Breaking the Deadlocks of Trial Court Management in West Bengal: A Heuristic Approach.

It is undeniable that most of the judges in India are overburdened with extensive jurisdiction over both judicial as well as administrative functions of the court, and in effect the Judiciary, the guardian of the Indian Constitution, is suffering from a managerial crisis. The emerging concept of court management is not similar to administration of justice and even quite different from case-management. This study is about the concept of court management; identifies six grey managerial areas along with twelve tentative reformative measures for trial courts’ management. The identified reformative measures then have been empirically verified and arranged in a sequential order as per the response of different frontline stakeholders (Judges, Lawyers, Academicians, and Administrators) of the justice delivery system. While analyzing those data as collected from the field study, this research heuristically found that any reform (like increasing the working time of judges), which may appear to be the most appropriate action, may not be comprehensive from the perception of every stakeholder. The findings of this paper suggests that the court-management is not a matter of grundnorm, rather it needs to be implemented through proper consultation with principal judges of every district or subordinate courts, respective Bar associations, associations of court employees and other primary stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]