Justice at doorstep

Once there,Salim showed him the idol and scraped off a small bit,which proved to be pure gold. Mehruddin handed him the money and came home to find that the idol was only gold-plated.

For years,the practice of tatlu kaatna evoked mirth among the residents of Punhana. Until Sundeep Singh,an Additional Civil Judge with the Haryana judiciary,came along with his 10 men and roughly translated the term as robbery an offence drawing an imprisonment of up to 10 years under the Indian Penal Code.

The tatlus now come to Singh,and stand a better chance of seeing the culprits off to jail.

Punhana in Mewat district of Haryana lies roughly 150 km from Delhi,past the boom-and-bust cycles of Gurgaon. Singh knows the landscape like the back of his hand. All of 36,he drives down to Punhana,a minority-dominated area,four days a week with his staffers in a Volvo bus fitted out as an office for the countrys pilot mobile village court or gram nyayalaya.

His outfit is the precursor to the grand plan of Law Minister H R Bhardwaj to reach the un-reached under the Gram Nyayalaya Act,2008,by establishing 5,067 village courts to unburden the Indian judiciary.

These courts would exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction,adopt summary procedures in trials and include the option of plea bargaining through conciliation for settlement of disputes.

As for Punhana,two years of gram nyayalaya later,the town is still in the process of discovering that more and more offences,like dowry harassment and cow slaughter,are punishable.

But for starters,Singh saves the Punhana farmer Rs 20 for the bus fare to the district court complex at neighbouring Ferozepur Jhirka. They do not come to me,I go to them. It is my duty, says Singh,who also travels to neighbouring Shikrawa and Kaatdiya.

At Punhana,the court functions from the Kisan Guest House on the sprawling premises of the towns centrally located anaaj mandi grain market.

Since the court became operational on August 6,2007,as many as 4,643 cases have been wrapped up till January 2009. The judge has settled 11 cases of domestic violence in two months from October to December 2008.

Here is a sample of a court hearing: Prosecutor saheb,today I want to convict this man for stealing

Rs 10 lakh. After a short pause But first you have to show me that the police had recovered at least

Rs 10 from him, announces the judge. After five minutes of frantic searching of the sodden files,an embarrassed prosecutor discovers that there is no evidence of any stolen money recovered from the accused. The man is acquitted.

Akhtar Hussein,the lawyer who devotes his entire time to the village court,has just come out of the courtroom after helping Singh settle a domestic violence case. Husseins client,the young Ranjano,was harassed by her in-laws for a motorcycle and

Rs 50,000. The couple has been ordered to live separately from the husbands home. The seven-month-old marriage will hopefully survive the initial hiccup,says Hussein.

A loud commotion ensues when Punhana Station House Officer Bed Prakash brings in Arshad of Khol village. The youngster has allegedly murdered his sisters boyfriend the previous night. Prakash is allowed a 15-day police remand. People here are short-tempered. They fight for the silliest of reasons, says the SHO.

However,Singh,who has completed 12 years on the Bench,says: I find the people very simple. Its the outsiders mental block that makes them feel these people are dangerous. Recently,I noticed a man standing alone in the corner of my courtroom. He told me that the police had brought him for murder. The constables had gone out for tea and had told him to wait for them in the courtroom and thats what he was doing.

Sayyeb Hussein,the chairman of the Punhana Market Committee,says: The committee has a lot of rent disputes before the village court. Cases are taken up fast and the court primarily focuses on a compromise between the committee and shopkeepers to help maintain a healthy relationship between merchants even after a bout in the court.

On his rather unique experience,Singh says: Other judges ask me how I survive here at Punhana. I tell them: Sure,I do not get to sit on a three-foot dais to deliver justice,but instead I get to be one of the villagers someone to whom they can approach directly and resolve their problems.