Justice Delayed Is An Employment Bureau

Last week, my husband was summoned to the Gyanpur Court in connection with a robbery that had taken place in our house one-and-a-half years ago. It was the second time that he had been called (the first hearing had been postponed because the defending lawyer desired to condole the death of a High Court judge who had retired a couple of decades ago).

My husband was quite miffed at the idea of wasting yet another day in court. This turned into irritation when he found that his lawyer would not be able to make it that day, and would send a junior instead. But his ire turned into wrath when he was told that the prosecutor who knew all about this case would not be there either, and that he would have to explain the entire complicated case to a new chap, who looked like he couldn't care less. On this inauspicious note, he went off to court. "Don't worry sir, I'll handle everything. The strategy is all worked out," said the junior lawyer. It transpired that the strategy was to get yet another date to enable the senior lawyer and the other prosecutor to be present for the hearing. But the judge said, "No postponement! The defendant has already been in jail for more time than he's likely to be sentenced for. Come at 3.00 p.m. today _ NEXT!" and banged his gavel.

 

But at 3.00 p.m., when the senior lawyer had been called by an urgent SOS, the judge found that by accident or design, the prosecutor had disappeared. After a general venting of anger, the case was postponed for three days.

Although in this case the postponement was an unforeseen one, everyone outside the court thought that my husband and his lawyer had won a great victory. But then Gyanpur lawyers thrive on postponements. And postponements work out to be very lucrative for lawyers because they charge Rs.20 to Rs 50 per session. Postponements also give the lawyers something to do daily.

Since the Gyanpur Court has 1,500 lawyers and not enough cases, it's in the lawyers' interests to keep old cases lingering on. "Most lawyers handle, on an average, five to six cases daily. Of these, at least two or three are for postponement," says Lallan Dubey, one of the foremost lawyers of this area. With a view to speeden the legal process, Justice Katju of the Allahabad High Court ruled that the performance of a judge would be gauged by how quickly he gives decisions. "But in this scenario, this ruling is hardly practical," says Dubey. He says that cases would get settled faster, if lawyers were paid on a contractual basis rather than for every sitting.

One of the reasons why there are so many lawyers here is because most graduates who fail to find suitable jobs, decide to join law. Says Dubey, "There is no village in Bhadohi which has less than five lawyers." And casteism ensures that these village lawyers get some cases. "A Yadav will hire only a Yadav lawyer, even if he ends up losing his case," says Dubey.

Earnings from this profession are, thus, often very low. It is estimated that at least one third of Gyanpur lawyers earn as little as Rs.2,000. A fallout of this is that a lot of lawyers compromise on their principles to make that extra buck.

A lot of these lawyers are actually not properly trained or qualified. The result is that the legal process in Gyanpur has deteriorated into a farce. "Many times, we've found that presiding officers don't actually know what their powers are. Once, I saw an SDM sentence a man in a case, when he had no authority to do so," says Dubey.