RASTA: Local Research, Local Solutions: Law And Judiciary, Volume Xii

The dispensation of justice should be the central objective of a nation-state as justice and the rule of law are the backbone of a well-developed society. The present study focused on two major issues, i.e., it measured the efficiency of the lower/district courts of Punjab and it critically highlighted the bottlenecks specifically faced by these courts facing high rates of pendency and backlogs. The analysis is based on both the secondary and primary datasets. Three cities, namely, Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi - the most inefficient districts in the disposition of cases with huge caseloads and rates of institutions and pendency - were used as a sample of the study. The survey covered all court users, i.e., judges, lawyers, and litigants. Almost 8,300 respondents participated in the survey and the findings are presented both graphically and in the form of SERVQUAL analysis to measure the service quality of these courts from users perspective and highlight the areas of priority for correcting the system. Adjournments and cost of proceedings turned out to be the major reasons for the delay in the disposition of cases and training of judicial professionals and court automation was regarded as the big leveller for improving the governance of the judicial system. SERVQUAL analysis showed that the judicial system was less empathetic towards the poor and less effective and responsive in terms of coordination between law enforcement agencies. Judges and lawyers both supported the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) settlement mechanism to reduce the burden of courts and to avoid the heavy cost of proceeding both in terms of monetary and time cost and also showed satisfaction with the use of the law of arbitration.