Indian Legal System

inheritance, etc.), traditionally derived from Hindu texts and traditions, that shaped the social practice of Hindu communities. In Vedic times, Hindu law was the legal system described and imagined in Dharmaśāstra texts. Classical Hindu law, brings the realm of legal practice together with the scholastic tradition of Dharmaśāstra by defining Hindu law as a usable label for myriad localized legal systems of classical and medieval India that were influenced by and in turn influenced the Dharmaśāstra tradition. Such local laws never conformed completely to the ideals of Dharmaśāstra, but both substantive and procedural laws of the tradition did impact the practical law, though largely indirectly.

growth beginning in early India (ancient Hindu law) through the Dharmaśāstra, to colonial appropriations (Anglo-Hindu law) to the establishment of the modern personal law system (modern Hindu law).

Sources of Hindu Law
There are usually three principal sources of dharma in the Dharmaśāstra texts: 1) śruti, literally "what is heard," but referring to the Vedas or Vedic literature, the liturgical and praise hymns of the earliest Hindu tradition, 2) smŗti, literally "what is remembered," but referring to the Dharmaśāstra texts as well as other Sanskrit texts such as the Purāņas and the Epics (Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaņa), and 3) ācāra, literally "practice," but referring to the norms and standards established by educated people who know and live by the first two sources of dharma. In some texts, another source of dharma, ātmatuşţi, "what is pleasing to oneself," is also given, but this source is not widely discussed and is never considered a primary source of dharma

the matters justiciable before a formal court of the king or constituted by the king. Vyavahara has two principal sections - legal procedure (vyavahāra-mātŗkā) and the traditional eighteen titles of law (vyavahāra-pada).
ṛṇa - debt
svatva - property
daṇḍa - threat of punishment
prāyaścitta - penance, expiation

the ancient Indus valley civilization to Vedic Age era to Haryanka and Mauryan dynasties in North followed by Sangam and Chola dynasties in southern India and then the Islamic Delhi Sultanate empire followed by Mughals and finally The British Empire in India, whose legal system and machinery we still use in India.

After the Independence of India on 15th August 1947, India formed a constituent assembly to frame its constitution, which adopted the principles of Democracy, Secularism, Fraternity, and most importantly the Right to Equality for every individual in the country, but we continued the same legal system and infrastructure and also most of the laws which are currently forced in India are from the British era. The constitution has borrowed many of the principles from foreign Constitutions like the parliamentary form of government and Rule of law is taken from United Kingdom (UK) and legal systems, even the majority of its structure is taken from the Government of India Act, 1935 passed by the British parliament.

system has a more ancient or exalted pedigree - Justice S.S. Dhavan
Legal System in Ancient India:
India's legal history is the oldest in the world which can be traced back to the Neolithic age, consisting of the civil and criminal adjudication process, which followed till the Indus Valley Civilization, but the main evidence of India's historical legal system and heritage can be traced from the Vedic period, where the main idea of justice and law is given by the idea of Dharma as illustrated by various Hindu texts like Puranas and Smritis.

According to Brihaspati Smiriti, there was a hierarchy of courts in Ancient India starting from the family courts and ending with the King. The lowest was the family arbitrator. The next higher court was that of the judge; the next of the Chief Justice who was called Praadivivaka, or adhyaksha; and at the top was the Kings court 4.
of India. Therefore the present structure has some resemblance in the order of hierarchy to the ancient one.

Mitakshara school of law was the most prevalent law compiled by a Chalukya ruler in the 11th century, which was a very definite interpretation of the law. Today this law has become the basis of Hindu Joint Family laws9. Then Islam came into India during the 11th century when Mohammed Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan at the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192 AD, with which QutubuddinAibak became the first Sultan of Delhi, belonging to the Slave Dynasty.

During the Mughal period courts were divided into two categories:
Courts Of Religious or Personal Laws.
Courts of secular, common law, and political offenses.
But the hierarchy at the administrative level or the defined jurisdiction of courts was missing in the Mughal era. The judicial decisions were very subjective and vary from judges to judges which results in inconsistency in judgments.

, a system of law based on recorded judicial precedents- came to India with the British East India Company13. The Mughal judicial system was not very organized and efficient due to which, the English Governor of Surat, where the first English factory was set up after the permission was given by Emperor Jehangir, decided to have their own legal procedures and rules to govern the workers who worked at the factory.
The East India Company was granted a charter by King George-1 to establish the mayors court in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta (now Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata respectively14. These courts had the authorities to decide cases related to both civil and criminal matters, but they derived their source of power from the Company15.

huge task of formulating a constitution to govern a country with a population of more than 350 million which has so much diversity in it. The task fell on a constituent assembly, which consists of representation from all sections of society, with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as the chief of the drafting committee of the constitution and Dr.Rajendra Prasad as President of the constituent assembly. Thus after nearly three years, The Constitution of India came into force on 26th January 1950 and India became a Republic.
The Constitution of India is the guiding force for making legislations and Acts throughout India and any law which is in contravention of the provisions of the constitution will be deemed unconstitutional. While India has formed its own constitution by itself, if still follows many of the archaic laws and even full codes from the British era for different offenses like the Indian Contract Act,1872, Indian Penal Code 1860, and laws like Sedition (section 124A of the IPC) which was before Independence to suppress voices of freedom fighters, but now used by different governments to silent the dissenters, activists, and opposition leaders.

system in which the sources of law are statutes enacted by Parliament or State legislatures, Customary law, and judicial decisions of Supreme Court and High courts, which have very significant value while giving judgments 18.
The Judicial structure is mainly divided into a three-tier structure with:
Supreme Court at the top of the judicial system
Along with 25 High courts across the country, which have jurisdictions over more than one state
District and sessions courts and various tribunals for different types of disputes.

bearing testimony to the ingenuity of human thought.
Judiciary is one of the pillars of the Indian democracy which had stood against the injustices done by governments and individuals to secure the rights of the aggrieved parties. But in recent times it is being seen that many issues and problems are plaguing the delivery of justice to the common people. The issues which are affecting the Indian judiciary are

1.Pending cases:
It has become a huge problem for both the judiciary and the common people for the last seventy years with over 3.5 crores cases pending across the country's various courts.

2.Infrastructural Issues:
Court infrastructure is often neglected while deliberating on the issues of access to timely justice, but it is a very important aspect as it impacts the efficiency of both the judges and lawyers who work in these courts for six to seven hours in an uninhabitable environment. The absence of hygiene is also a big cause of concern, as it can lead to the spreading of diseases

at the earliest both Subordinate courts and High courts level, as 38% of the sanctioned seats for judges at the High courts20 across the country are lying vacant, with is affecting the delivery of justice to the common people.

4.Transparency and Unaccountability:
Transparency in the working and appointments of judges to the top courts of the country has been a controversial topic since Independence.

research works from civil society organizations have come out for improvement of our judicial system, but still, the reality remains far from implementation of these reports.

* Filling up the Judicial Vacancies:
From the above findings, judicial appointments should be filled on an urgent basis as the backlog of cases is overburdening the system, which is already very inefficient and slow. From Report No. 245 of the law commission of India it can be seen that Higher Judicial services are disposing less number of cases and also they have the highest vacant seats as compared to Subordinate Judicial Services. Thus more judges are required to clear the pending cases.

* Creation Of All India Judicial Services:
Creating an Indian Judicial Services on the grounds of IAS, IPS, and IFS would certainly help in reducing more than 5000 vacancies across the states in district and subordinates courts.

infrastructure for existing courts across sessions and high courts should be done on a priority basis, as a comfortable environment for judges and lawyers will increase their overall efficiency

* Promoting Alternative Dispute Resolutions(ADR):
Promoting ADR culture like mediations and negotiations among individuals and families and streamlining its process can be a viable option to reduce the burden of the judiciary.

system is still not keeping pace with modern democratic legal systems and is lagging in the number of judges-people ratios, modern infrastructure, pendency in heinous offenses like sexual assault, and lack of access to justice to most vulnerable sections of society.
While India has gained Independence from Britain seventy years back, the colonial mindset which has been embedded in our thinking and life has still not gone and our legal system is still plaguing that culture because of which many severe issues have arisen in recent times like delay injustice because of the heavy procedural based system and non-decriminalization of obsolete laws like obscenity law, homosexuality law (Section 377 of IPC).

This colonial culture has also lead to corruption and non-transparency in the judicial system, as judges are given very high status in Indian society and are kept out of the purview of any kind of supervision