KOHIMA: Can you imagine a court in India that has zero pendency , doesn't go on any vacation and at times pronounces judgments on the spot? The Kohima district customary court , which deals with issues of uncodified tribal laws , boasts of such an envious record. Here litigants plead and argue their own cases and all it needs to get justice is just 200. But the customary laws and the courts are being questioned by women's rights activists."Ruling pertaining to many cases is delivered on the very day that a complaint is filed. When we need to visit the spot to determine a case or if it seems complicated, we take a week's time at best," says chief dobashi Keneilezo, who joined the court in 1987.Dobashi is anglicization of 'dobhashi' or a person who knows two languages as the duty of these people was that of translators during the days of British rule. These people would know their tribal dialect and Nagamese, a hybrid of Assamese still used as the lingua franca across Nagaland . The Britishers could communicate in Nagamese.The Kohima district customary court, like other tribal courts in various districts of Nagaland, functions under the deputy commissioner of the district concerned. Like the Kohima district customary court, there's no pendency in most of the other tribal courts, says Keneilezo."About 80% of the rulings are accepted by the people and never challenged in higher courts," says dobashi Menuolie, adding, "We mostly deal with issues of land litigation, money lending and marital disputes". There are 20 dobashis in the Kohima court and they all sit together to discuss and decide on every case. Established in 1924, this was the first customary court, says the head dobashi, and deals with 100 to 250 cases a year.What's most interesting is that since issues of land and marriage are governed by tribal rules, and each and every tribe has its own sets of rules, there is no law book to guide the dobashis. These men, picked by the village councils and interviewed and appointed by the deputy commissioner, interpret the law of the tribes and hand down judgments.

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