Structure of Indian Judiciary: Supreme Court to Lok Adalats

[music] >> Hello everyone. Welcome to week seven of our course

where we're going to talk about the judiciary. In the first part we'll understand the

structure of the Indian judiciary. Now, the Indian judiciary is designed as a

single integrated system. Unlike federal systems like the United States where state and federal courts

operate independently, the Indian system is a hierarchy where the Supreme Court sits at the apex

exercising authority over all the lower courts. And here is a breakdown of the structure

from the top down. At the top, the apex court, is the Supreme Court of India.

Located in New Delhi, the Supreme Court is the highest constitutional court and the final court of appeal.

It's composition. Led by the Chief Justice of India, CJI, and a maximum of 33 other judges.

The key powers. Original jurisdiction resolves disputes between the union and the states or between two states.

Appellate jurisdiction it hears the appeals against judgments from the high courts.

It also has advisory jurisdiction wherein the president can seek its opinion on matters of public importance.

Most importantly, it acts as the guardian of the Constitution. It has the power of judicial review

to strike down laws that violate the fundamental rights. Secondly, we have the high courts at the

state level. Each state or group of states has a high court. Currently, there are 25 high courts in India. The

jurisdiction of the high courts, they exercise power over a state or a union territory. They also have writ

jurisdiction. Under Article 226, they can issue writs or orders to enforce fundamental rights often with a broader

scope than the Supreme Court. High courts also have supervisory power. They supervise and control all the

courts and tribunals within their territorial jurisdiction. Then third, we have at the district

level the subordinate courts. Now, these courts handle the bulk of the legal cases in India

and are divided based on the nature of the case, civil or criminal. The district court is presided over by

the district judge and the nature of cases it handles are property, contracts, marriage or divorce, and

inheritance. The sessions court is presided over by the sessions judge and the nature of

cases that it looks into are serious crimes like murder, theft, or assault. Then at number four, we also have the

specialized tribunals and the Lok Adalats. To reduce the burden on the main

hierarchy, India uses specialized bodies, tribunals, which are quasi-judicial bodies for specific areas

such as the NGT, the National Green Tribunal, or the ITAT, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.

Then we also have Lok Adalats, which are the people's courts. An alternative dispute resolution

mechanism where cases pending in courts are settled amicably to save time and money.

There are also lower courts. Lower courts such as the Munsif's courts and small causes courts which function

beneath the district courts in certain states. These courts deal with small-scale civil

claims and financial problems. And their jurisdiction, these courts can hear cases involving

lesser claims and usually have original jurisdiction. Civil courts in some states can handle

matters worth any amount of money since they have unrestricted pecuniary jurisdiction.

Commercial courts. Now, these commercial courts are specialized courts for business

disputes. Established by the Commercial Courts Act of 2015,

the commercial courts exclusively handle business disputes involving sums over rupees 3 lakhs.

The goal of these courts is to settle business-related matters more quickly. And the jurisdiction and the process

here, in order to ensure speedy hearings and verdicts in intricate business cases,

commercial courts adhere to a more stringent process than the standard civil courts.

We also have tribunals. The tribunals are specialized forums for expert justice. And in India, tribunals

deal with certain legal fields providing prompt justice and specialized knowledge in areas such as administrative

conflicts, corporate law, and taxes. These organizations have more latitude in their processes and function outside

of the conventional judicial system. There are also other notable courts like the CAT, the Central Administrative

Tribunal, the ITAT, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, and the NCLT, the National Company Law Tribunal, which are some of

the important tribunals. Now, in order to relieve the load of the ordinary courts and guarantee that

disagreements are settled by subject matter specialists, these tribunals were set up to handle specialty issues. In

addition to the aforementioned, alternative dispute resolution, ADR, methods such as Lok Adalats,

conciliation, arbitration, and mediation offer several ways to settle disagreements short of official

litigation. Now, what do these Lok Adalats do? These are voluntary forums which are governed

by the Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987 where disagreements are resolved

peacefully via negotiation and conciliation. Their rulings are enforceable and

comparable to a civil court's judgment. Now, the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996,

this act established a very strong arbitration system in India and encouraged the settlement of business

disputes out of court. It was modeled after the UNCITRAL model

in order to improve the efficiency of arbitration in India and to streamline procedures, the act

has undergone many amendments, most notably in 2015 and 2019. Nonetheless, if we look at an overview

of the judicial system, the key pillars of the system are first and foremost independence.

The judiciary is independent of the executive government and the legislature parliament to ensure impartial justice.

Secondly, precedent. Decisions that are made by the Supreme Court, say for example, are binding on all other courts

within India. Thirdly, an integrated hierarchy. A case can travel from the lowest court to the

Supreme Court through the process of appeal. Let's not forget that the Indian legal

system follows {quote} "common law principles" inherited from the British era

but heavily modified by the Indian Constitution and the subsequent statutes.

>> [music]