Role of Judiciary in recent times

Since the State of Himachal Pradesh was established in January 1971, there has been through the years a considerable expansion of our judicial system. The number of Courts has increased and the strength of the District and sabordinate Judiciary has almost kept pace. Today, the Higher Judicial Service consists of five District and Sessions Judges, two Additional District and Sessions Judges, and three Mambers who are serving as Law Secretary in the State Government, Registrar of the High Court and Secretary in the Vidhan Sabha. The Subordinate Judicial Service members 38: officers, of whom while one has been appointed temporarily as an Additional District Judge there are 12 Senior Subordinats Judges-cum-Chief Judicial Magistcates, 23 Subordinate Judges-cum-Judi--cial Magistrate and 2 Traffic Magistrates. That this expansion has been possible is a tribute to the imagination and co-operation shown by the Government of the State. Two subordinate courts remain unmanned, but those vacancies can also be expected to be filled shortly. With the separation of the judiciary from the executive under the new Code of Criminal Procedure, it would be true to say that the judicial power of the State now vests almost entirely in our judges. Â We are citizens of a country whose present life and future aspirations lie within the fold of a constitutional democracy. As everyone knows, the Rule of Law is the central principle underlying such a political system. It is through that constitutional principle that every individual can be assured of the implementation of the promises and pledges embodied in our Constitution. The tragedy of recent months has demonstrated, as nothing else could have, the agony a great nation can suffer if the Rule of Law is superseded. With the long night over, that Rule has come into its own again. Â Now, I think it beyond dispute that in sustaining, promoting and enforcing the Rule of Law, the Courts are the primary instrumentalities envisaged by the Constitution. It is no exaggeration, no indulgence in hyperbole, to say that a judge is the high-priest of the Constitution and its laws. To him the spirit as much as the letter has full value. The nation cannot survive as a democracy unless judges discharge their functions fearlessly, free from bias and untainted by prejudice, constant in their strength of purpose, endeavouring always to do right in every cause. That is the present and the future projection of your responsibilities. And the edge of your responsibilities is sharper in Himachal Pradesh for the reason that you are today the architects and builders of a young judicial hierarchy, in which the larger number of officers has been recruited in recent years only. Many of you Ban be expected to preside over the courts of this State for several years wielding judicial power during the decades to come. Â Yet, while yours is the glory of exercising that judicial power there is much in it that calls for sober reckoning. Power is never without responsibility and the quantum of res. porsibility bears direct ratio to the amplitude of power. Whenever public power is vested, the beneficiary is the people. The beneficiary is not, and was never intended to be, the functionary wielding the power. We are all trustees in the administration of justice, and we are morally entitled to hold office only so long as we serve and fulfil the essential purpose of the judicial system. Dedication and loyalty to that purpose, and not self-serving interest, marks the true judicial officer. Let no one hold the illusion that he can employ the powers of his office for private gain or personal interest, for the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth, or the egoistical flaunting of judicial authority. If that is what constitutes the essential meaning of his office to him, let me say without hesitation that he has no place in the judiciary. All public offices and institutions rest on certain concepts of discipline and moral principle. Nowhere is the expectation greater than in the person of the judge. He is the symbol and the embodiment of justice. The purity of action and deed presumed in him is absolute. It can be nothing less than that, for the vitality of his judicial functioning flows from it. It is therefore not surprising that a considerable body of ethical principles and conventions has been evolved through judicial experience to serve and guide the judge. Those principles and conventions control the manner in which he discharges the duties of his office; they also profoundly affect the governance of his daily life. If he departs from them, he imperils his very office. Â One may turn next to the expectations which the judiciary has from the State. It will be idle to deny that in many cases the judicial : officer does not enjoy in full, or even adequate measure, the facilities necessary for the proper discharge of his duties. We lack appropriate and sufficient building accommodation for courts as well as residence, there is a woeful shortage of stenographers and other staffi telephone facilities rest on the Indulgence of non-judicial agencies, and there are other handicaps which will be presently considered during the Conference. It is hoped that in the not too distant future the State Government will be in a position to remove those deficiencies, There is one other important matter which demands attention. Although an intangible, it has a vital effect on the functioning of the judicial officer. It is perhaps not sufficiently realised that for the-purpose of amenities and facilities the status of a judicial officer must rack in the public eye at the same level as an executive or other officer of admittedly equal rank. Every attempt to disturb that balance must be severely discouraged. Under a Constitution which has assigned separate responsibilities to its different institutions, it would be unwise to permit the play of inter institutional rivalry. Mutual respect between the institutions and an awareness of the public importance of their respective functions will alone guarantee the proper maintenance of the constitutional balance. The extent of the respect and co-operation which one institution of the State extends to the other while faithfully adhering to the imperatives of its own essential functional will be decisive of the success or failure of our constitutional system. Â Â

Author Name: Hon’ble Justice R S Pathak