“Justice delayed is justice denied.” This is evident in the case of pendency and delays in our judicial system. With millions of unresolved cases, a charter establishes clear timelines for service delivery, preventing the phenomenon.

Many citizens, especially those from marginalised communities and the middle class, find the legal system unaffordable due to poor accessibility. A charter outlines how to access legal aid and services.

A Justice Charter for citizens acts as a bridge of trust by making the rules, procedures, and official duties open for public inspection, thereby reducing opportunities for corruption.

Circumstances and scenarios warrant shifting from a “master-servant” design toward a system that views citizens as “customers” of public services who deserve respect and efficiency.

The Justice Charter, if introduced, will definitely benefit the public in the Indian democracy

It will empower common people with the confidence to demand better service and ask questions when standards are not met.

It holds judicial officers and departments accountable for delays or mistakes in their work by providing a performance benchmark. Thus, the system will become accountable.

In the present scenario, the grievance redressal process is lengthy, and sometimes the public even finds it difficult to navigate to have their grievances redressed. A justice charter will provide a clear path (contact details, phone numbers, email addresses) for filing complaints if a service is denied or delayed.

A justice charter serves as a guide for training the judicial machinery and ensuring promises, and fostering a more polite, helpful, and responsive culture within court complexes.

By focusing on legal aid for the poor and linguistic accessibility in the justice charter, justice can be within reach of common people, and a conception of justice as a rich man’s asset can be abolished.

We suggest the following reforms, which can construct an effective judicial charter:

1. The charter should be legally enforceable, making the citizens entitled to claim compensation and disciplinary action for deficiency of services.
2. This has been a commonly adopted phenomenon to register false cases based on false statements and even affidavits. Mandatory provisions should be made for punishment for reporting false cases, submitting false statements, and giving false testimony.
3. Where the charges are not framed, and the case is closed in the primary stage, the reasons must be recorded on the case file, and the case must be reviewed by the next step court to confirm the decision.
4. The cases should be randomly allotted to courts in the morning to eliminate any chance for fixing the court and setting any nexus between a specific court and an advocate, a petitioner, or an accused.
   • Every judgment should be accompanied by a clear, simple summary in both English and the local state language to make the law clear and understandable by the common man.
   • A fixed step-by-step timeline must be framed right from the registration of the complaint to the final judgment in order to ensure final justice within a maximum of one year.
   • A fast-track special court should be declared to hear emergent cases and dispose of them directly. This court should be granted session court status. However, it will be the sole discretion of this court to decide the eligibility of the case for hearing in the fast track.
   • In case of high importance cases like national security, terrorism, political writs, rape cases, gangsters’ cases, an appeal must be heard directly by the High Court / Supreme Court to facilitate very fast justice. Such cases should be quickly disposed of, but not later than a month.
   • Interference of courts in administrative matters should be avoided.

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