Biases in The Justice Delivery System

INTRODUCTION

One of the three most important pillars of democracy is the judiciary and the justice delivery system is the base structure of a democratic country. The justice delivery system ensures equality, fairness, and justice. Even though the justice system is known to be neutral towards race, gender, socioeconomic status, political affiliations, and age, there is always a threat to the biases in the justice delivery system. Many people still believe that justice is served but somewhere they also agree on the fact that the justice system is biased. This blog particularly examines the existence of biases in the justice system as per the common people and some of the advocates. This blog will also investigate the thought process behind this mindset of bias that the common people feel, the impact, and how people expect law officers, law students, and the courts to spread awareness about the neutrality of the justice delivery system. This blog is based on the interviews given by many common people and advocates of the Bombay High Court, the names are not disclosed but the answers and their opinions have been taken into consideration.

THE TERM BIAS IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

The word bias makes it very clear that it refers to prejudice against or for a person or a group. There are many forms of biases in the justice delivery system. Judicial biases can be in many forms.

Explicit Bias and Implicit Bias

Explicit bias is a form of conscious preference toward a person, group or institution. For example, gender-based bias, where the justice or sentencing might be more lenient than men, is well documented in many worldwide legal systems. In the interview, the question was to put up with common people and the advocates, if they think that not just the leniency by the judiciary but also the laws are a bit gender biased, if the laws are biased that might lead to the bias in the judgment. Through this question, the assumption was easily drawn that the common people have this mindset of the laws being a specific gender leaning. Six out of ten people agreed that laws like the Dowry Prohibition Act, of 1961 are being misused against innocent men and their families, due to which the judgment might also be biased. Whereas the advocates agreed that the laws are being misused, the need for these laws is more important, although there should be some laws to also ensure the safeguarding of innocent men who are falsely accused.

On the other hand, implicit bias includes the subconscious feelings, attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes an individual has developed due to prior influences and imprints throughout their lives.

BIASES IN DIFFERENT PHASES OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Biases have various stages which include policing and investigation, to the sentencing of the accused which leads to injustice or biased justice towards an individual.

The policing and the investigation by the police

There is no denying that bias is very much evident in the policing system. The bias in the policing system is the basic and the very first step towards injustice. As per the interview, everyone was on the same boat that the police sometimes do temper with the pieces of evidence as in the recent case of the Kolkata rape case, or most of the time they mishandle the evidence like the police did in the Ayushi Talwar murder case. The main reason for the tampering of the evidence is corruption.

The Decision-Making by the Judiciary

As per the interview, many common people believe that the lower judiciary is biased when it comes to their personal beliefs, or there is any pressure related to politics, religion, regional caste, or maybe other factors.

Sentencing and Punishment

The final state where people most frequently discuss Biases in the justice delivery system is when the judge gives his judgment or punishment. As per one of our interviewees, we came to know about a case which the person personally experienced in which there was a case that went to the court and took eight years to come to a judgment During these eight years the person personally experienced that the lower judiciary was somewhat biased towards the caste towards the caste religion of the other party.

THE COMMON PEOPLE AND THEIR MINDSET

After conducting a successful interview of the common people and advocates of the Bombay High Court, this point can easily be identified that there is a difference between the mindset of the common people and the advocates. As the common people had this mindset of the court being biased especially when it comes to the lower court. The main reason for this feeling of bias in the common people against the court was the unawareness of how the courts work. While talking to the Bombay High Court advocates they made it very clear that the court follows up procedure which might take time but the justices delivered and were unbiased, This lack of awareness of the knowledge procedure that the court follows in the common people leads the population of India to lose their faith in the judicial system of the country.

What led to this thinking of bias in the common people?

The root of this mindset is the lack of knowledge about how the court works. Also, many news outlets create an atmosphere where the accused is already declared guilty. When the court takes time to deliver the judgment the common people come up with the conclusion that the court is biased towards this stronger party. Not just the bench but the common people try to avoid the bar as well. The answers that the people gave in the interview made it very clear that they want to avoid the court and would like to resolve the dispute outside the court as they think that the court might take an excessive amount of time to deliver the judgment. Also the lawyers might try to get more dates so that they can earn more. Highlighting the point that the people are still unaware that if they resolve a dispute outside the Court, the court in the future may not be able to safeguard the rights of those people.

How to tackle this mindset?

Now as we are well aware of the lack of knowledge among the common people regarding the procedure that is followed by the courts, the question arises what can be done to make people aware of how the court works? A section in the interview made sure that the common people themselves could come up with a suggestion for how to create awareness among the citizens of the country, The first and the most important thing that came up was awareness through social media, one of the most suggested opinion was that the court should set an example through speedy trails. Many of them suggested that there should be a proper education on the law of the country to the students in the school which will make the future and every citizen of India aware of their basic rights and the basic procedure that the court follows.

THE SUGGESTIONS TO TACKLE WHAT COMMON PEOPLE FELT

Now that we talk about biases and the mindset of the common people how they see the biases in the judicial delivery system. The main biases that the people stated were based on Caste, gender, socioeconomic class, and political background. As per the advocates of the Bombay High Court, there are many ways to tackle these kinds of challenges when comes to the biases of the judicial delivery system as stated by the common people, the first thing that the advocates suggested was the representation of women on a larger scale in the courts, The first generation advocates stated that the courts are very lenient when it comes to the newbies and the first generation lawyers, which helps with the growth of the bar which also strengthens the common people to whom the bar represents.

THE MOST CRUCIAL AND FUTURE STEP THAT CAN BE TAKEN

As the successful interview of so many people and the advocates concluded it was very much clear and also as one of the persons to whom the interview was conducted suggested that there is a need for a platform where there can be collective information about the courts where the courts should be ranked based on their performance. If there is a scale on which the courts of India will be ranked based on their performance, this might motivate the judicial system to work more progressively as this scale with total transparency might set an example for the other courts who will be lower in the same scale.

The parameters to rank the courts on this scale can be based on the average time that the court takes to close a case and pass the judgment on it, if a case has been closed and the judgment is passed in the lower courts and still the case goes to the higher court and the parties are still not satisfied with the judgment that can also be one of the parameters to decide the performance of the court and the last parameter can be if they higher court quashes the lower court’s judgment.

CONCLUSION

When it comes to the law officers or any person who is somewhat aware of the legal system and how the courts of the country work, can easily conclude that the judiciary is not biased and the court passes a judgment based on the facts and the evidence that has been provided. However, there is also a need for law officers or law students to take accountability or the responsibility to spread awareness among the people about how the court works and how the courts of the country safeguard their fundamental rights. There is also a need for more representation of women in the courts and increasing the vacancies for judges so that the youth can also contribute towards the justice system of the country. As discussed above there is also a need to make a common platform where the codes should be ranked based on their performance. Theoretically, this may seem an easy task to overcome the challenges that have been discussed in this blog but it is a long road for the justice system of India to completely establish this unbiased example among the people of the country.

AUTHOR

ANUBHAV TIWARI,

VES COLLEGE OF LAW, MUMBAI

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