Recently an interesting case came to me. *Paula who is married to *Earl since 25 years and they have a 22 year old son Vincent, has discovered that her husband has been scamming people for the past 20 years. She stumbled upon the scams accidentally and then became a home-grown Sherlock to investigate further. What she unearthed was a sophisticated mechanism in place by which he had swindled people and companies of around 40,000 dollars. When her suspicions were confirmed, she contacted a divorce lawyer and filed for divorce. Her son, Vincent, is not only supportive of her decision but in fact he was the one who convinced her to consult a divorce lawyer and in his words, ‘get rid of the mobster’ who she got conned into marrying.
It has been a year since the petition has been in court and NOTHING has moved in court.
Her case has joined the ranks of millions of cases pending before the judiciary in India. Currently, there are over 30 million cases pending before the judiciary in India. As if this wasn’t enough there are bureaucratic tussles between the government and the judiciary about the system for appointing judges.
In the midst of all of this what happens to a litigant? Essentially they keep counting the days to freedom and keep protecting themselves with legal paperwork. At first they enter the courts extremely hopefully and with stars in their eyes about justice. They are all gung-ho about coming to court and eagerly await the dates knowing that each date will get them closer to the justice that they are seeking. But…but…but….as time passes and the wheels of justice just don’t seem to turn that’s when the dreams start turning into ashes of frightening nightmares.
Imagine having to stay with an abusive husband where you fear for your life just because your CASE IS STUCK IN COURT?
In my case I just walked out or rather was pushed out with nothing but the clothes on my back and although it was tough as hell, in retrospect it still seems better than sleeping every night next to a scary abusive ‘husband turned stranger turned forced husband due to the delays in the system’.
With a divorce case everything reaches a logjam and your life is stuck up because however we may try to pretend- our personal life far overshadows our professional life and it smothers it if it is bad.
Why can’t she Paula just walk in and file for divorce and get a quick divorce? Why must she remain married to the mob, just because of system delays in dispensing with justice? Essentially these are questions that the judiciary in India must start carefully considering and that should be the beginning of judicial reforms so as to implement the simplest maxim we learnt in law school-Justice delayed is justice denied.