Report No. 114

5.2. Evaluation of past experience.-

While visualising the possible direction in which the reform of the system must move, the prior experience and the experimentation must be duly evaluated and a lesson be drawn from it. The stark reality that emerges from the historical evaluation of the past attempts and the experience thus gained is that the tinkering with the system at the fringes would be of no avail. On the contrary, it is likely to add to the malaise. The true test to measure the effectiveness of a change sought to be introduced must be the pains and gains of an average citizen, the consumer of justice.

The harsh albeit unpalatable outcome of all attempts made so far to improve the system must provide an art lesson in that if simplest and non-complicated dispute between rural people is sought to be dealt with by the present system keeping structural part intact, the effort is bound to go down the drain. It would in no way make the system resilient, effective and responsive to the felt needs of the times. The inescapable conclusion thus is that a basic structural change in the mode, method and forum for resolution of specified types of disputes is a sine qua non before the system is engulfed by its own debris.