INDIA NEEDS COURT TRANSCRIPTS TO TACKLE CORRUPTION IN JUDICIARY

The judicial courts of India have always found it hard to shrug off the label of corruption in their corridors. Recently this stench of corruption even reached the inner chambers of the judges of the Supreme Court where orders were found to be rewritten by court masters for the benefit of one party as against what was originally ordered by the judge in open court.

It was caught by an eagle eyed lawyer and brought to the attention of the judges. Luckily the judges remembered their original decision and saw the discrepancy and the order could be corrected. But does it not then make you wonder how many orders are incorrectly written and different from what the judges say.

Ideally you would expect the judges and the lawyers to remember. But the Indian judiciary is massively overburdened with the dates between hearings so long that it could be months or sometimes even years. The famous Sunny Deol line, "Tareekh pe Tareekh pe Tareekh" is not only a famous dialogue now but a sad reality of the justice system in India.

Overburdened courts and busy judiciary leads to trials stretching over months if not years and insiders would vouch that there are ample examples of judgements delivered months after the hearings being dramatically opposed to the arguments made and accepted by the judges at the hearing.

In the absence of any check or mechanism on such anomalies the only remedy is the appellate forum. But the problem gets compounded if the judgements in appeal are equally vitiated in the absence of any official record of what actually transpired at the appeals hearing.

How then do we keep a judge accountable? How do we ensure that the judgement pronounced matches with the order written down? How do we try and close one door of corruption in our justice system?

The answer: Court Transcripts.

Perhaps many in India would have heard the words, Court Transcript for the first time. But it is an embedded part of the judicial system for all western and developed countries like Australia, UK and USA to name a few.

It is also not a very complicated and expensive procedure and can be added to our Indian courts easily. Basically the proceedings of the court are voice recorded and simultaneously typed on the day itself by stenographers using shorthand abbreviation or machines with a phonetic key system.

The transcript becomes an exact record of every word spoken by any such person as indicated which includes the judges, barristers, lawyers and witnesses etc.

The transcript can also be helpful to refresh one's memory in our judicial system where the dates between hearings are so long that the judges roster itself changes before a matter comes up again. It can help the parties and the judges to see what arguments have been taken and where the hearing concluded with what remarks so repetition may be avoided and time may be saved for future.

Simply put, a transcript makes those in open court be accountable for their words. Judges can be shown what was said in the last hearing. It can also ensure a clean and respectable hearing takes place without the unnecessary mudslinging that has become so prevalent in India. When a person is aware that their words are being recorded they tend to be careful in their usage and language.

At the very end it will ensure that a poorer party does not get screwed over by a richer party with deeper pockets willing to spend it in unlawful ways and true justice can be upheld.