Justice Through Specialization — A Case for Environmental Courts

Abstract

Throughout history, man has strived to formulate an ideal system of law and justice. His each attempt to attain the same has been in vain; nevertheless the quest has resulted in refinements and modifications over the system in vogue. As observed by Julius Stone, “It is not given to any generation of men to complete the task of restructuring legal justice system to make it effective, easily accessible, de-professionalised and cheap, but no generation is free either to desist from it.” As far as the Indian judicial system is concerned, due to the undue delay in disposal of cases there is now a crisis of credibility, which has acquired high visibility. If current trends are continued to persist, the system runs the risk of becoming dysfunctional. The consumers of justice are waiting patiently with the fond hope that the justice delivery system would be restructured to make it more resilient, effective, responsive, time-bound, inexpensive and de-professionalised so as to reduce arrears and to remove the backlog thereby making the system justice and people oriented. It was this realization, which prompted countless Commissions and Committees to forward several suggestions in the past by to tackle the problems which plague justice administration in our country. However, very few have been implemented; the overwhelming majority of the recommendations have been put in deep freeze with the consequence that over a period, these recommendations have largely been forgotten with new Committees and Commissions continue to traverse the beaten track largely reiterating or repeating the previous recommendations; the fresh ones meeting the same fate as the earlier ones.

Keywords: Justice, specialization, environment, environmental, sustainable development, environmental courts, specialised courts, expert