NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed all state governments and the High Courts to file a status report with regard to setting up 'Gram Nyayalayas' across the country.
A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Hima Kohli gave the States and High Courts eight weeks time for the purpose.
The court passed its direction after a brief submission by advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of National Federation of Societies for Fast Justice.
Bhushan said some of the States stated that they have an alternative system but the law takes care of this point because it uses the term 'notwithstanding, any other system in place'.
The law, Gram Nyayalayas Act 2008, only excluded a few areas such as the North-East and the tribal areas, he said.
The counsel further said many States have not even established even a single Gram Nyayalayas, while the Centre had also taken a position it was not mandatory if some similar arrangements were in place, as the law uses 'may' instead of 'shall'.
On September 2, 2019, the top court had issued notice to the Centre and others in the matter.
The petitioner contended that the object of the 2008 Act was to provide ‘access to justice’ to all. However, the State Governments concerned have been defeating the object of the Act, as Section 3 of the Act provides that State Governments “may” constitute Gram Nyayalayas.
"Non-establishment of Gram Nyayalayas by the States frustrates; (a) Statutory Rights provided to citizens under the Act and (b) Constitutional Right of rural citizens to ‘Access to Justice’," it claimed.
The petitioner further said 'Access to Justice' was held to be a fundamental right under Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution by the Supreme Court in Anita Kushwaha v. Pushap Sadan (2016).
Further, the petitioners have relied on Dilip Kumar Basu v State of West Bengal, (2015) where this court negatived the contention of the States that under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, setting up of State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), was optional for the State Government because Section 21 of that Act, provided that the State Government “may” constitute SHRCs. The court had then held that such a reading would defeat the very ‘object’ of the Act and reading “may” as “shall” directed all states to constitute SHRCs.
An Evaluation Study of the Scheme of Establishing and Operationalizing Gram Nyayalayas, January, 2018, sponsored by the Ministry of Law & Justice and conducted by the National Productivity Council, has found that despite teething problems related to infrastructure and manpower there is substantial support and demand for setting up of Gram Nyayalayas amongst the rural citizenry, it pointed out.
