Dear PM,
We need to give a face lift to our judiciary system. I have jotted down my ideas here.
- Increase the retirement age of the judges to 75. It will solve the problem of non availability of quality judges. Recall judges who retired in last 5 years.
- Introduce another court between HC and SC to take most of the load of SC. Lets have a branch of that court in every state.
- Branch of the high court should be spread in four corners of the state.
- Set a rule which cases will go to SC. Currently there are 47,000 cases pending with SC. It should be reduced to 5,000. Remaining case should go to the new court between HC and SC.
- We should increase number of judges 5 times at all level - district court, high court. In India there are only 13.5 judges per million population. However in US it is 107, in UK it is 51.
- Infrastructure of the lower courts should be revamped. Design some iconic structures for the lower courts like SC (It need not to be as big as SC).
- Video record all court proceedings. Video recording should be available on demand in internet.
- All judgements should be available in electronic form immediately after it is read out in internet to avoid any delay in handing over the judgement.
- Set up at least 100 centres for brain mapping, narco analysis all over the country.
- Legalise result of narco analysis test. This will help to reduce investigation time dramatically. It will also stop witness hostility.
- A person cannot be arrested unless he/she fails in narco analysis test.
- Train 100,000 academicians, professionals from different industries on how Lokadalut works and put them as judge in Lokadalut to be conducted once in a month all over India. It should be completely voluntary service.
- Allow court proceeding thru video link i.e. Judge, Lawyers, witnesses and accused can be in different cities.
- Allow filing case/FIR thru internet.
- All laws related to fine should be converted into % of income instead of absolute amount. Rich people cannot get away with a fine which is far below to their earnings.
- Average salary of the judges should be around Rs 75,000 per month to attract best brains.
- Review each and every law of the country for possible loopholes and suitability in the context of 21st century. Qualify each law with possible scenarios. This would be kind of guideline for interpretation of the law.
- Introduce concept of forgiveness. Victim may forgive the accused with the permission of court.
- In certain situation when a person is convicted he/she can buy back 50% of their sentence @ of 10% of the family asset per year with minimum value of rs 5 lacs per year. For example if a person is sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment, he can reduce his sentence by 7 years if he pays rs 35 lacs or 70% of his family asset whichever is higher.
- Anyone arrested under suspicion and not granted bail or under trial people must be put up in a special detention centre managed by national human rights commission. Abolish police lock-ups.
- Details of every prisoner lodged in each jail should be available in the internet. No one should languish in the jail after their term is over.
- There should be a CCTV in every room of the jail and NHRC must have the ability to monitor any CCTV remotely anytime. Technology is available.
- Revamp our jail system. We should have open jail which will be like a village. It will have apartment houses, shops, agricultural land, library, theatre, school, college. Prisoners will live in apartments. Those who are serving jail term of more than 5 years can live with their spouse.
- There should be complete separation between hardcore criminal, normal criminal and under trial prisoners.
- Legal expense should be affordable by everyone. All lawyers should be categorized as A, B and C based on their performance. Govt should set the fee of each category depending on the income of their client. Richer people will pay higher legal fee. Every lawyer must take up at least 30% cases from financially weak people.
