What are the challenges in ensuring humane justice in India’s legal system?

Humane justice refers to a legal system that balances fairness, compassion, and respect for human dignity. In India, ensuring humane justice is a complex task due to various structural, procedural, and ethical challenges. These obstacles often hinder the judiciary’s ability to deliver justice that is both effective and empathetic.

• Overburdened Judiciary: Indian courts face a massive backlog of cases, leading to delays in justice. Prolonged trials can result in undertrial prisoners spending years in jail, undermining the principle of humane justice.
• Access to Legal Aid: Many marginalized and poor individuals lack access to quality legal representation. This creates inequality in the justice delivery system and often leads to unjust outcomes for vulnerable groups.
• Prison Conditions: Overcrowded and underfunded prisons often violate basic human rights. Inadequate healthcare, poor sanitation, and lack of rehabilitation facilities make it difficult to uphold humane standards.
• Police Practices: Instances of custodial violence, torture, and extra-judicial killings challenge the ethical foundations of the justice system. Ensuring accountability and transparency in law enforcement remains a persistent issue.
• Socio-economic Barriers: Illiteracy, poverty, and social discrimination prevent many from seeking or receiving fair treatment in the legal process.
• Outdated Laws and Procedures: Some colonial-era laws and rigid procedures do not align with contemporary human rights standards, making it harder to deliver compassionate justice.
• Bias and Prejudices: Judicial decisions can sometimes reflect societal biases related to caste, religion, gender, or class, which compromises the ideal of impartial and humane justice.
• Lack of Sensitization: Many legal professionals and law enforcement officials lack training in human rights and sensitivity towards vulnerable groups, affecting the quality of justice delivered.
• Resource Constraints: Shortages of judges, court staff, and infrastructure hamper the efficient and humane functioning of the judiciary.
• Pendency of Reforms: Slow implementation of judicial reforms, such as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and victim-centric approaches, limits the system’s ability to be both fair and compassionate.