SPECIALIZED COURTS
INTRODUCTION:
The growth in specialized courts represents an attempt of the system to address the root causes of most difficult social problems. Expertise, money saving, and decreased incidence of recidivism are typically mentioned among the key benefits of specialized courts. At the same time, many scholars have doubted these perceived benefits claiming that specialized courts are more vulnerable to external influences, tend to be biased, and lack a broad outlook. Specialized courts have much potential in reducing some types of crime, but this potential is often limited by lack of credibility and scarcity of resources allocated for their functioning.
BENEFITS OF SPECIALISED COURTS:
The other advantage associated with the specialised courts is the reduction of pending cases where there is a reduction in pending cases in the general courts, thee courts therefore allow experts to deal with complex cases other than for them to be dealt with in generalised courts.
The number of appeals for cases dealt with by the specialised courts is minimal, the specialised courts reduce the possibility of appeals due the fact that they are assigned specialised judges whose ruling is of quality and fair.
SPECIALIST COURTS IN INDIA
Some of the specialised courts that exist in India include intellectual property courts, business courts, family and juvenile courts, drug courts, domestic violence courts, teen courts and mental health courts; they can be described as follow:
PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIALIST COURTS:
The drug courts are aimed at reducing the occurrence of abuse and negligence, equipping parents with the necessary skills to survive and provide for their families in the community and finally to develop stable relationships between the community and the courts.
For the domestic violence court is aimed at monitoring the defendant in terms of compliance to court orders, it ensures that there is physical separation between the victim and the defendants to avoid any type of intimidation from the defendant.
Domestic violence is usually not taken seriously by general courts and victims in most cases are unable to come forward to claim justice, therefore this has led to the emergence of the domestic violence courts which encourage people to report such cases and as a result reduce the occurrence of domestic violence.
The family and juvenile courts also emerged due to cases relating to the family and the children, the increased crimes appropriated by children as also increased family cases led to the emergence of these courts; however they play a role in reducing the level of crimes that are related to the family. These courts developed as a result of increased criminal offences among the youth, the juvenile courts are usually developed to cater for criminal offenders who are below the age of 18 years.
However the youth courts follow the same procedure and that the defendant is given all the rights as those of the general court although the defendant in this court may be denied trial by a jury. Only in very serious crimes such as homicides are defendants in the juvenile courts allowed to attend adult courts for their hearing of their case.
Youth courts have been criticised for the practice of infancy defence where they assume that children under the age of 14 years are less likely to have criminal intents. However serious crimes by the youths can lead to imprisonment where such cases are heard in general adult courts.
In most countries this courts exist although they may vary in their functions and types in different countries, in most of the developed countries such as the UK and the USA this courts are operational and function according to their roles, but in most developing countries they lack the institutional framework to develop such courts to cater for specific crimes such as drug crimes, domestic violence and juvenile crimes. This may be explained by the cultural background of each country and their view of these crimes.
Most youth courts are developed from the assumption that most offenders are more likely to have been brought up in disadvantaged families or they may not have received penalties for previously committed crimes, for this reason therefore these courts have developed in our present world to cater for such needs.
CONCLUSION:
The specialised courts do play a major role in the community we live in, they have several advantages associated with them and this include the improvement of the courts decision making process, reducing pending cases, encourage economic growth through protection of intellectual property and reducing the number of judge hours required to resolve complex cases.
The philosophy behind making the specialist courts in India is almost similar in all the case of their making, mostly they are made as a way to increase the efficiency of the judicial system, reduce the reoccurrence of crime and also to ensure decisions on specific cases are dealt with by experts.
However other scholars argue that this courts are a way of escaping proper judgement from the formal judicial systems, but generally this courts have played a major role in improving the society we live in today through the reduced cases of specific crimes dealt with by this courts.
