Only Consensus-Elected Panchayats Can Reduce the Burden on Courts: Justice Ranjit Singh
The Voice of Chandigarh :
Millions of cases are pending in the country’s courts, and it takes years for the common people to get justice. To address this issue, former Justice of the Punjab-Haryana High Court, Ranjit Singh, who also served as the Chairman of the Sacred Guru Granth Sahib Beadbi Judicial Commission, stated that most land dispute-related pending issues in the country’s courts can be better resolved by rural panchayats rather than from the district level to the Supreme Court, provided these panchayats are elected by consensus, free from factionalism or other biases.
Addressing a press conference at the Chandigarh Press Club after joining the joint campaign of Lok Raj Punjab, Kirti Kisan Manch, Bhagat Puran Singh Ji Pingalwara Society, Culture and Heritage Conservation Forum, Uttam-Kheti Kisan Union, Former Soldiers and Youth Forum under the Lok Ekta Mission, Justice Ranjit Singh said that potential panchayat elections are likely to take place in Punjab in the coming times, during which the Lok Ekta Mission will work towards building consensus in these panchayat elections by going from village to village.
In this context, he mentioned that only impartial panchayats can pave the way for effective governance and save rural Punjab from further decline. Consensus-elected village panchayats will restore harmony in villages plagued by factionalism, violent rivalries, unwanted litigations, and destructive competition due to political groupism. This will also help accelerate rural development and modernization of villages.
He informed that as per the 2024 statistics, 51 million court cases are pending, out of which 87% (4.5 million) cases pending for over 30 years are in district courts. Approximately 25% of cases in various courts and about 66% of cases in the Supreme Court are related to land and property disputes, which panchayats can easily resolve. These are still being settled today by Lok Adalats through mediation.
He stated that consensus panchayats will help the judiciary deliver timely justice swiftly. This will lead to significant improvements in law and order and substantial growth in the rural economy. He said one of the main reasons for rural distress is that panchayats, which are essentially local governments, have become ineffective, crippled, and lifeless due to political factionalism and are losing people’s trust.
Also present at this occasion were Lok Raj Punjab President and Lok Ekta Mission Coordinator Dr. Manjeet Singh Randhawa and Advocate Gursimrat Singh Randhawa, President of the Culture and Heritage Conservation Forum, who had highlighted government apathy during a national judiciary conference in Delhi in April 2016.
They stated that the Lok Ekta Mission has realized that all law-abiding citizens have been deprived of their right to live with dignity. The most peaceful and healthy rural community is capable of mutual agreement for the peaceful settlement of these disputes.
Swarn Singh Boparai, former IAS, Padma Shri, Kirti Chakra, former Central Secretary, former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, and President of Kirti Kisan Forum, stated that legal history and crime statistics clearly show a many-fold increase in crime rates after the panchayati institutions, victims of dirty politics, lost their credibility. He said political factionalism has taken root through biased panchayats, replacing neutral consensus-elected panchayats, which is an unfortunate situation.
According to him, partisan panchayats of political factions have abandoned the judicial and administrative status of local government. This has caused the collapse of the panchayat system, the parliament of grassroots people. He further stated that disputes that can be easily resolved at the local government or panchayat level constitute 50% of the pending court cases.
All these individuals firmly pledged to realize their mission.
