CRITICAL ANALISIS OF GRAM NAYALAYA IN INDIA By - Vidya Baban Said
CRITICAL ANALISIS OF GRAM NAYALAYA IN INDIA
Authored By -
Vidya Baban Said
LLM, II - Semester III.
(2022-23)
Abstracts
The Preamble to the Gram Nyayalayas Act envisions people
having access to justice at their doorstep and ensures that no person is denied
the opportunity to secure justice. Despite many problems and flaws in the
current Village Courts system in India, they play an important role in ensuring
access to justice for the poor and reaching out to the oppressed. Section 21 of
the Act also provides for legal aid to parties with the assistance of the State
Legal Services Authority to the accused who cannot afford to hire an attorney.
The transfer of civil or criminal cases from the District Court or the Court of
Session to the Gram Nyayalaya is addressed in Section 16 of the Act. The Gram
Nyayalaya has also been urged to make attempts to resolve civil disputes by
conciliation and settlement. The Nyay Adhikari can also hold mobile courts in
the villages under his authority on a regular basis.[1]
As it is famously said, Justice delayed is justice
denied. Our Constitutional commitment to ensure ‘Justice’ and ‘equality’ have
to be secured and protected as this is very much evident from the collective
reading of Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State
Policy. To overcome the sense of the said inadequacy, an elaborate arrangement
in the form of the Gram Nyayalaya act, 2008 was made by the parliament. Delay
in this process and non-constitution of required Gram Nyayalayas by the State
defeats the very object of the Act.[2]
Introduction
Gram Nyayalayas are
village courts for quick and easy access to the justice system in rural areas
of India. Justice delayed is justice denied. In an expansive and predominantly
rural country like India, it has always been a challenge to make the colonially
inherited style of judicial system more inclusive by not leaving out rural
litigants in exercising their legal rights. In several Constituent Assembly
debates prior to the formulation of the Indian Constitution, there were various
advocates, notably Mahatma Gandhi, for the judiciary to have a traditional,
"indigenous" way. Years after the establishment of the constitutional
regime, on the occasion of Gandhi's birth anniversary in 2009, a law called the
"Gram Nyayalaya Act" was passed in the country to regulate the establishment
of village courts, or gram nyayalayas.
History And Concept Of Gram
Nyalayalaya –
The creation of Gram Nyayalayas was
first suggested by the Law Commission of India in 1986 in its 114th Report. A
quick perusal of the Law Commission of India’s 1986 report on Gram Nyayalayas
alerts one to their stated desire to move away from the Nyaya Panchayat model.
The first major thrust of the report was towards the idea of participatory
justice. The Law Commission identified the ‘alien’ nature of the Indian legal
system as one of its biggest drawbacks. Following from this, the Law Commission
stresses the need for persons adjudicating disputes to be knowledgeable of
local conditions and culture. In order to achieve this, the Commission settled
on a model of a rural court manned by a three-member panel. This panel was to
be headed by a judicially trained officer, accompanied by two lay-judges. While
the judicial officer would be selected from the cadre of judges maintained by
each State, the lay-judges were to be appointed through the process of
selection by a panel consisting of the District Magistrate and the District and
Sessions Judge. Unlike Nyaya Panchayats therefore, there was no component of
democratic election to the Gram Nyayalaya. Still, the Law Commission appeared
to be convinced of the benefits of lay-adjudication. The Law Commission
declined to specify a pecuniary limit for the proposed Gram Nyayalayas.
Instead, in civil cases they simply specified a list of types of subject matter
that Gram Nyayalayas would have jurisdiction over. Generally speaking, this was
more expansive than the jurisdiction awarded to NyayaPanchayats. The Law
Commission was also in favour of granting Gram Nyayalayas wider jurisdiction in
criminal matters than had earlier been the case with Nyaya Panchayats, due to
the presence of the proposed judicial member on the panel of judges in the Gram
Nyayalaya.[3]
Further, the Law Commission proposed a simplified procedure in civil cases,
through the exclusion of the Civil Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act.
In criminal cases the Criminal Procedure Code would still be applicable.
Lawyers were not to be barred. Notably, Gram Nyayalayas would be mobile, in the
sense that they were to travel to the sites of individual disputes. This was intended
as a solution to the problems of collecting evidence. On the whole, the Law
Commission intended to create a forum which combined some of the important
features of both the formal courts, as well as institutions such as Nyaya
Panchayats.[4]
Gram Nyayalay In India Constitutional Provision-
Gram Nyayalayas at the
grass-root level to provide citizens with access to justice at their doorstep
and to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any
citizen due to social, economic, or other disabilities, which was also in
furtherance of the mandate contained in Constitution under Art. 39-A.
Furthermore, Articles 14 and 22(1) of the Constitution require the State
to ensure equality before the law and a legal structure that ensures justice
based on equal opportunity for all
The concept of “access to justice” is an invaluable human right and also
a facet of Article 21 of the Constitution. Further, the non-establishment of
Gram Nyayalayas by the State of Telangana frustrates, Statutory Rights provided
to citizens under the Act and the Constitutional Right of rural citizens to
‘Access to Justice’ under Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution of
India.
In Anita Kushwaha v. Pushap Sadan.[5]
The Hon’ble Supreme Court held that:
- (1)
accessibility to adjudicatory mechanism in terms of distance,
- (2)
speedy justice, and
- (3)
affordable justice, are essential facets of ‘Access to Justice’.
Apex court in Brij Mohan Lal v. Union of India held that[6]:
“Article 21 of the Constitution of India takes in its sweep the right to an
expeditious and fair trial. Even Article 39-A of the Constitution recognizes
the right of citizens to equal justice and free legal aid. To put it simply, it
is the constitutional duty of the Government to provide the citizens of the
country with such judicial infrastructure and means of access to justice so
that every person is able to receive an expeditious, inexpensive and fair
trial. The plea of financial limitations or constraints can hardly be justified
as a valid excuse to avoid performance of the constitutional duty of the
Government, more particularly, when such rights are accepted as basic and
fundamental to the human rights of citizens.”
In D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal[7],
the paramount importance given to the accessibility to speedy, approachable and
affordable redressal has been duly noted, “The process of adjudication must be
speedy. “Access to justice” as a constitutional value will be a mere illusion
of justice is not speedy. If the process of administration of justice is so
time-consuming, laborious, indolent and frustrating for those who seek justice
that it dissuades or deters them from even considering resort to that process
as an option, it would tantamount to the denial of not only access to justice
but justice itself.”
Even if Gram Nyayalayas begin operations today, they will have a long
way to go to control the backlog of cases pending before the Indian judiciary.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee was outraged at how Gram Nyayalayas were
being prevented from ushering in a revolution at the lowest levels of the
Judiciary. They could easily have fulfilled the constitutionally mandated role
of making justice more accessible, affordable, and attainable for Indians.
Need of Gram Nyayalaya:
Access to justice for the poor and
marginalized remains a perennial problem in India. Various measures such as
simplifying procedural laws, establishing alternate dispute redressal
mechanisms, setting up fast track courts and providing free legal aid to the
poor are undertaken in this regard. Despite these measures, access to justice
and faster, inexpensive settlement of disputes at the grass-roots level are yet
to materialize.
Gram Nyayalayas can greatly help in
·
devolving justice delivery to the
fourth tier
·
ensuring equal access to justice
·
reducing the burden of district
courts
·
delivering speedier justice
·
reducing the costs associated with
litigation for the common man
·
reducing dependency on
extra-constitutional forums of justice
Establishment
Of Gram Nyaylayas Act, 2008
was
enacted to provide for the establishment of Gram Nyayalayas at the grassroots
level for the purposes of providing access to justice to the citizens at their
doorsteps and to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied
to any citizen due to social, economic or other disabilities. Sections
3 of the Gram nyayalayas Act, 2008 provides[8]
for the establishment of gram nyayalayas. The State governments have been
vested with the authority of setting up one or more nyayalayas, after proper
consultation with the respective High Court, in every Panchayat at the
intermediate level or group of adjacent Panchayats at the intermediate level of
a district. The governments of respective states are also sanctioned to control
and alter the territorial jurisdiction of the gram nyayalayas from time to
time, depending upon the requirement or circumstance. Section 4 of
the Act [9]provides
for the headquarter of the gram nyayalaya to be situated in the respective
Panchayat or some other place notified by the state government.
Appointments
Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008
Sections 5
-The State Government shall, in consultation with the High Court, appoint a
Nyayadhikari for every Gram Nyayalaya
Section 6- While
appointing a Nyayadhikari, representation shall be given to the members of the
Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, women and such other classes or
communities.
Sections 7
-A person qualified to be appointed as a Nyayadhikari must be eligible to be
appointed as a Judicial Magistrate of the first class.
JURISDICTION OF THE GRAM NYAYALAYAS IN INDIA
As stated above, the territorial
jurisdiction of the gram nyayalayas is determined by the individual state
governments on their discretion. However, it can function as a mobile court
within this specified area after giving wide publicity to the locals about the
same. As per Section 11 of the Gram Nyayalayas Act, these rural courts are
legitimised to have jurisdiction over both the criminal as well as civil
matters. The gram nyayalayas are also empowered to exercise pecuniary
jurisdiction in accordance with the prescribed guideline of the respective High
Court. A special power granted to the nyayalayas is the consideration of
special types of evidence that are not acceptable as per the Indian
Evidences Act of 1872 [10]as
these courts are guided by the principles of natural justice and are supposed
to follow the High Court’s discretion. The aforementioned is provisioned in
Section 30 of the Act which permits any statement, report, document or
information to be accepted as evidence by the Nyayalaya.
Issues And
Problems Related To Grama Nyayalaya:
The system of mobile rural courts or gram nyayalayas are
not bereft of inadequacies that need to be dealt with at both the legislative
as well as bureaucratic levels. These are as follows:
·
One of the main intentions behind establishing these courts was
speedy delivery of justice and reducing the burden of the upper courts.
However, due to the rampant appeals against the decisions of the nyayalayas,
district courts are still weighted with lots of pending cases.
·
The number of cases and disputes that have been resolved by the
village courts or gram nyayalayas are very low in number, equivalent to
negligible. This also indicates a lack of belief on these institutions on the
part of the people.
·
There is no regular cadre maintained for the post of a
Nyayadhikari, which is paralleled with the First-Class Magistrate. Thus,
bureaucratic renovation is required.
·
Due to the existence of alternative redressal forums, such as
lok adalats, tribunals, etc., ambiguities arise with respect to the
jurisdiction of the nyayalayas.
·
Out of the existing gram nyayalayas in the country, some are
located in urban city centres and some in such locations which are not of much
utility to the villagers.
·
The major stakeholders, the rural litigants, are not aware
enough and have a paucity of knowledge regarding ram nyayalayas. Sufficient
awareness drives have not been conducted to make the target population
cognizant about this institution.[11]
.Gram Nyayalayas is deemed to be a Court
of Judicial Magistrate of First Class with both civil and criminal jurisdiction
to settle petty disputes at the village level.
Why Gram Nyayalayas is not
operational?
·
Lack of infrastructure like
buildings, office spaces and related equipment
·
Lack of man-power resources,
notaries, stamp vendors etc. at sub-district level
·
Inadequate Central assistance
·
Lack of awareness among lawyers,
police officials
·
Non-cooperation of enforcement
agencies
·
The reluctance of state functionaries
to invoke the jurisdiction of Gram Nyayalayas
·
Setting up of legal services
institutions at Taluk level reducing the dependency on Gram Nyayalayas[12]
Procedure To Be
Followed By Gram Nyayalaya The Act -
The Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 stipulates the applicability of the Code
of Criminal Procedure, 1973 in matters of criminal nature presented before the
nyayalaya. However, at first, the cases will be speedily disposed of following
a simplified procedure and only at the discretion of the Nyayadhikari will a
regular trial procedure be followed. These are provisioned under Sections 18
and 19 of the Act.
As far as civil matters are concerned, there is a deviation from the
implementation of the Code of Civil Procedure as Nyayalayas have several
distinguished powers for faster delivery of justice. Section 24(6) of the Act
provides for the adoption of discretionary powers to the Nyayalaya, as deemed
suitable and reasonable for dispensing justice, for handling civil cases.
Hence, it can be said that the procedural mechanism of the Act is
definitely not in full consonance with both the criminal and civil procedural
codes of the country and is both similar and different from them in many
aspects.
Working
1.
The Gram Nyayalayas
is not bound by the Indian Evidence Act and follow the principle of natural
justice.
2.
The Gram
Nyayalaya shall exercise the powers of a Civil Court with certain modifications
and shall follow the special procedure as provided in the Act.
3.
The Gram
Nyayalaya shall endeavour to settle the disputes by bringing
about conciliation between the parties as far as possible and it shall
make use of the conciliators appointed for this purpose.
4.
The Gram
Nyayalaya shall follow the summary procedure in case of criminal cases. A
summary procedure is a legal procedure for enforcing the right that takes
effect faster and more efficiently than ordinary methods.
Nature of
Judgement
The
judgements/orders passed by the Gram Nyayalaya are deemed to be a decree.
Appeals against Nyayalaya’s verdict
The litigants, if unsatisfied from
the decision of the gram nyayalaya in their dispute, can approach higher
judicial authorities for both criminal and civil matters. These have been
discussed below:
Criminal matters: Matters which are of
criminal nature are barred by and are required to be heard and disposed of
within a limitation period of six months, an appeal against the decision of the
Nyayalaya in a criminal matter can be filed in the Sessions Court of that jurisdiction.
Civil matters: Barred by and required to be heard and disposed of
within a limitation period of six months, an appeal against any verdict of the
gram Nyayalaya concerning a civil matter can be filed in a District Court of
the concerned jurisdiction.
Role
of gram nyayalaya in dispute resolution:
- Gram
Nyayalaya is a mobile court and exercises the powers of both Criminal and
Civil Courts.
- It
can try criminal cases, civil suits, claims or disputes which are
specified in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule to the Gram
Nyayalaya Act.
- The
Gram Nyayalaya is supposed to try to settle the disputes as far as
possible by bringing about conciliation between the parties and for this
purpose, it can make use of the appointed conciliators.
- The
judgment and order passed by the Gram Nyayalaya are deemed to be a decree
and to avoid delay in its execution, the Gram Nyayalaya can follow summary
procedure for its execution.
- The
Gram Nyayalaya is not bound by the rules of evidence provided in the
Indian Evidence Act, 1872 but are guided by the principles of natural
justice and subject to any rule made by the High Court.
- Gram
Nyayalays aims to provide a cost-effective forum at the grass-root level
for the poor living in villages to settle legal matters. These are
established for speedy and easy access to justice system in the rural
areas of India and are aimed at providing inexpensive justice to people in
rural areas at their doorsteps, with emphasis on mediation as a major way
to resolve the disputes.
Kinds of offences tried by Nyayalayas
For a proper understanding of the different nature of
offences that are tried by Nyayalayas, a distinction needs to be done between
Schedule I and II of the Act. Both of these schedules can be amended by the
central as well as state governments. They are discussed below:
Schedule I enlists those offences which are within the
ambit of nyayalayas’ adjudication. Criminal offences such as theft,
concealment, receiving and disposal of stolen goods, insult with malice of
disrupting peace is some amongst other offences that are decided by the rural
courts.
Essentially, those offences which are not punishable by
death and have a penalty of life imprisonment exceeding two years are within
the jurisdiction of adjudication by these mobile village courts.
Schedule II entails certain statutes and offences which are
to be tried within the criminal jurisdiction of the rural courts. These
statutes include the payment of wages Act, 1936, the protection of Civil Rights
Act of 1955, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976, Protection of
Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005 and Equal Remuneration Act of 1976[13]
Civil matters like property disputes are also invoked under this schedule of
the Act.
6.Suggestions
- Establishing a regular cadre
of Gram Nyayadhikaris
- Conducting procedures in
local language and with simpler procedures
- Creating awareness amongst
stakeholders via seminars, press releases etc.
- Establishing permanent Gram
Nyayalayas at the intermediate level in a suitable location proving easy
access to the common people
- Clearly specifying the
jurisdiction of Gram Nyayalayas and re-defining it to remove any
ambiguities
- Providing building, staff
etc. for Gram Nyayalayas and provisioning them in the state budget. Etc
7.Conclusion
The
establishment of gram nyayalayas can be seen as a significant positive step
towards strengthening structural reforms in the Indian judiciary and making it
accessible to those who are deprived of adequate assistance and protection due
to the complexity and technicality of the system. Gram nyayalayas, although
established in a way that brings them somewhat closer to the adversarial
arrangement of the formal court system, also have a fundamental origin and
traditionalism in their very conceptual existence. It can be described as the
resolute determination of the state to continue the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi
and his support for the 'swadeshi' system of dispute settlement.
REFFRENCES
Gram Nyayalaya Act 2008
Alternative Dispute Resolution along
With Gram Nyayalaya
Malik
and Ravel, Law and Social Transformation in India, Allahabad Law Agency, page
no-479
Available
at, http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Gram_Nyayalayas_or_Village_Courts,
access on -15/10/2022 ,6.32pm
https://blog.ipleaders,in/study-gram-nyayalayas-act-2008/
https://www.prsindia.org/sites//default/files/bill_files/law
commission report on gram nyayalayas 1986.pdf
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1809619-15/10/2022
,7: 20pm
The
Gram Nyayalayas Act (Nyaya Panchayats, Lok Adalat And Legal Aid Nyaya
Panchayats) (legalserviceindia.com)
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/68998922/
https://maitri.mahaonline.gov.in/pdf/payment-of-wages-act-1936.pdf
[1]https://knowlaw.in/index.php/2021/08/11/gram-nyayalaya-jerry-built-justice/
[2]https://thelawreporter.in/2021/05/08/gram-nyayalayas-a-policy-with-no-practice/
[3]
Law Commission of India (1986), supra note 31, at 28-29
[4]
Law Commission of India (1986), supra note 31, at 31
[5]https://thelawreporter.in/2021/05/08/gram-nyayalayas-a-policy-with-no-practice/#_ftn5
[6] https://thelawreporter.in/2021/05/08/gram-nyayalayas-a-policy-with-no-practice/#_ftn6
[7] https://thelawreporter.in/2021/05/08/gram-nyayalayas-a-policy-with-no-practice/#_ftn7
[9]
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/165897592/
[10]
http://jowaipolice.gov.in/Laws_and_Referenc/ipl_and_acts/15-INDIAN-EVIDENCE-ACT-1872.pdf
[12]
https://www.clearias.com/gram-nyayalayas/.