The Judiciary is the third organ of the government. It has the responsibility to apply the laws to specific cases and settle all disputes.
The real ‘meaning of law’ is what the judges decide during the course of giving their judgements in various cases.
From the citizen’s point of view, Judiciary is the most important organ of the government because it acts as their protector against the possible excesses of legislative and executive organs.
In the life of the citizens of a state, Judiciary is a source of confidence and fearlessness. The common man depends upon judiciary for getting justice.
Without a security of rights and freedom guaranteed by the judiciary, they cannot really hope to carry out their jobs and enjoy their living.
They are more dependent upon judiciary than the legislature and the executive. Without judicial protection, their lives can become miserable.
From citizens point of view Judiciary is the most important organ of the government.
It is vitally important in a democracy that individual judges and the judiciary as a whole are impartial and independent of all external pressures and of each other so that those who appear before them and the wider public can have confidence that their cases will be decided fairly and in accordance with the law.
When carrying out their judicial function they must be free of any improper influence. Such influence could come from any number of sources.
It could arise from improper pressure by the executive or the legislature, by individual litigants, particular pressure groups, the media, self-interest or other judges, in particular more senior judges.
Information and communications technology (ICT) should be used more in filing and receiving orders, serving notices and other processes.
This will help decongest Nigeria’s courts and save everyone’s time. It will also be instrumental in the fight against corrupt practices in the court system by eliminating, or at the least, limiting person to person interactions, which tend to breed corrupt transactions.
Judges need to be engaged, accessible, and guided by service. For the cases that require direct oversight by a judge, the judge must delve into the case at an early point in time and adopt a pretrial process for that case.
Discovery motions should be resolved simply and quickly; dispositive motions should not be allowed to languish; and continuances of deadlines or court dates should be a rarity.
There should be an approach necessarily to protect judicial independence, particularly in securing adequate resources for the justice system and in explaining to the public why it is a judge’s duty to make decisions in accordance with law in a way which might not appear at the time to be in accordance with popular sentiment.”
It is vital that each judge is able to decide cases solely on the evidence presented in court by the parties and in accordance with the law.
Only relevant facts and law should form the basis of a judge’s decision.
Only in this way can judges discharge their constitutional responsibility to provide fair and impartial justice.
The responsibilities of judges in disputes between the citizen and the state have increased together with the growth in governmental functions over the last century.
The responsibility of the judiciary to protect citizens against unlawful acts of government has thus increased, and with it the need for the judiciary to be independent of government.
Our nation needs to prepare its Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to be the Human Rights Court of the future.
The commission’s rulings should have the weight of a High Court judgment and should be directly enforceable without any other process.
Of course, these judgments would be appealable to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
This would ease pressures on the High Court by relieving it of its human rights obligations.
As a profession, the first thing we need to do is recognize that we must change. If we do not, the civil justice system will continue to erode probably at an increasing rate.
It is up to us to build a justice system that truly offers a just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution for every case, the promise of the very first rule of civil procedure.
The second step is to identify solutions. One part of the solution is rules changes, but only one part. The rest lies in implementation and culture change.
Judicial independence is important whether the judge is dealing with a civil or a criminal case.
Individuals involved in any kind of case before the courts need to be sure that the judge dealing with their case cannot be influenced by an outside party or by the judge’s own personal interests, such as a fear of being sued for defamation by litigants about whom the judge is required in the course of proceedings or judgment to make adverse comment.
This requirement that judges be free from any improper influence also underpins the duty placed on them to declare personal interests in any case before it starts, to ensure that there is neither any bias or partiality, or any appearance of such.
FUNCTIONS OF THE JUDICIARY.
- To give justice to the people.
- Role in law making.
- Power to get its Decisions and Judgements enforced.
- Running of the Judicial Administration.
- Guardian of the Constitution.
- Interpretation and Application of Laws.
- Advisory Functions.
- Protection of Human Rights .
The role of the judiciary cannot also be undermined as the judicial system through the courts especially is responsible for ensuring and upholding the rule of Law.
The principle of separation of powers seeks to give each arm of government independence from the other arms while working in concert to achieve national progress and development.
As a very important part of the governance structure in modern society, the Judiciary also must (and in many countries do) have a strategic approach employed towards delivering on the expectations of its “customers” (litigants, petitioners, complainants) and stakeholders (legal services, law enforcement etc).
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