Nearly 40 years ago, the Institute of Management Consultants of India (IMCI) decided that its members must do something significant, as a service to the country. Some of India’s best management consultants and consulting firms were members of the Institute. They have a large resource of management expertise that can be channelled for the good of the country. Most of the time, management consultancy is used by private sector enterprises who understand the value of such a service. They know that they pay high fees to the consultancy firm—but they will also get advice on how to improve the production, sales and profits of the company. Finally, the fees may be a small portion of what the company will gain, not just for one year, but for many years to follow.
These consultants now wanted to go beyond the private sector and help the government with the management expertise they possess. This service would be a service to the country, to the community and, finally, to themselves and future generations.
After much thought, the management consultants decided that they would help the government to improve the systems in the judicial process. This would be a study of the present systems in the lower courts and high court, to suggest restructuring of the staff in the administrative system for greater efficiency and introducing systems and processes, including computerisation, so that transparency is ensured, speed is introduced and retrieval of data becomes easy.
The initial proposal was sent to the law ministry and an approach was made to the chief justice (CJ) of the Bombay High Court. The CJ was very enthusiastic. He was keen to pursue this project and be associated with it. However, the law ministry took a long time to respond. In the meantime, the CJ was transferred. A new CJ was appointed. He was approached with this fresh proposal. He was not as enthusiastic as his predecessor. And the initiative taken by the IMC of India, went up in smoke. A great pity!
It is a pity because the Institute had selected the judicial system as a priority, after a great deal of thinking. The delay in justice in India is extraordinary and rare by standards even in other developing countries. There are thousands of cases pending in the Supreme Court and hundreds of thousands of cases pending in the lower courts. Thousands of cases were initially filed by the father and have to be continued by the son. Cases come up for hearing are postponed time and again, because one of the lawyers is not present, or the witnesses are not present; or the judge is preoccupied, or even not present! Documents are typed by manual and antique methods and these are filed so that they are difficult to retrieve; and often require facilitation to expedite the process.
There are a large number of vacancies for judges that have not been filled and this aggravates an already disastrous situation. In addition, the courts have a large number of holidays. The number probably exceeds the holidays that our children get in school. At that time, decades ago, the final nail in the coffin was that a judge, JW Singh, was himself being tried for corruption because he was caught in the act of asking for a bribe.
What happens when the judicial system does not work? Or when it works very inefficiently? Citizens begin to lose patience and worse, they begin to lose faith. So many try to get justice by using a shortcut—using less time, and sometimes even less money. They use the underworld or they use political muscle.
Thus, crime is encouraged and thrives because the judicial system does not provide justice with simplicity and speed. The longer we allow the judicial process to languish, the higher will be the price to be paid. Honest citizens will be forced to become dishonest citizens. Not out of choice, but by circumstances that drive them to seek justice which is effective and fast, though it may be outside the formal system. And as the power of criminals increases, fair and effective governance by government will decrease. The inexorable march of history will take its toll.
Many members of the IMCI were convinced that after 10 years of the first attempt to help the government, not much had changed in the judicial process in the country. If anything, things had only got worse. There were more vacancies for judges which were yet to be filled. There was a bigger pile of pending cases. There were longer queues and crowds in the court building. There was greater dissatisfaction all round.
A friend of mine had a paying guest in his house, who refused to go when my friend needed the premises. My friend went to court to get him evicted. It is now 35 years since the case was admitted. Now the paying guest claims the rights of tenancy because he has been staying so long. The total complexion of the case has changed. My friend keeps telling me that if he had gone to other people for help, the matter would have been settled within a month. He regrets that he did not. This is an example, close to home, which shows that matters have only gone worse over the years.
Members of the IMCI, therefore, made another attempt to offer their services to the government. They approached the law minister who, at that time, was Ram Jethmalani. He was very enthusiastic about this project. Soon after the first meeting, he ceased to be the law minister.
So the whole process had to begin anew. Another attempt was made after a few years. In this process, many of the members who were once pushing to ‘do something for the country’ had cooled down and were not as enthusiastic. They feel helpless and feel that nothing can be done to improve things!
Just like in the judicial system, or the traffic management system, or the town planning system, we keep neglecting to use management principles and management personnel to make life easier. In fact, most times we go to the other extent of making life more complicated. Many times over the years at Budget time, we keep talking about simplifying income-tax return (ITR) forms, so that ordinary citizens may be able to fill these on their own without having to use and pay for the services of tax consultants. Some success has been achieved, but there is still a long way to go.
The General Electric Corporation was one of the best-managed and most profitable companies in the US. It was said to be run on the management principles of speed and simplicity which generates self-confidence. Our managers in government do not seem to have heard of this. They do not want to make life easier for us, although they may profess to do so.
And the question being asked is: When will India learn to use the large fund of talent in this country to improve the quality of life for the common man? So many Indians can go to different parts of the world and make substantial contributions in every continent.
Why do our authorities spurn the attempts made by well-meaning experts who want to contribute to the country of their birth and their brothers in the community?
We will never know.
(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India - FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years, capping his career as Head of marketing for a Pharma multinational, for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka- and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of consultants in 45 countries, in 1997. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist, international conference speaker and has been visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for Consulting in 2005, and for Marketing in 2009. He now spends much of his time in NGO work - Consumer Education and Research Centre, IDOBRO, and some others.)
