"Ensure Justice Delivered In True Sense": President To Centre, Chief Justice

President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday asked the central government and the chief justice as well as other stakeholders to devise a system to deal with cases where the court verdict in not implemented.

The President while inaugurating the new building of the Jharkhand High Court here said the authorities have to ensure that people get justice in the true sense.

"Chief Justice of India Justice (Dr D Y Chandrachud) and Union Law Minister (Arjun Ram Meghwal) and many senior judges are here. They should devise a system to deal with cases where the (court) verdicts are not implemented," Murmu said.

She added that she would urge the CJI and the government that they "ensure that justice is delivered to people in the true sense".

The President pointed out that even after getting a favourable verdict, people's happiness is sometimes short-lived, as the court orders are not implemented.

Murmu also appreciated the CJI for speaking in Hindi during his address.

"The language of justice should be inclusive," she said.

Murmu also pointed out that expensive litigation procedure often keeps justice out of reach of the common people.

"Access has many aspects. Cost is among the most important of these. It has been observed that the expenses of litigation all too often put the quest of justice out of reach for many citizens.... I urge all stakeholders to think innovatively and find new ways to expand the reach of justice," she said.

Another aspect of access is language, she said and added as English has been the primary language of courts in India, a large section of the population is left out of the process.

"The language of justice should be inclusive, so that the parties to the particular case as well as interested citizens at large can become effective stakeholders in the system. The Supreme Court made a worthy beginning when it started making its judgments available in a number of Indian languages, and many other courts have also been doing so now. "Needless to say, in a state like Jharkhand with rich linguistic variety, this factor becomes all the more relevant," she said.

She said in overcoming these and other hurdles to justice, two factors are bound to be highly useful - technology and enthusiasm - especially of the younger generation as they are the ones who will come up with innovations that will improve access to justice.

The President said related to the access to justice is the question of undertrials. "One of the reasons behind the problem is that courts are overburdened, which also hurts access to justice. ... the fact remains that a large number of people languish for years in prisons as undertrials. Prisons are overcrowded, making their life all the more difficult. We should address the root cause of the problem," the President said.

She said the people of this nation look at courts with faith and even the language of law reflects that feeling, when "we use words like pray".

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