Nyaya Panchayat - Other Reasons

Other Reasons

The following considerations seem to have prompted the Law Commission and the Study Team on nyaya panchayats to recommend the revitalisation of nyaya panchayats: (The Law Commission, Fourteenth Report and the Report of the Study Team on nyaya panchayats extracted from an article written by K.N. Chandrasekharan Pillai titled “Criminal Jurisdiction of nyaya panchayats” Journal of the Indian Law Institute Vol. 19, October–December, 1977 p. 443)

1. They would dispose of a large number of cases and thus relieve the burden of regular courts.
2. They would succeed in getting a large number of cases compromised through peaceful conciliation.
3. The villagers in general would be satisfied with the administration of justice obtaining in village or panchayat courts and that the decisions of these courts on the whole would do substantial justice.
4. Appeals and revisions from these decisions would be small in number.
5. There should be speedy and cheap disposal of cases.
6. The litigants and witnesses who are mostly agriculturists can conveniently attend the courts and thus there would be no interference with agricultural activities in the village.
7. The panchayat could bring justice nearer to the villager without involving the expenditure which would otherwise have to be incurred in establishing regular courts.
8. Panchayat would have an educative value.
9. Local courts acquainted with the customs of the neighborhood and nuances of the local idiom are better able to understand why certain things are said or done.
10. An institution nearer to the people holds out greater opportunities for settlement and a decision taken by it does not leave behind that trial of bitterness which generally follows in the wake of litigation in ordinary courts.
11. There are better chances of conciliatory method of approach in nyaya panchayats.
12. People in a village are so closely known to each other that the parties to a dispute would not be able to conceal or produce false evidence easily and those who tell lies before the nyaya panchayat face the risk of being looked down upon and even boycotted by others.
13. Panchas being drawn from among simple village folk strive at decisions which are fair and at the same time consistent with the peculiar conditions of the parties.

Hon’ble Justice S.B Sinha, Judge Supreme Court of India, emphasizing the importance of nyaya panchayats in a lecture delivered to District Judges observed that, “There is also a need to deliberate on the methodologies to be adopted for encouraging justice dispensation through the traditional forum of Panchayats. This age-old institution has found new vigour with the introduction of the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution, and most accordingly to be considered another pillar in the edifice that symbolizes justice. Strengthening the institution of Panchayats and empowering people at the grass-root level to resolve their disputes amicably would solve many of the problems that is faced by conventional justice dispensation machinery in its attempts to percolate to the lowest levels. This would provide a, solution to the problems of access to those living in remote regions.”