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.
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
-Vijay G
Court Manager
Bangalore
