards the paperless and cashless society, it is a must to cope with the social development to be relevant. As other organisations, Judiciary also need to adapt the new normal i,e., virtual court processes. Need a rigorous planning and management. Hoping to realise the virtual court system in Indian Judiciary.

By
Vijay Gaddigimath
Bangalore
Suggestions and feedback appreciated, like to receive.
Contact:9513880111
Mail:vijaymgdg@gmail.com