The Jharkhand State legal Services (JHAlSA) on Saturday organised a workshop to sensitise Principal Judges to Family Court matters and niceties of awarding compensation to the victims of various crimes with the intent to facilitate their integration into the mainstream of the society.
The workshop ‘Role of Principal Judges in Family Court Matters & Victim-Emancipation through Compensation’ was also an occasion to award compensation to victims of murder and award employment letter for Class-4 posts in Government Departments.
The workshop was inaugurated by judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court, Justice Virender Singh and judges of the High Court, Justice DN Patel and Justice Prashant Kumar at Nyay Sadan in Doranda. Principal Judges of 21 family courts attended the workshop to gain insights about factors that should be kept in mind while resolving family disputes.
“If you scan the anatomy of the act and various Supreme Court and High Court judgments, you will find that a Principal Judge and Judge of the Family Court has to establish a rapport with the litigants. A judge has a participatory role and a judge has to inculcate faith in the speedy settlement between the parties,” said Justice Misra.
Justice Misra added that a Family Court functions in informal manner with some ambit of formality and it can take help from experts, psychologists, medical practitioners and associations as deems fit in such cases. He stressed on the institutional characteristics of marriage and its continuance as necessary to save the society from anarchy. He emphasised on the role of Principal Judges and Judges in family court matters while advocating for an entirely different attitude towards the litigants.
“They (litigants) are the victims of situation and that is why role of judges is much sensitised one. They have to talk to them in their terms,” maintained Justice Misra.
Family values of the Indian society were praised for strengthening nuptial ties and ensuring that such sacrosanct bonds endures all sorts of strain as it moves on with several milestones in the course of the long journey of marital life. Thus preserving those values which incidentally put Indian society on higher plane compared to others was attached with a great deal of significance by the members of the Indian judiciary while they talked at length about the discord in the sacred bond.
“The institution of marriage needs to be protected. Stable families are India’s USP which is a rare thing in western countries,” added Justice Goel.
Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Virender Singh described breaking of marriage as a huge tragedy for the couple and children of such couples and lay emphasis on digging deeper into the cause behind family disputes as litigants rarely approach a Family Court over trivial matters of day-to-day life. Even as the Chief Justice encouraged going to the root of cause of litigation and emancipation of victims by adequately compensating victims, Justice Patel supported uniformity in the compensation structures prevailing in the various parts of the country for crimes against which compensation has been legally sanctioned.
“It is the gravity of the conflict which brings people to the family court. Breaking of marriage is like sinking of Titanic. So, we need to go deep into as to what are the causes of the conflict,” said the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court.
Meanwhile, as many as 88 victims of offences committed in 12 districts Chatra, Chaibasa, latehar, Simdega, Seraikela, Jamtara, Khunti, Koderma, lohardagga, Pakur, Ramgarh and Sahibganj were given a total compensation of `62-lakh and four people were also given employment letters to emancipate them from the hopeless situation they were thrown into because of someone else’s faults.