Justice Delivery: Subordinate Courts, Tribunals, Legal Aid and Judicial Reforms

1. Subordinate courts: structure, appointment and High Court control

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• Subordinate courts are the courts below the High Court. They form the base of India's single, integrated judicial pyramid (Class 11, Judiciary). Most citizens meet the judiciary here. Courts settle disputes, interpret laws and protect rights (Class 7).
• Civil side: District Judge → Civil Judge (Senior Division) → Civil Judge (Junior Division)/Munsiff, plus small causes courts.
• Criminal side (BNSS 2023):
• A sessions court is the top criminal court in a district. It can pass any sentence, but a death sentence needs High Court confirmation.

• Judicial magistrates: the Chief Judicial Magistrate (up to 7 years), the JMFC (up to 3 years and ₹50,000 fine) and the JM Second Class (up to 1 year and ₹10,000). The Metropolitan Magistrate category has been dropped.

• Executive magistrates (the DM and SDM) keep public order and issue prohibitory orders (BNSS s.163, old CrPC s.144). They do not try cases. This follows Art. 50 (separating the judiciary from the executive), which the CrPC 1973 put into effect.

• District judge (Art. 233): appointed by the Governor in consultation with the High Court. A direct recruit needs 7 years as an advocate. Art. 233A (20th Amendment, 1966) validated appointments voided in Chandra Mohan (1966). The district judge is called the Sessions Judge when trying criminal cases.
• Art. 234: the Governor appoints other judicial officers after consulting the State PSC and the High Court. Arts. 236-237: definitions, and the Governor can extend these articles to magistrates.
• High Court's control over subordinate courts (Art. 235): it handles posting, promotion, leave and discipline.
• High Court's power of superintendence (Art. 227): it supervises all courts and tribunals in its territory except military ones. Under Art. 247, Parliament can set up additional courts for Union laws.
• Recruitment: district judges are filled 50:25:25 (promotion : limited competitive exam : direct recruitment from the bar), from All India Judges Association (2002), later varied (verify current). A 3-year practice rule for entry-level civil judges was restored in May 2025 (verify current).

2. Tribunals: rationale and the constitutional framework

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• Why tribunals: they bring expert knowledge, speed and lower cost, and they reduce the load on High Courts. They are quasi-judicial: not bound by the CPC or strict rules of evidence, but bound by natural justice (fair hearing, no bias).
• The risk ("tribunalisation"): the government controls appointments and money even when it is itself a party to the case. The Swaran Singh Committee (1976) led to the 42nd Amendment (1976), which added Part XIVA.

	Art. 323A	Art. 323B
Who makes the law	Parliament only	Parliament or state legislatures
Subjects	Recruitment and service conditions of public servants	Tax, foreign exchange, labour, land reforms, urban land ceiling, elections, foodstuffs, rent and tenancy (75th Amendment, 1994)
Hierarchy of tribunals	One administrative tribunal set-up	Hierarchy possible

• An administrative tribunal is a body under Art. 323A for service disputes of government employees.
• Tribunals under Article 323B are bodies for the listed subjects above.
• Central Administrative Tribunal: set up under the Administrative Tribunals Act 1985, working from 1 November 1985, with its principal bench in New Delhi. It covers central employees. It excludes the armed forces, Supreme Court and High Court staff, and Parliament's secretariat staff.
• State Administrative Tribunal: set up by the Centre at a state's request. Several have since been abolished (verify current).
• S.P. Sampath Kumar (1987): tribunals can be "effective substitutes" for High Courts.
• L. Chandra Kumar (1997, 7 judges): struck down the clauses excluding High Court review (Arts. 323A(2)(d), 323B(3)(d), s.28). Judicial review is basic structure. Tribunals are now supplements, and their orders go to a High Court division bench.

3. Specialised tribunals and quasi-judicial fora

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• National Green Tribunal (NGT Act 2010, set up 18 October 2010):
• Roots: Art. 21, Art. 48A, the Rio commitments (1992) and the Law Commission's 186th Report (2003).
• Benches: principal bench in Delhi; zonal benches at Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai.
• Jurisdiction: civil cases under 7 environmental Acts. It does not cover the Wildlife Protection Act or the Forest Rights Act.

• It applies the polluter-pays and precautionary principles. Appeals go to the Supreme Court within 90 days. Its suo motu power was upheld in Ankita Sinha (2021).

• National Company Law Tribunal (Companies Act 2013; June 2016): decides company disputes and is the adjudicating authority for corporate insolvency under IBC 2016.

• National Company Law Appellate Tribunal: hears appeals from the NCLT, IBBI, CCI (since 2017) and NFRA.
• Debt Recovery Tribunal (RDB Act 1993): bank claims of ₹20 lakh or more. Appeals go to the DRAT.
• Securities Appellate Tribunal (SEBI Act 1992): hears appeals against SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA.
• Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (1941): India's oldest tribunal and the last fact-finding body in direct tax cases.
• GST Appellate Tribunal (CGST Act 2017, s.109): began work only in 2025 (verify current).
• Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT Act 2007; working from 2009): hears service disputes and court-martial appeals.
• Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (CPA 2019) have three tiers: District (up to ₹50 lakh), State (up to ₹2 crore) and National (above that).
• Common problems: vacancies, and direct appeals to the Supreme Court that bypass High Courts.

4. Tribunal independence: the Madras Bar Association cases, the 2021 Act and the 2026 Bill

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• The core question: who picks tribunal members, how long they serve, and which ministry controls them. The Court's test is that a tribunal replacing a High Court must be as independent as a High Court.
• Madras Bar Association cases (MBA):
• R. Gandhi (2010): NCLT/NCLAT upheld, but rules on selection were corrected.
• MBA (2014): the National Tax Tribunal was struck down.
• Rojer Mathew (2019): Finance Act 2017 rules struck down; the Court asked for a judicial impact assessment.
• MBA (2020): 5-year tenure; advocates with 10 years' practice made eligible.

• MBA (2021): struck down the Ordinance's 4-year tenure and minimum age of 50.

• Tribunals Reforms Act 2021:

• It brought back those same rules: 4-year tenure, minimum age 50, and a two-name panel.
• It abolished 9 appellate bodies (e.g., FCAT, IPAB) and moved their work to High Courts and civil courts.
• Critics called it a "legislative override" (Parliament re-enacting what the Court had struck down).

• November 2025: the Supreme Court struck down its key parts (verify exact directions).

• Tribunals Reforms Bill 2026 (passed by the Lok Sabha on 10 August and the Rajya Sabha on 11 August 2026; assent and notification: verify current) repeals the 2021 Act. It creates a National Tribunals Commission:

• Members: a chair (former SC judge or HC Chief Justice), 2 judicial and 2 technical members.

• Work: selection, performance review, complaints, and a National Tribunals Data Grid.

• Selection and tenure: a selection committee recommends 1 name plus 1 on a waiting list. The Centre must appoint within 3 months. Tenure is 5 years, with age caps of 70 (chairs) and 67 (members).

• Test it against the MBA norms: a government secretary sits on the committee, and the Commission's budget and staff still matter.

5. Access to justice: Article 39A and the legal services system

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• Free legal aid: Art. 39A (42nd Amendment, 1976) promises equal justice and free legal aid. Courts read it into Art. 21, together with Arts. 14 and 22(1).
• M.H. Hoskot (1978): legal aid for appeals.
• Hussainara Khatoon (1979): legal aid at trial.
• Khatri (1981): the magistrate must tell the accused about this right.

• Suk Das (1986): a trial without an offer of legal aid is invalid.

• Legal Services Authorities Act 1987: in force from 9 November 1995, now National Legal Services Day.

• National Legal Services Authority: the CJI is patron-in-chief. The senior-most judge after the CJI is executive chairman.
• The six levels (Class 11, Judiciary poster): NALSA, SC Legal Services Committee, State LSA, HC committee, DLSA and taluka committee.
• District Legal Services Authority: chaired by the District Judge, with a full-time judicial officer as secretary.
• Functions (poster): free legal aid and advice, legal awareness, Lok Adalats, ADR, and victim compensation.
• Who is eligible (s.12): women, children, SCs and STs, industrial workmen, persons with disability, disaster and violence victims, persons in custody, trafficking victims, and low-income persons. The poster's ₹1 lakh limit varies by state (verify current).
• Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (NALSA, 2022): full-time lawyers, like public defenders, for accused persons.
• Tele-Law (2017): legal advice by video or phone at Common Service Centres, now under the DISHA scheme (verify current).
• Victim compensation scheme (CrPC s.357A from 2009, now BNSS s.396): paid even if the offender is never traced.
• Gaps: poor quality of panel lawyers and low awareness among people (verify current data).

6. People's courts and specialised courts: Lok Adalats, Gram Nyayalayas, family and fast-track courts

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• Lok Adalat ("people's court"):
• First camp held in Gujarat in 1982. Given statutory status in LSA Act Chapter VI (ss.19-22).
• It settles pending or pre-litigation disputes by compromise, never non-compoundable offences.

• Its award works like a civil court decree. There is no appeal, and court fees are refunded.

• National Lok Adalat: held on one day across India on a NALSA calendar. e-Lok Adalats began in 2020.

• Permanent Lok Adalat (s.22B, 2002 amendment): deals with public utility services (transport, power, water, hospitals, insurance and others). If talks fail, it decides on merits, and its award binds. It has a money ceiling (verify current).
• Critique: a settlement reached under pressure is not always justice.
• Gram Nyayalaya (Gram Nyayalayas Act 2008; in force 2 October 2009; from the Law Commission's 114th Report, 1986):
• Sits at the intermediate panchayat level and is headed by a Nyayadhikari (of JMFC rank).
• Can work as a mobile court, uses summary procedure and tries conciliation first.

• Few have been set up so far (verify current).

• Nyaya panchayat: village dispute bodies under state laws from the 1950s. Most are defunct.

• Family courts (Family Courts Act 1984): mandatory in cities with over 10 lakh people. Conciliation comes first, and lawyers are not allowed as of right.
• Fast-track courts: about 1,734 funded by the 11th Finance Commission (2000-2011). From 2019, Fast Track Special Courts for rape and POCSO cases, extended to March 2026 (verify current).

7. Alternative dispute resolution: arbitration, conciliation, mediation and commercial courts

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• Alternative dispute resolution means settling disputes outside a regular trial. It is cheaper, faster and private.
• CPC s.89 (in force 2002) lets courts refer cases to ADR.
• Salem Advocate Bar Association (2005) and Afcons (2010) say which cases suit referral.

Method	Who decides?
Arbitration	A neutral arbitrator gives a binding award
Conciliation	A conciliator helps and may propose terms; the signed settlement binds
Mediation	A mediator helps the parties reach their own deal
Lok Adalat	Settlement by compromise

• Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (based on the UNCITRAL Model Law):
• An award is enforced like a decree (s.36). It can be set aside only on narrow grounds (s.34).

• Amendments: 2015 (timelines), 2019 (Arbitration Council of India; verify whether working), 2021 (automatic stay where fraud is shown).

• India International Arbitration Centre: set up by a 2019 Act and renamed in 2022. It is an institution of national importance.

• Mediation Act 2023:
• Voluntary pre-litigation mediation, finished in 120 days, extendable by 60.
• The settlement is enforceable like a decree. It can be challenged within 90 days only for fraud or similar grounds.

• It also provides for online and community mediation, and sets up the Mediation Council of India. Rollout is in phases (verify current).

• Commercial courts (Commercial Courts Act 2015): hear disputes of ₹3 lakh or more (since 2018). Under s.12A, mediation before filing is mandatory unless urgent relief is needed (Patil Automation, 2022).

8. Pendency, judicial capacity and the e-Courts project

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• Judicial pendency means the backlog of cases. It is over 5 crore, and about 85-87% of it sits in district and subordinate courts (verify current NJDG figures).
• National Judicial Data Grid: an online database showing pending and disposed cases court by court. The Supreme Court joined it in September 2023.
• Justice delayed is justice denied: a late decision helps no one. Class 11, Judiciary recalls Machal Lalung, held 54 years without trial and freed in 2005. Hussainara made speedy trial part of Art. 21.
• Causes of delay:
• Vacancies in High Courts and lower courts (verify current).
• A low judge-population ratio (judges per million people) of about 21, against 50 urged by the Law Commission's 120th Report (1987). The 245th Report (2014) moved to a method based on disposal rates.

• Frequent adjournments, government as the biggest litigant, and weak infrastructure.

• e-Courts project:

• Phase I (2007): computers in courts.
• Phase II (2015-23): NJDG, e-filing and video hearings.

• Phase III (2023-27, ₹7,210 crore): paperless digital courts, AI tools and online dispute resolution.

• Virtual courts: online courts for cases like traffic challans, with no physical appearance needed.

• Risks: the digital divide and data privacy.

9. Criminal justice I: police, FIR, arrest and custody

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• Criminal justice system: the chain of police, prosecution, courts and prisons.
• Police: part of the state government. They may lawfully use force but must respect constitutional rights (Class 7). "Public order" and "police" are State List entries 1 and 2. The Police Act 1861 still applies in many states.
• Commissionerate system of policing: in big cities, a Commissioner of Police holds magisterial powers instead of sharing control with the DM.
• Types of offence:
• Cognizable offence: police can arrest without a warrant and investigate without a magistrate's order (e.g., murder, rape).

• Non-cognizable offence: a magistrate's order is needed (e.g., defamation).

• First Information Report (BNSS s.173): the police record that sets the criminal law moving. It is mandatory for cognizable offences (Lalita Kumari, 2013).

• Zero FIR: any police station must register the FIR and transfer it to the right station (Justice Verma Committee, 2013).

• e-FIR: an electronic complaint, taken on record once signed within 3 days.

• Charge sheet: the police's final report, on which the court takes cognizance (formally starts the case). The victim must be told of progress within 90 days.

• Arnesh Kumar guidelines (2014): for offences up to 7 years there is no automatic arrest. Police must record reasons, and magistrates must check them. BNSS s.35 prefers a notice to appear.
• Police custody: at most 15 days in total, but these can be taken in parts within the first 40 or 60 days (BNSS s.187).
• Judicial custody: jail under a magistrate's order.
• Custodial violence: torture or death in custody.
• D.K. Basu (1997) set safeguards such as an arrest memo, informing a relative and a medical check.
• India signed the UN Convention against Torture (1997) but has not ratified it. The Law Commission's 273rd Report (2017) proposed an anti-torture law.

10. Criminal justice II: bail, undertrials and prisons

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• Bail: release before or during trial on a bond. "Bail is the rule, jail the exception" (Balchand, 1977). The BNSS defines bail for the first time (Chapter XXXV).
• Bailable offence: bail is a right (s.478).
• Non-bailable offence: bail is at the court's discretion, weighing the seriousness of the charge and the risk of running away (s.480).
• Anticipatory bail (s.482): bail granted before arrest. Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia (1980) set its scope. Sushila Aggarwal (2020) held it need not be time-bound.
• Default bail (s.187(3)): a right to bail if no charge sheet is filed within 60 or 90 days.
• Special laws: UAPA and PMLA have stricter bail rules, softened by long-detention rulings (K.A. Najeeb, 2021; Manish Sisodia, 2024).
• Satender Kumar Antil (2022): bail guidelines by category of offence, and a call for a separate Bail Act.
• Plea bargaining (2005; now BNSS ss.289-300): the accused pleads guilty in return for a lighter sentence.
• It covers offences up to 7 years.
• It excludes socio-economic offences and offences against women or children under 14.

• It must be sought within 30 days of charges being framed.

• Undertrial prisoner: a person held while their trial is pending. About three-fourths of prisoners are undertrials (NCRB; verify current).

• Maximum detention of undertrials (s.479): release after half the maximum sentence, or one-third for first-time offenders. It does not apply to offences punishable with death or life imprisonment.
• Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act 2023: an MHA model law for states (prisons are State List entry 4), meant to replace the Prisons Act 1894. Sukanya Shantha (2024) struck down caste-based work in prisons.

11. Criminal justice III: the new criminal laws of 2023

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• Background: passed in December 2023 and in force from 1 July 2024. Offences committed before that date stay under the old laws.

• Malimath Committee (2003): victim-centred justice and a lower standard of proof.

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (358 sections; replaces the IPC):

• Adds organised crime (s.111) and terrorism (s.113).
• Mob lynching (s.103(2)): murder by 5 or more people on grounds such as caste or belief; death or life imprisonment (Tehseen Poonawalla, 2018).
• Sedition is replaced by s.152.

• Community service: unpaid work for the public as punishment for petty offences.

• Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (531 sections; replaces the CrPC):

• Timelines, zero FIR and e-FIR.
• Forensics compulsory for offences of 7 years or more.
• Videography of searches.

• Trial in absentia (s.356): an absconding proclaimed offender can be tried after 90 days from the framing of charges.

• Public prosecutor: the government's lawyer in criminal cases. A Directorate of Prosecution is set up in states and districts (s.20).

• Witness Protection Scheme 2018 (Mahender Chawla): hides identity and relocates witnesses. The BNSS (s.398) makes states notify such schemes. This answers Class 11's worry about witnesses changing testimony "to suit the wealthy and the mighty".
• Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (170 sections; replaces the Evidence Act): electronic records count as documents and primary evidence.
• Inter-operable Criminal Justice System: links police (CCTNS), courts, prisons, forensics and prosecution data.
• Critique: much of the old text is kept, the police-custody window is wider, and there is no bail reform.

12. Judicial reforms: All India Judicial Service, the Law Commission and the road ahead

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• All India Judicial Service: a proposed national service for district judges.
• Art. 312 (as amended by the 42nd Amendment) allows it. Step 1: a Rajya Sabha resolution passed by two-thirds of members present and voting. Step 2: a law of Parliament.
• It cannot cover posts below district judge.
• Backed by the Law Commission's 14th (1958) and 116th (1986) Reports and All India Judges Association (1992).
• For: talent, a national standard, faster filling of vacancies.

• Against: state and High Court control (Arts. 233-235), local language needs. States are divided (verify current).

• Law Commission of India: a non-statutory advisory body set up by executive order for 3-year terms.

• First commission in 1834 (Macaulay); first post-independence commission in 1955 (M.C. Setalvad).
• Key reports: 120th (judge strength), 229th (SC benches), 245th (arrears), 273rd (torture), 279th (sedition).

• The 23rd Commission covers 2024-27 (verify current).

• The road ahead:

• Time-bound appointments, a judicial infrastructure authority, and judicial impact assessment of new laws.
• A litigation policy to cut government cases, and tribunal reform through the National Tribunals Commission.
• Stronger legal aid, mediation and online dispute resolution (NITI Aayog, 2021).
• A Bail Act and independent prosecution, in line with the 2nd ARC's Fifth Report (2007) and the promise of Art. 39A.

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Exam angles

Prelims — high-yield facts and traps

• Article matches:
• 39A: legal aid (42nd Amendment, 1976).
• 50: separation of the judiciary from the executive.
• 227: superintendence, but not over military tribunals.
• 233: district judges; 7 years as an advocate.
• 235: High Court control.
• 247: additional courts for Union laws.

• 312: AIJS, after a Rajya Sabha resolution by two-thirds present and voting.

• 323A vs 323B: 323A is Parliament only, for service matters. 323B is Parliament or states, for listed subjects; rent and tenancy were added by the 75th Amendment (1994).

• Tribunal facts:
• CAT 1985; NGT 2010 (7 Acts; not the WPA or FRA; appeal to SC within 90 days).
• NCLT 2016; NCLAT hears appeals from NCLT, IBBI and CCI.

• AFT (2007 Act, working 2009); ITAT 1941 is the oldest; DRT threshold ₹20 lakh.

• Case pairs:

• Tribunals: Sampath Kumar (substitute) vs L. Chandra Kumar (supplement, basic structure); MBA line 2010-2025.
• Legal aid: Hoskot, Hussainara, Khatri.
• Bail: Balchand, Sibbia, Sushila Aggarwal, Antil.
• Arrest and FIR: D.K. Basu, Arnesh Kumar, Lalita Kumari.

• Others: Mahender Chawla (witnesses), Tehseen Poonawalla (lynching), Patil Automation (s.12A mediation).

• Statement traps:

• "The CJI is NALSA's executive chairman": FALSE. The CJI is patron-in-chief.
• "A Lok Adalat award can be appealed": FALSE.
• "A Permanent Lok Adalat cannot decide on merits": FALSE.

• "Executive magistrates try criminal cases": FALSE.

• New laws: in force 1 July 2024. Sections: BNS 358 / BNSS 531 / BSA 170. Key provisions: s.152, s.103(2), s.479, s.356, zero FIR, forensics for offences of 7 years or more.

• ADR and figures:
• Mediation: 120 + 60 days. IIAC: 2019 Act, renamed 2022. Commercial courts: ₹3 lakh.
• Family courts: mandatory in cities over 10 lakh. Gram Nyayalaya is headed by a Nyayadhikari.
• Judge-population target: 50 per million (1987). e-Courts Phase III: ₹7,210 crore.

Mains — GS-II themes

1. Tribunalisation and judicial independence: from L. Chandra Kumar, through the MBA cases and the 2021 override, to the 2026 National Tribunals Commission.
2. Pendency: structural causes (vacancies, ratio, government litigation, adjournments) and remedies (ADR, technology, AIJS).
3. Access to justice as a right: the quality of legal aid; Lok Adalats as settlement rather than adjudication; why Gram Nyayalayas failed.
4. Undertrials and bail reform: s.479, strict bail under special laws, the case for a Bail Act, and caste in prisons.
5. The 2023 criminal codes: decolonisation or repackaging? Civil liberties weighed against victim-centred and technology gains.
6. ADR and institutional arbitration for contract enforcement and ease of doing business.
7. Custodial violence and police accountability.

Current-affairs hooks

• NJDG pendency milestones, vacancy answers in Parliament, India Justice Report rankings.
• National Lok Adalat results; Legal Services Day (9 November).
• Tribunals Reforms Bill 2026: assent, notification and setting up of the NTC (verify current).
• New criminal laws: anniversaries, court challenges (marital-rape exception, s.152), forensics rollout.
• Mediation Act notifications, an arbitration amendment Bill, NCRB Prison Statistics, e-Courts Phase III and AI in courts.