Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

 

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

The media report on March 18 regarding the death sentence to three men for killing 24 dalits in a village in the Mainpuri district of UP is an immediate provocation to write this piece to register my

unhappiness and regret on the functioning of our judiciary and related administrative machinery.  The Tribune story reads, inter alia, as under

“A gang of 17 dacoits led by Santosh Singh alias Santosha and Radhey Shyam alias Radhey dressed in khakis stormed Dehuli at around 4.30 pm on November 18, 1981.

They targeted Dalit families, gunning down 24 people, including the toddlers aged six months and two years.

The original FIR named 17 accused under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 396 (dacoity with murder), among other offences of the IPC.

Of the total accused, 13 people died during the pendency of trial whereas one was declared an absconder.

The FIR was filed by Laik Singh, a local resident, on November 19, 1981, and following a detailed investigation, the dacoits, including gang leaders Santosh and Radhey, were charge sheeted.

Shukla said he pleaded for capital punishment in view of the gruesome massacre and the case falling in the rarest of rare category.

He said the judge after considering the evidence and hearing the arguments of the prosecution and the defense at length passed the verdict.

The media report also added “In response to the tragedy, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi met the affected families whereas Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the leader of the opposition, undertook a Padyatra from Dihuli to Sadupur in Firozabad, offering solidarity with the grieving families.”

I have given the details of the case purposely as more than 4 decades have elapsed and public memory is short. One can also imagine that the two PMs of India had gone to the village to offer sympathies and solidarity with the people at the receiving end. What could have been the reasons for the excessive delay in delivering justice? Here comes the importance of the famous maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied” - a legal point that means if justice is not provided in a timely manner, it is no justice at all. It was said by the British PM William Gladstone in 1868.

The phrase “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” holds profound significance, especially in India, where delays in the judicial process have long been a pressing issue. Timely justice is a cornerstone of fairness and equity in any legal system. However, when justice is delayed, it often leads to its denial, causing emotional and financial strain on individuals, undermining public trust, and eroding the effectiveness of the justice system. I don’t think our forefathers intended to give us this kind of judicial dispensation.

The reasons behind justice delayed are deeply rooted in systemic inefficiencies, procedural complexities, and insufficient resources. Delayed justice not only causes emotional distress but also undermines faith in the legal system. To address these challenges, comprehensive reforms are needed. While the issue of justice delayed continues to challenge the Indian legal system, it is time to sit and think to improve and reform the system. The systemic and procedural drawbacks and weaknesses in the system are to checked on one hand but infusion of moral and constitutional values are to be injected in our judicial functioning.

There may be many more such cases where justice had been delayed and denied as in the case of dalits in Mainpuri in UP under reference. One such case which comes to my mind, off hand, is the case of Sikh Riots in Delhi in 1984. Many governments have come and gone but the aggrieved and affected families could not get justice. It is a

matter of shame for ‘we the people of India’. Our constitution provides for the ‘Rule of law’ and not the dictum of ‘Show me the face and I will show you the law’. Our courts are unduly sensitive to criticism. We must read and follow the famous quote of Louis D. Brandeis, “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”  I conclude with an assertion of Frederick Douglas, ‘Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is not an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, persons nor property will be safe.”

मुंसिफ़ हो अगर तुम तो कब इंसाफ़ करोगे
मुजरिम हैं अगर हम तो सज़ा क्यूँ नहीं देते