Introduction

The Indian criminal justice system claims that it will protect individuals and ensure that they are treated fairly and receive justice promptly. The Constitution of India provides the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, which also includes the right to a fair and speedy trial. In reality, this becomes somewhat challenging because there are many individuals whose cases are ongoing in court, and they remain in jail for extended periods while their cases continue. They attend court hearings, and often the dates are postponed, causing delays that result in undertrial prisoners losing faith in the justice system. This situation is what we refer to as justice fatigue. Justice fatigue is not just a feeling of tiredness, but a loss of faith in the legal system due to prolonged delays, which causes mental suffering even when it is unwelcome. This article explains the concept of justice fatigue, its background, real-life examples, and its impact on undertrial prisoners.

Definition and relevant legal provision

Meaning of justice fatigue

Justice fatigue means feeling emotional and mental exhaustion of an undertrial prisoner due to continuous delays in their case. When a person is in jail for many years without knowing how long the trial will take or when it will end, they gradually lose hope in the justice system. They stop expecting fairness, speed, or even a final decision. Justice fatigue is not defined anywhere by law, yet it is somehow connected to the violation of the basic rights of a person, which the constitution and criminal system have already promised to protect.

Constitutional provisions

Article 21- Right to Life and Personal Liberty

The Supreme Court has clearly stated that the right to a speedy trial is also an important part of Article 21. If a trial is taking an unnecessarily long time without any reason, it violates this fundamental right.

Article 14 - Right to Equality
Poor undertrial prisoners remain in jail because they cannot afford bail or good legal representation, which directly means unequal treatment under the law.

Article 39A - Free Legal Aid
The Constitution instructs the state to provide free legal aid to those who cannot afford it; denying this results in the denial of justice. Due to the lack of effective legal aid, many people remain undertrial prisoners, which inadvertently increases the burden on the justice system.

Statutory provision under the new criminal law (BNSS 2023)
In 2013, the Indian Parliament implemented the New Bharatiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita, replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC). The new law aimed to create a criminal procedure that works quickly, is somewhat friendly to the victim, and is also efficient. Many provisions in BNSS directly affect undertrial prisoners and are also necessary to understand justice fatigue.
Section 479 BNSS - Release of undertrial prisoners
Section 479 BNSS is a new version of Section 436A CrPC.

Provision:
An undertrial prisoner is someone who has already spent more than half of the jail term that they would have been given.

Exception:
This benefit is not available to those who commit offenses punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Importance:
This provision aims to prevent undertrial prisoners from being detained for excessive periods without trial. In many cases, people are unaware of this section, and courts often neglect to apply it, resulting in prolonged detention and justice fatigue.
Section 187 BNSS - time limit for police custody and investigation
Section 187 BNSS replaces section 167 CrPC.

Provision:
There will be no tampering during police custody; it is just that a time limit has been set. The police have to complete their investigation within the time given to them.

Problem:
Despite all this, courts grant remand without examining the necessity. This is a mechanical process that keeps undertrial prisoners in custody for a long time, which increases frustration and gradually diminishes faith in the system.

Section 35 BNSS - arrest must be justified. 

Section 35 BNSS protects against being arrested without any reason.

 Provision: 

A person cannot be arrested without reasonable grounds for their arrest. The police must have a valid reason before making an arrest and must also inform the arrested person about the reason for their arrest. 

Relevance to justice fatigue:

 Unnecessary arrests lead to overcrowding in prisons and increase the number of jail inmates. People who are arrested often wait for their trial and quickly lose hope in the justice system. 

Section 183 BNSS - Zero FIR and speedy registration. 

This section introduces the concept of zero FIR. 

Provisions: 

An FIR can be registered at any police station and can be transferred to another police station according to the area, which sometimes causes delays. 

Impact: 

Quick registration helps start the investigation promptly, which in turn speeds up the subsequent procedures.

Illustration and case laws
Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar (1979)
This is a landmark case that revealed how thousands of cases were pending under trial, with prisoners remaining in jail for long periods without any trial. Many had even spent more than half of their sentence without being proven guilty of any offense. The Supreme Court stated that a speedy trial is a fundamental right under Article 21. This case clearly shows how long delays destroy the trust of undertrial prisoners in the justice system and also spread a wrong message in society.

Kadra Pahadiva v. State of Bihar (1981)
In this case, an undertrial prisoner who had been in jail for over 8 years without any reason was examined, which caused mental suffering and was due to the endless waiting for justice.

Reality of prison life
Undertrial prisoners often have to stay in overcrowded jails with poor facilities, which leads to increasing mental stress, and many times, due to a lack of legal help, a person starts breaking down from within, and all of this together contributes to increasing justice fatigue.

Practical application: how justice fatigue works in real life
Delay and repeated adjournments :

One of the main reasons for justice fatigue is repeated adjournments, due to which an undertrial prisoner, who waits with hope, finds the hearing postponed again. After this happens multiple times, the prisoner stops expecting any real progress. 

Poverty and lack of awareness: 

Most undertrial prisoners are poor and uneducated, due to which they are unaware of their legal rights, such as bail, which means that those who remain in jail do not know that they can be released. 

Weak legal representation: 

Even though free legal aid is available, it is often insufficient because the lawyers overseeing legal aid have a heavy workload, leaving them not enough time to properly handle cases. As a result, their representation in court is not effective, and prisoners feel neglected by the justice system. 

Mental and emotional impact:

Due to staying in jail for a long time, undertrial prisoners suffer from mental problems like anxiety and depression. There are many who have even stopped thinking that they will ever get justice. But if you look at it from the other side, their family, who depended on them, also becomes helpless, and life becomes difficult for them as well. Their life does not remain good even while living outside. Somewhere, an undertrial prisoner must also be unhappy and frustrated thinking about his family, but what can he do? No matter how many times an undertrial prisoner goes for court hearings, his family only sees a blank face due to the long-running trial. There is hope in every hearing for both the undertrial prisoner and his family that the court will give a verdict this time, but that does not happen, which makes the prisoner start feeling helpless and weak.

Acceptance of injustice:
A very serious effect of justice fatigue is acceptance, because when delays become normal, undertrial prisoners give up hope in justice and peacefully accept it, enduring the difficult life in jail. If looked at in a certain way, undertrial prisoners are helpless, who place all their hopes solely in justice and do not even know what will happen to them next. All they know is that if anyone can, it is only the justice system, no one else. The true meaning of jail is not to punish a wrongdoer for their mistake, but to reform them and help them start a new life as a better person. How can a prisoner not accept jail life when even the court, which is their last resort, takes so long? They have no option left but to accept it.

Conclusion

Justice fatigue is a serious problem that undertrial prisoners in India have been facing for many years. Long delays, lack of legal awareness, poverty, and weak legal support gradually destroy faith in the justice system. Despite the protection of the constitution and law, they still have to face this hardship. To reduce justice fatigue, the justice system must ensure that trials proceed quickly, better legal aid is provided, and undertrials are treated like human beings. Justice delay is being seen as a denial of justice, due to which people are stopping trusting it, sending the wrong message not just to society but to the entire country.

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