A Criminologist’s Diary-26

Public Participation in Judicial Decisions

Today I feel highly satisfied. I went to the Body Fitness Center and did watch the proceedings of the Small Claims Court which is telecasted by the CBS television. An interesting case indeed! Two girlfriends used their mobile phone on an understanding that they would share the telephone bills. Somehow or other, they became inimical so much so that one did not share the bill as agreed. Consequently, the bill came to be nearly $ 1000/- including the disconnection charge and reconnection charge etc. I am not interested to go to the details of the case and the arguments- pro or contra.

The most interesting part of the proceedings has been that the television anchor asked the viewers to the programme: TAKE A STAND and the viewers could decide the case by themselves. After some time, the anchor said: "WILL THE JUDGE RULE IN FAVOUR OF THE PLAINTIFF OR IN FAVOUR OF THE DEFENDANT? That was written as well. It was not over there. The anchor requested further:" SMS YOUR VERDICT". A telephone number was given .

Those announcements were given before the judge took a decision. I do not know whether the Judge saw the people's verdict before he pronounced the verdict or after. In either case, it was good. If the Judge saw the people's verdict before, he could consider it too before his decision. If he saw it after, then it would be a control for his later decisions. The system was assessed by me to be better than the former Jury Trial in Indian criminal justice system.

We are advocating transparency in judicial matters. As it is today, anyone can watch the entire proceedings in the Courts directly and the trial is open except in certain cases when the law permits in-camera trials. People read the press reports and listen to court proceedings from the television news channels. In fact, they do not have any opportunity to witness the proceedings in the live media. The law also does not permit such type of transparency in judicial matters. All said and done, there take place media trials of many cases and the general public make their views, evaluations, opinions, decisions and judgements. After a verdict is pronounced by the Court today, there take place media discussions about the quality of the judgemnent. Unfortunately, the judges are accused of being unjust in some cases in some way, the people form bad or wrong or true impressions of the judiciary.

Viewing the entire live television proceedings in the CBS network, I am inclined to think that the it is a good proposal if we accept and adopt the same policy in transparency in judicial matters too (we have transparency in legislative proceedings today).YES-

TAKE A STAND….WILL THE JUDGE RULE IN FAVOUR OF THE PLAINTIFF OR IN FAVOUR OF THE DEFENDANT? ….SMS YOUR VERDICT

This is called the PUBLIC PARTICIPATION in judicial decisions-more transparency and more trustworthiness.