AN intriguing proposal is working its way through the legislative process. A bill to introduce evening courts in Islamabad has been drafted, and will be ready for presentation soon, according to the law ministry. If it is implemented, provincial assemblies will be invited to consider proposing similar moves in their respective jurisdictions. Considering that the judiciary is burdened with a backlog of almost 2,600 cases per judge by some calculations — with the problem being particularly serious in the lower courts — any suggestion to improve access to justice afforded to litigants should be given serious attention. Proposals to introduce round-the-clock courts have been around for a while now without getting anywhere, but this is the first time we see serious attention being given to establishing evening courts. The longer hours of operation for judicial officers might help in reducing the caseload, but ultimately the objective of streamlining access to justice without compromising quality will only be achieved if two conditions are present. First, the judiciary itself needs to be on board, and devote serious attention to judicial reforms. Second, outmoded civil and criminal procedures, which were written more than 100 years ago, need to be updated and brought into the 21st century.

In the voluminous amount of work written on judicial reforms, a few key issues are repeatedly mentioned. One is the attitude of judges and lawyers towards adjournments, which are generously granted because the daily caseload is usually too heavy and incentivises repeated postponement of hearings. Another is the integration of technology into the judicial process, which would enable better monitoring of the progress of individual cases. Technology can play a vital role, not only in the scheduling of hearings or in making the record of other relevant cases readily available, but also in helping locate bottlenecks in the existing system. Evening courts can certainly help in addressing the problem of a massive backlog, but simply increasing the number of judges, or the amount of hours that courts operate, will not be enough. The streamlining of civil and criminal procedures needs to be undertaken; the higher judiciary needs to own the process of reform and utilise its enhanced independence to lift its own game, and both bench and bar must be more open to automating as much of the judicial procedure as possible. Until then, however, evening courts should be welcomed as a step in the right direction.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2017