Dear Madam,
Apropos your article titled Law enforcement in the July/August issue, congratulations on your well-balanced coverage of the issue.
Law enforcement in India is not as bad as it is made out to be anecdotally and in some comments. However, it is also not comparable to what one would wish for or hears of in developed jurisdictions. The current regime works in patches and an efficient enforcement is often a coincidence of good lawyers, favourable jurisdiction and efficient and capable judges all coming together. However, a good and efficient law enforcement system cannot work merely on the basis of coincidence.
Indians have traditionally been a litigious lot; family and property disputes have been known to go on for ages, often to uphold family honour. This attitude has continued in modern times and is reflected in the form of a reluctance to admit a breach of law or contractual obligations, or to be prepared to face the consequences of them in order to uphold individual or institutional prestige. This leads to attempts to exploit all means to oppose and to come out clean from any proceeding for wrongdoing/default and contributes to delays in law enforcement.
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As a solution to this, I imagine a drastic change in mindset is required to respect the law and to have no shame in admitting our mistakes and wrongdoings. This needs to be inculcated from childhood at our homes and schools, and perhaps needs to be part of the school curriculum. The quality of legal education needs a significant ramp up and good law students need to be encouraged to practise in courts.
For this to happen, the compensation structure for court-going lawyers needs to be revised. Despite being the second most populous nation, India has one of the lowest judges-population ratios in the world. This needs to increase and more courts and better court infrastructure should be created. The use of technology in case filing and case management needs to be encouraged in a big way.
Corporate disputes are increasingly becoming more complex and more competent and specialized judges are required to do justice to them. This requires a better compensation structure and regular training sessions where judges keep abreast with the changing dynamics of the law.
A mechanism should also be developed to incentivize successful lawyers and senior counsel to do duties at the bench for a temporary period. Finally, a timely disposal of proceedings needs to be institutionalized as a habit and frivolous litigation should be dealt with by imposing heavy costs and penalties.
For India to be counted as – and become – a true economic power, it cannot have an archaic law enforcement system. It is the responsibility of all participants to ensure that the system is revamped.
The prevailing deficiencies, if continued for long, may prove to be a stumbling block for the further progress of our nation and for it to achieve its true potential.
Abhishek Saxena
Partner
Phoenix Legal
New Delhi
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