Introduction:

Goal 16 among all the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 aims to establish
peaceful societies at the national level, along with a cooperative role at international
level. The UN has defined 12 Targets and 23 Indicators under this SDG. These
Targets specify the goals, whereas their Indicators reflect the metrics to track
whether a country achieves these Tracks or not. In order to determine effectiveness,
accountability and inclusiveness of various institutions established by the Constitution, it
mainly deals with Target 16.6 and 16.7. Target 6 of the 12 Targets aims to “Develop
effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels” and the 7 th Target
deals with ensuring responsive, inclusive and representative decision-making” ; all
by 2030.
As part of its monitoring and review mechanism, the High-Level Political Forum
provides the central platform for countries to submit their Voluntary National
Review. Of the recent 2017’s High Level Political Forum, India, along with 43 other
countries, will present its voluntary national review of progress, challenges and
gaps in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at national and
subnational levels.

In its report to the High Level Political Forum, the Indian government listed its
achievements in poverty reduction, health and nutrition, gender equality and
women's empowerment. However, the report ignores the most crucial element
for the success of its initiatives: in the absence of transparency, accountability
and recourse to justice, these efforts are in vain.
The Constitution of India is the protector of the people of India. It has played a key
role in establishing such institutions under Goal 16, to ensure peace, and justice
provision throughout the country. Through various Articles on different institutions,
it has laid down proper rules and provisions, which are to be followed by them and
thus, Constitution acts as a guardian to such Institutions. One such Institution is The
Supreme Court of India.

Effectiveness:
The sources of jurisdiction of the Court of Cassation can be attributed to the
provisions of the Constitution and to the various laws approved by Parliament,
which has the exclusive power to strengthen the jurisdiction of the Court of
Cassation. However, the breadth of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction also means that
its workload, given its current constitution, may soon become unsustainable. The
Supreme Court of India suffers from an overloaded role, mainly due to the large
number of new appeals and special leave petitions. As a result, its role as the
country's highest constitutional court has declined dramatically, and constitutional
issues now account for a negligible percentage of the total case-handling rate per
year. The Supreme Court faces an unprecedented influx of periodic appeals,
especially requests for special leave under section 136 of the Indian Constitution.
The number of cases pending before the Supreme Court of India at the end of each
calendar year increased from 36,056 to 64,919. In the last ten years alone, i.e.
between 2004 and 2014, the number of filed cases has gone from 58,931 to 81,583
per year. Accountability:
The Accountability of the judiciary can be before the law, the executive, the
legislator or the general public. Then only the confidence of common citizens in the
judiciary will improve. The concept of Accountability and good governance is
considered two sides of the same coin. In the current system, it is necessary to
maintain the transparency of the judiciary and, therefore, accountability.
As accountability is an aspect of independence, the Constitution provides in Article
235 for the "control" of the High Court over the subordinate judiciary, clearly
indicating that there is an effective mechanism for enforcing accountability of the
subordinate courts, but no accountability measure is guaranteed by the
Constitution for The Supreme Court, the apex of the whole Indian judiciary
system.
The absence of any mechanism for the higher judiciary, except in extreme cases, is
due to the fact that the authors of the Constitution believed that "settled norms" and
"peer pressure" would act as adequate controls.
Mona Shukla, ‘Judicial Accountability: an aspect of judicial independence’ in Judicial
Accountability, Regal Publications, New Delhi, 2010, p. 4 mentions, “The judicial
system of the country far from being an instrument for protecting the rights of the
weak and the oppressed has become an instrument of harassment of the common
people of the country. The system remains dysfunctional for the weak and the poor...
(and has been) displaying their elitist bias.”

Inclusivity:
Inclusive judicial governance requires a justice system that is not only diverse or
internally representative, but also functionally inclusive, protecting minorities or
those who are marginalized or excluded from society. It also means wider public
access to the justice system. A society cannot be equal without equal access to
justice. The Supreme Court, with its provision of Public Interest Litigation has
incorporated equal justice, by providing a separate opportunity for hearing to all.
With its appellate jurisdiction as well, it has provided a mechanism for appeal by a
grieved party. Its advisory jurisdiction also broadens its scope of working and thus
is inclusive of all concerned. Thus, Supreme Court is inclusive, being at the apex of
the Indian judiciary system.

Conclusion:
The Supreme Court, in recent times,”has moved beyond the politicized
appointments of the late 1970s that gave India a "committed" rather than
independent judiciary. In a landmark 1993 ruling, the Supreme Court effectively
excluded the executive from Supreme Court appointments. Through minor tinkering
and technological upgradation, the Supreme Court has also reduced the large
backlog of undecided cases before it from 120,000 to 20,000 (Mehta, 2005). And,
through Public Interest Litigation (PIL), it has acted aggressively, acting more like an
executive than a judicial power, to resolve long-standing public policy problems;
Cleaning up Delhi's air pollution is the best-known example, but not the only one.
While purists balk at this overreach, the Supreme Court appears to have gained
rather than lost popular legitimacy due to the perception that such breadth is a
necessary consequence and response to an ineffective and weak executive.
But, with a weak rule of law, an ineffective and overloaded criminal justice system
and a culture of impunity erode the foundations of good governance in India. For
India to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda, the government must demonstrate a
greater commitment to access to justice, accountability, and human rights for all.

Hence, according to my opinion, The Supreme Court of India is successfully

practicing Inclusivity, but is yet to become more effective and accountable. These
Goals are to be achieved by 2030, so by then, with little steps to make the system
more effective, The Supreme Court will come flourishing with all the three
components, including effectiveness.

“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide

access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at
all levels.”

Externally the country has played a key role in shaping the SDGs and ensuring the balance among
its three pillars - economic, social and environmental. Internally, it has launched many programs
to make progress towards these goals. Notwithstanding its scarce financial resources due to
relatively low per-capita income, large population and vast geographical expanse, India is
committed to achieving within a short period such ambitious goals as universal rural
electrification, road and digital connectivity for all, massive expansions of clean and renewable
energy, sanitation and housing for all and universal elementary school education. Taking cue
from the memorable phrase Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, translated as “Collective Effort, Inclusive
Development” and enunciated by the Prime Minister, stakeholders from various walks of life -
central and state governments, industry, civil society, technical experts and academics - are
coming together to promote a better future for the country.