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Recent Trends in Indian legal system

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Indian Legal System

The Judiciary of India is an independent body and is separate from the Executive and Legislative bodies of the Indian Government.

The Indian Judiciary is largely based on the English Common Law Legal System.

Various Acts introduced by the British are still in effect in a modified form today.

Much of contemporary Indian law shows substantial European and American influence.

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The Indian Judicial System

The Indian judiciary comprises at three-tiered system with then Supreme Court residing at the apex of both the State and Federal Judiciaries.

The hierarchy of the State Judiciary from ascending to descending order is as follows:

• 1.High Court• 2.District Court• 3.Sessions Court• 4.Civil and Criminal Judicial Magistrates’

Courts

The courts are distinguished upon their respective jurisdictions. That is to say, the courts higher in the judicial hierarchy have greater jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters.

Havingajudicialhierarchyispredicateduponamoreefficientandcosteffectivejudiciarythanwouldotherwisebethecase.

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Judicial System in IndiaSupreme Court

High Court

Subordinate Court at district Level Specialized tribunal

Civil Courts

Criminal Courts

Services tribunal

Tax Tribunal

Debate recovery tribunal

Railways tribunalConsumer Courts etcl

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Source of Law

PrimarySource• The Primary source of law emanates

from Acts passed by the Federal and State Legislatures.The President and the Governor have limited powers to issue ordinances. These ordinances lapse six weeks from there-assembly of Federalor State Parliament.

SecondarySource• A Secondary source of law emanates

from the judgments passed by the judiciary especially the Supreme Court and the High Courts of the States.This type of law is known as case law or judge made law. Principally case law is a result of the courts having interpreted the words and or phrases in legislation.

• The Constitution provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within India

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Indian Criminal Law

• The Indian Penal Code (IPC) provides a penal code for all of India.

• The code applies to any offence committed by an Indian Citizen anywhere and on any Indian registered ship or aircraft.

• The IPC came in to force in 1862.• Importantly, although India is a

common law jurisdiction it does contain Codes which when read alone contain the entirety of the law.

• Important sections 420 for cheating and 302 gives death penalty

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Indian Civil Procedure Code

The Civil Procedure Code(C.P.C.) regulates the fuctioning of civil courts.

Itl ays down the:(a)Procedure for the filing of a civil

case;(b)Powers of court to pass various

orders;(c)Court fees and stamps involved in

filing of a case;(d)Rights of the parties to a case

(Plaintiff and Defendant);(e)Jurisdiction and parameters of civil

courts and their respective procedure;

(f)Rules for civil proceedings;and(g)Circumstances whereby one is

entitled to appeal.

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Novel trends

• Computerisation of courts.• Scope of PIL is being limited.• Judiciary has become more transparent.• Concept of early resolution of disputes is

encouraged.• Lok Adalats.• Special courts to dispose of petty, frivolous or

vexatious cases.• Evening courts have started in many States.

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Writs

Writs are issued by the Supreme Court under Article 32 and by the High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.Historically,aWrit was an order or direction issued by a court.

Article226oftheConstitutionofIndiaArticle226empowerstheHighCourtsoftheStates

throughouttheterritoriesofIndiatoissuetoanypersonorauthorityincludinggovernmentdirectnordersorWrits.

• WritofProhibition:Anorderprohibitinganentityfromdoinganygivenact.

• (b)WritofHabeasCorpus:Anorderthataprisonerbereleasedfromunlawfulcustody.

• (c)WritofCertiorari:Anorderbyasuperiorcourtthatthebeprovidedwithacopyofajudgementmadeinaninferiorcourtforreview.

• (d)WritofMandamus:Anorderfordirectedtoaninferiorcourtorgovernmentdemandingthatacertainact(s)beundertaken.

• (e)WritofQuoWarranto:Anorderdemandingthatoneevidencetheauthoritybywhichheorsheissaidtohavemadeacertaindecision(s)

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Evening Courts in India

In 2006, evening courts in India began to function in the state of Gujarat and now they are functioning in different parts of the country including Delhi.

The evening courts function for two hours, starting from 5 pm to 7 pm.

These courts resolve the cases related to traffic challans, claim petitions under the Motor Vehicles Act and cheque bounce

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The Maharashtra Evening Courts Rules :-

1. Short title 2. Definitions3. Jurisdiction of Evening Court 4. Appointment of Evening Court

Judges. 5. Appointment of member of staff

of Evening Court 6. Notification of Evening Courts 7. Working Hours 8. Remuneration of Evening Court

Judges and members of staff in Evening Courts

9. Powers of Evening Court Judge 10. Supervision and control  11. Conditions of service 12. Savings

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Industrial Dispute Settlement

•At the outset it must be borne in mind that the role of dispute settlement mechanisms

must be seen in the overall context of industrial relations in India. Any reform in the

conciliation or labour adjudication system will be largely cosmetic unless greater

attention is paid towards developing a sound industrial relations framework at the

national and enterprise levels.

Many changes have been made particularly in the last decade in the way disputes are

prevented or resolved. However, effective prevention of disputes remains the core of

sound industrial relations. In the new and fast changing workplace environment, new

and innovative tools, techniques and approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution

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Right to Information Act 2003

• The Right to Information emerges out of the umbrella of Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression and Right toLife.

• Right to Information is also the centrifugal point for access to amyriad of other basic human rights such as environment,health,food,livelihoodetc.

• The most direct transformation that the right to information effects is in the governance system.

• From the perspective of citizenship, the right to information is the primary tool in the hands of the citizen.

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Lokpal Bill of Anna Hazare

The Jan Lokpal Bill, also referred to as the citizens' ombudsman bill, is a proposed independent anti-corruption law in India. Anti-corruption social activists proposed it as a more effective improvement to the original Lokpal bill, which is currently being proposed by the Government of India.[1]The Jan Lokpal Bill aims to effectively deter corruption, redress grievances of citizens, and protect whistle-blowers. If made into law, the bill would create an independent ombudsman body called theLokpal (Sanskrit: protector of the people). It would be empowered to register and investigate complaints of corruption against politicians and bureaucrats without prior government approval.[2][3][4]In April 2011, civil activist Anna Hazare started a Satyagraha movement by commencing an indefinite fast in New Delhi to demand the passing of the bill. The movement attracted attention in the media, and hundreds of thousands of supporters, in part due to the organizational skills of Arvind Kejriwal.[5] Following Hazare's four day hunger strike, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that the bill would be re-introduced in the 2011 monsoon session of the Parliament.[6] Accordingly, a committee of five Cabinet Ministers and five social activists attempted to draft a compromise bill merging the two versions but failed. The Indian government went on to propose its own version in the parliament, which the activists rejected on the grounds of not being sufficiently effective, and called it a "toothless bill".[7]

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Latest acts & news • Direct Tax Code• Goods and Service Tax(GST)• Companies Act 2011 (amendment)• LLP act 2008• Videographing of court proceedings will

have to wait. On September 26, the Bombay High Court rejected an application filed by activist Indur Chhugani demanding videographing the proceedings in his petition challenging the 2009 Lok Sabha victory of Congress MP Priya Dutt on the ground that there was no such policy decision.

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Presented By-• Madhavi Dhuri• Shakuntala Utekar• Sneha Mirgule • Soniya Javkar• Sujata Dongre• Sylvia Fernandes