In the Indian justice system there are millions of backlogged cases in the courts.
As of a written statement by Indian law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in 2019, there are 43 lakh (4.355 million) cases that are pending in the 25 high courts in the country and over 8 lakh (800,000) of these are over a decade old. 18.75 lakh (1.85 million) relate to civil matters and 12.15 lakh (1.22 million) are criminal cases.
These figures are probably a gross under estimate as in 2016 a study by the Guardian newspaper, more than 22m cases were currently pending in India’s district courts. Six million of those had lasted longer than five years. Another 4.5m were waiting to be heard in the high courts, and more than 60,000 in the supreme court, according to the newspapers report based on the most recently available government data at the time. No one thinks the situation has got better since 2016.
An example of the slowness of the legal system the CBI, India’s intelligence agency, filed charges for the murder of Vinod Kumar against a police officer, Sumedh Singh Saini, in 1994. By 2016 Twenty-two years had passed since the murder case began, and only three of 36 witnesses had been heard. Even with the murder charge hanging over him, Saini has continued in his role, and was promoted to director general of police in Punjab. The victims relatives have all fled under death threats.
Another example is the way sentences are handled. Nearly 150,000 cases of rape (in a land where this is under reported by a factor of 10), are in the backlogs, and this slowness has eroded any public faith in the criminal justice system.
An example sometimes cited is the case of the infamous torture, gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi in December 2012. Four men were convicted and sentenced to death ....well, as of the *6th of December 2019 the convicted men have still not been executed .... however, as there are men on death row in the USA, who have been there for 20 years or more, perhaps that's not a good example, as legal manoeuvres to prevent judicial killings are hardly restricted to India.
This has led to a situation where many in India, many of the public will demand and support instant justice, bypassing the courts, which in practice means extra-judicial killings by the police (aka 'encounter killings). Such was the case in the Vet Murder case of November 2019, when Indian police shot dead four men suspected of raping and killing a young female vet in Hyderabad.
The police story is that ten armed policemen took just four suspects (who amazingly were not handcuffed), to the scene of the crime to reconstruct the incident and search for the victim's phone, power bank and watch, which were reported missing.... somehow, the four men broke free and started to attack the armed police officers 'with stones and sticks'. Somehow, they also snatched away guns from two of the police officers and started firing at the police (presumably from no more than a foot or so, if they had grabbed guns).
Laughably the police commissioners report carried on to claim that 'the officers maintained restraint and asked them to surrender, they continued to fire and attack us. This went on for 15 minutes. We retaliated and four accused got killed.' Yeah, right.
Of course some wondered whether the police had arrested the right men and not just arrested up some poor truckers to pacify public anger, and then killed them to close the case .... a story not unknown in India. However most public comment was "police zindabad" ("hail the police"), with most saying that justice had been served.
A similar incident with the same police force a few years ago, saw three people accused of carrying out an acid attack on a woman were killed at the scene of the crime by police. They were also taken there to "recreate" the crime and were reportedly shot while trying to escape. Again the police were hailed as 'heroes' ... it was the same police commissioner, who was then a superintendent.
However, instead of condemning the Indians who cheer the police on in these cases, we should consider a system where the wheels of justice turn so slowly, that the innocent as well as the guilty can spend years in prisons, awaiting their day in court. Where witnesses and victims die before the cases ever get to be resolved or bribes have to be paid to court officials to move things along.
In the UK the recent terrorist event, the killer, Usman Khan, had been automatically released half way through his fixed term of 16 years. This idea that people can be automatically released, after serving but half their sentence, is one that erodes the confidence in the justice system in the UK.
In fact 74 terror prisoners have been released early on licence to recall according to the Prime Minister. Of course terrorists are not the only violent offenders who only serve half their sentences, and in fact there are rapists, paedophiles, and violent murderers or wife beaters who are out, but they usually have a sentence that requires a parole board hearing, before they are let out on licence. This doesn't stop them re-offending, but the rates are reduced as the most unrepentant are not released.
Islamic terrorists pose a particular risk, because they will observe the doctrine of Taqiyya, the command to deceive for Islam. Meaning that they will lie to parole boards, attend and pass rehabilitation courses and do anything, with a clear conscience ... in other words they can't be trusted on licence not to resume their previous activities.
This is a part of the reason why terrorist sentences should be served in full but in fact there is strong cross party support amongst the electorate to increase the sentences for violent offences (including all those already listed), and this is driven almost entirely by the fact that so many only serve half the sentences they are given.
In other words its a lesson to all court systems across the globe that "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." else its not justice at all.
UPDATE: *By a strange coincidence the 4 Indian men were hanged on the 19th or 20th of March ....
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| Indian Justice Is Not A Smooth Process ...... |
As of a written statement by Indian law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in 2019, there are 43 lakh (4.355 million) cases that are pending in the 25 high courts in the country and over 8 lakh (800,000) of these are over a decade old. 18.75 lakh (1.85 million) relate to civil matters and 12.15 lakh (1.22 million) are criminal cases.
These figures are probably a gross under estimate as in 2016 a study by the Guardian newspaper, more than 22m cases were currently pending in India’s district courts. Six million of those had lasted longer than five years. Another 4.5m were waiting to be heard in the high courts, and more than 60,000 in the supreme court, according to the newspapers report based on the most recently available government data at the time. No one thinks the situation has got better since 2016.
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| Justice System Failure India |
An example of the slowness of the legal system the CBI, India’s intelligence agency, filed charges for the murder of Vinod Kumar against a police officer, Sumedh Singh Saini, in 1994. By 2016 Twenty-two years had passed since the murder case began, and only three of 36 witnesses had been heard. Even with the murder charge hanging over him, Saini has continued in his role, and was promoted to director general of police in Punjab. The victims relatives have all fled under death threats.
Another example is the way sentences are handled. Nearly 150,000 cases of rape (in a land where this is under reported by a factor of 10), are in the backlogs, and this slowness has eroded any public faith in the criminal justice system.
An example sometimes cited is the case of the infamous torture, gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi in December 2012. Four men were convicted and sentenced to death ....well, as of the *6th of December 2019 the convicted men have still not been executed .... however, as there are men on death row in the USA, who have been there for 20 years or more, perhaps that's not a good example, as legal manoeuvres to prevent judicial killings are hardly restricted to India.
This has led to a situation where many in India, many of the public will demand and support instant justice, bypassing the courts, which in practice means extra-judicial killings by the police (aka 'encounter killings). Such was the case in the Vet Murder case of November 2019, when Indian police shot dead four men suspected of raping and killing a young female vet in Hyderabad.
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| Encounter Killings Are Common In Many Parts Of India ........ Hyderabad For Example. |
The police story is that ten armed policemen took just four suspects (who amazingly were not handcuffed), to the scene of the crime to reconstruct the incident and search for the victim's phone, power bank and watch, which were reported missing.... somehow, the four men broke free and started to attack the armed police officers 'with stones and sticks'. Somehow, they also snatched away guns from two of the police officers and started firing at the police (presumably from no more than a foot or so, if they had grabbed guns).
Laughably the police commissioners report carried on to claim that 'the officers maintained restraint and asked them to surrender, they continued to fire and attack us. This went on for 15 minutes. We retaliated and four accused got killed.' Yeah, right.
Of course some wondered whether the police had arrested the right men and not just arrested up some poor truckers to pacify public anger, and then killed them to close the case .... a story not unknown in India. However most public comment was "police zindabad" ("hail the police"), with most saying that justice had been served.
A similar incident with the same police force a few years ago, saw three people accused of carrying out an acid attack on a woman were killed at the scene of the crime by police. They were also taken there to "recreate" the crime and were reportedly shot while trying to escape. Again the police were hailed as 'heroes' ... it was the same police commissioner, who was then a superintendent.
However, instead of condemning the Indians who cheer the police on in these cases, we should consider a system where the wheels of justice turn so slowly, that the innocent as well as the guilty can spend years in prisons, awaiting their day in court. Where witnesses and victims die before the cases ever get to be resolved or bribes have to be paid to court officials to move things along.
In the UK the recent terrorist event, the killer, Usman Khan, had been automatically released half way through his fixed term of 16 years. This idea that people can be automatically released, after serving but half their sentence, is one that erodes the confidence in the justice system in the UK.
In fact 74 terror prisoners have been released early on licence to recall according to the Prime Minister. Of course terrorists are not the only violent offenders who only serve half their sentences, and in fact there are rapists, paedophiles, and violent murderers or wife beaters who are out, but they usually have a sentence that requires a parole board hearing, before they are let out on licence. This doesn't stop them re-offending, but the rates are reduced as the most unrepentant are not released.
Islamic terrorists pose a particular risk, because they will observe the doctrine of Taqiyya, the command to deceive for Islam. Meaning that they will lie to parole boards, attend and pass rehabilitation courses and do anything, with a clear conscience ... in other words they can't be trusted on licence not to resume their previous activities.
 |
| Support For Longer Sentences For Violent Crimes Is Cross Party. |
This is a part of the reason why terrorist sentences should be served in full but in fact there is strong cross party support amongst the electorate to increase the sentences for violent offences (including all those already listed), and this is driven almost entirely by the fact that so many only serve half the sentences they are given.
In other words its a lesson to all court systems across the globe that "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." else its not justice at all.
UPDATE: *By a strange coincidence the 4 Indian men were hanged on the 19th or 20th of March ....
Another case of an arrested man somehow getting a policeman's gun (Indian police are mighty careless about handcuffing prisoners it seems,) and then not surrendering ... very similar to the Encounter Killings
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