President: Ensure justice delivered in totality

RANCHI: President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday called upon the Chief Justice of India, Union law ministry, judges of all courts and all other stakeholders to devise a system, wherein justice is delivered in totality, and not just in courtrooms, and if required, enact a law for the purpose.
In her address after inaugurating the new Jharkhand high court complex in Ranchi, President Murmu said: “Many cases are decided in high courts, several others in the Supreme Court. After the order is pronounced, those who get the verdict in their favour — whether it comes after 5, 10 or 20 years — go home singing and dancing. But their happiness vanishes within a few days, when justice does not materialise in actual practice. They (the litigants) believe justice was delayed but not denied, so they are happy. But the purpose for which they spent time, money and sleepless nights is not fulfilled on the ground,” she said.
President Murmu said she was clueless if there existed any solution. “Maybe it lies with the government…there must be some solution,” she said, adding that legal provisions must be made to ensure justice is translated on the ground.
CJI DY Chandrachud and other legal luminaries were also present on the occasion.
Stressing that people of the lowest strata “deserve real happiness, real justice”, the President said she used to get a lot of complaints from such people earlier and forwarded them to the authorities concerned, “but where they went, I do not know”. “Now, I can send such complaints to the CJI. There is perhaps no place beyond the Supreme Court and the CJI where they can go,” she added.
President Murmu further reminisced that while working as a member of a family counselling centre in her native village, many people complained to her that they had won the case, but did not get justice.
While there was legal remedy, in the form of a contempt petition, in such cases, the President said poor people with meagre resources and little awareness were scared to go through the same long process and wait for several years again.