India has one of the oldest legal systems in the world with its laws and jurisprudence dating

back to
centuries and evolving like a living way of life with the people of India adapting to the changing
times. It's a misconception that the Indian legal system gained a systematic shape and development
only during the British rule rather we have a traditional mindset of following laws and regulations
and doing our duties for the society which can be inferred from the verses of Manusmriti that
Dharma i.e. Rule Of Law is the supreme power in the state and the King is also subject to Law to
realize the goal of Dharma.

During India's history, it has seen several civilizations and rulers like 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.

With the advent of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence, the future of the Indian Legal
System and profession seems bright as these technologies will bring more efficient and cost delivery
access to justice2. Thus in this paper, the researcher will analyze the historical, present, and what is
the future of the legal system and profession in India.

India has the oldest judiciary in the world. No other judicial 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.

Dharma is generally mean principle of righteousness or duty, principle of holiness and also the
principle of unity. Yudhishthira says in his instructions to Bhishma that whatever creates conflict is
Adharma, and whatever puts an end to conflict and brings about unity and harmony is Dharma.
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.

There was also a concept of popular courts which was very similar to the present panchayat system
in India and the government and King had not to control it. As the king was responsible for his
subjects and has to protect them. Disputes in these courts were decided on the graveness of the
situation and decisions were also overturned by the higher court of authority, as existed in the
present system of India. Therefore the present structure has some resemblance in the order of
hierarchy to the ancient one.

In the administration of justice, King was given paramount importance and he/she was expected to
follow it with due diligence and integrity and there were learned and fearless judges to guide the
king according to the prevalent rule of law at that time5. But with the progress in time, the king had
to perform several other tasks and had to bear many other responsibilities due to which special
judges were selected for the task of administration of justice, which can be illustrated from the reign
of Mauryan Empire where a proper judicial system existed.

The integrity and the transparency in the judicial system which existed at that time was unparalleled
with strict adherence to rules and regulations, which Brihaspati described in ancient Hindu texts as a
Judge should decide cases without any personal bias or without any expectation of profit in
accordance with prescribed regulations 6. One of the most striking feature of ancient or vedic
judicial system was the Jury System or sabhyas, where councilors or jurors act as the advisers of the
king or judge, which is similar to the Jury System in India which existed after the Independence, but
was later abolished after the famous KM Nanavati vs State of Maharashtra case.

The jury system at that time used caste as the basis for determining jurors or abayas for different
cases. For Example, any important question of law or shastra to be determined was given to a
Brahmin juror and if there was a dispute between two communities, the jurors had to be from that
communities to decide the judgment7. Thus we can see that a caste-based judicial system existed in
Ancient India.

The nature of the trial in those days was inquisitorial where the judges instead of lawyers were
expected to duly examine the witnesses by cross-questioning them, which in the present time is
mostly missing as judges are expected to follow a particular procedure and listening to the
arguments and then giving the judgments. However, the legal profession, with professional conduct
did not exist at that time as instead of lawyers there were shastris and pandits who had great
knowledge of law.
Legal System In Medieval India:

During the Medieval period in India, the 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.

For Muslims Koran is the supreme and the only book that contains the words of Allah During the
Islamic era in India, the Hanafi school of law was administered and practiced, which required non-
muslims to pay a tax called jeziya, and conversion to Islam for non-Muslims was not mandatory10.
The Islamic rule in India under the title Delhi Sultanate ruled from Slave Dynasty to Lodhi
Dynasty(1206-1526) after that Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodhi which started the rule of the Mughal
Empire effectively up to A.D. 1707 and then after the death of BahadurshahZafar, the Muslim rule in
India came to an end.11

During the Sultanate period, there were seven courts of Justice, related to seven different branches
of law. For Example- Diwan-i-Mazlim deals with disputes concerning with administration or
bureaucracy. The Qazi did not come under any judicial supervision and they deal with religious laws.
Non-Muslims had their autonomy to practice their personal laws and to had their separate courts.
Thus the judicial system during the Sultanate period was not properly organized.12

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.

Legal System During the Colonial Period in India:

The common law system � 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 mayor�s 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.

The Charter issued by King George led to the establishment of Mayor's Courts, which had
jurisdictions over all other courts and they try to deal with cases that arise within their territory or
company's area. After the victory of the Britishers in the Battle of Plassey (1757), the Regulating Act
of 1773 was passed by the British Parliament, under which a Supreme Court at Calcutta was
established, whose powers are very similar to our present-day Supreme Court at Delhi.

After the First War of Independence, the control of India from East India Company passed on to the
British Crown, with the passing of Acts like the High Courts Act 1861 and the Indian Council Act,
which led to the establishment of three high courts at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras and the
abolition of Supreme Courts, with Privy Council as the highest court of Appeal for nearly 200
years16. After the passing of the Government of India Act 1935, India under British rule became a
Federal Structure, with a new Federal Court at Delhi with jurisdiction over both states and provinces.
It has both appellate and advisory jurisdiction and also interpret any substantive question of law like
the Supreme Court of India.

Legal System in India After Independence:

After Independence, India's leaders had the 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.

Not only the laws but also the judicial system and the legal profession we follow in India are from
the British era

Hierarchy of Courts:
The Judicial System in India follows a common law 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.

Issues In Indian Legal System:

The Indian legal system is particularly refined, bearing testimony to the ingenuity of human thought.
The threads of Constitutional philosophy have weaved an exquisite tapestry of substantive and
procedural laws-Mr.Ranjan Gogoi-Retired CJI of India

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

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. Around 59,867 cases
pending in the Supreme Court, and 44.75 lakh cases in high courts. At the district and subordinate
court levels, the number of pending cases stands at a shocking 3.14 crore19.

In a democratic society with an independent judiciary, it is expected that cases to be resolved in a

reasonable time, but the above figures have shown that reality is far from ideals. This delay in justice
is a very suffering experience for the litigants and also increases the cost of access to justice. It also
degrades the belief of the common people in the judiciary and leads to litigants searching for
alternative dispute resolutions like settlement out of court.

The high pendency in cases can be attributed to many factors like:

Population of India, which is staggering at more than 1.2 billion.

Increase in the dynamics of the legal sector in respect of various fields such as Information
Technology, economic offenses, company laws, Intellectual Property Rights have led to a large
increase in cases and subsequently, the courts have not evolved with this level of advancement.

Review petitions and higher appeals in higher courts also account for a large number of pending
cases.
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 and lack of separate female
toilets, obstructs female lawyers to practice in these courts which is also gender discriminatory.

Vacancy:

It is one of the issues which need to be resolved 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. The conditions of lower
courts are also very abysmal as state governments have the sole responsibility in the appointments
to these lower court judges/Munsifs posts and their promotions are determined by high courts of
the respective states. Thus there is always inconsistency and delays in the appointments to the
lowers courts recruitment because of which aspirants of judicial services often lose their interest to
appear in these exams.

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. Though the Independence of the judiciary is one of the basic
structures of the constitution, yet sometimes the collegium system seems to take decisions without
any accountability and explanation, which promotes the breeding ground for corruption and
favoritism in recruitments for judges and magistrates. Also allocation of cases should be taken into
consideration, as in recent times we have seen unrest in the judiciary in 2018 when a press
conference was held by four judges of the apex court for selective allocation of cases to a particular
bench.

Reforms Needed For Indian Legal System:

Various Law Commission reports and Independent 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.

Here are some of the measures which can transform the judiciary:

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.