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It
is difficult to understand the functioning of
judicial system in India. Getting feedback from
newspapers on several judgments delivered in the
range of cases related to terrorism, chicanery
to murder, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi is
uniquely placed in the systems of our country
handling ALL cases. Here is the recent one.
Parliament enacted a law fixing the retirement
age of AIIMS director to 65 years; Supreme Court
voiced his own verdict saying “we are with Dr.
Venugopal”, former AIIMS director who lost the
top job. Taking queue from Supreme Court,
Lower/High Courts have/had also been seen
directing and reprimanding bureaucracy and
executives of state and central Governments all
the time on various trivial issues including
removal of garbage from the streets of Patna and
elsewhere.
Having no access, whatever the forms of, to
reach the corridors of highest court, lives
had/have been found loosing steam near the gates
of Lower Courts: from Session Court to District
Court to High Court. Recently what I observed
was another interesting, amazing and shocking
moments which demands explanation from the
drivers of judicial machineries. When District
Courts of Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad were
attacked, the lawyers of lower courts were seen
protesting against such terrorist activities. At
the same time lawyers in Supreme Court were
found engaged in hedonism, giggling at “Hasya
Kavi Sammelan” celebrating the Law day. Is this
not a kind of lost networking amongst lawyers
divided into class and sub-class? In fact public
reaction across the states in India was
conspicuously absent showing total antipathy
towards “Bombings at Lower Courts”.
Although residents of cities have always got
their work done with the interference of courts,
these courts (including Supreme Court) are being
found failing to command respect from our
villages to the corridors of Parliament.
Howsoever, courts of India have successfully
created an apprehension and premonition in the
mind of masses, especially weak and poor. There
are many occasions when the Government takes the
similar umbrage of the court orders for the
completion of several works. One of the recent
examples is High court passing order while
advising (?) doctors not to go on strike against
the proposed Union Government’s decision on
mandatory rural service. Removal of “Khataal”
from the major points of Patna through the order
passed by High court provided total relief to
the State (Bihar) Government. In other words,
court order can be used or treated as either to
threaten one party or provide justice (or
injustice) to another party in the name of
public interest litigation. Court Orders are
also being used as a weapon to maintain (public)
order. How long such orders will validate the
act of ‘authoritarianism’ or the negligence of
‘democracy’? All these show that there is no
communication amongst the systems where we live
and we work for.
Is there any link between the implementation of
justice laws and the public disgruntlement? We
need to dissect a few known and famous cases
handled by these Courts. Shibu Soren was
convicted in “Shashi Nath Jha murder case” and
then he was sent to Tihar Jail to serve life
imprisonment. A few months later, High Court set
him free to roam freely on the streets of India.
There are several other cases, Jessica Lall,
Priyadarshini Matto etc… where Supreme/High
Court reversed the order and ask the authority
to arrest the convicts who were set free by the
lower courts. How about the judges who delivered
wrong judgments? Shouldn’t they be fired from
their respective jobs?
Due to poor decision making capability in our
day-to-day social life, it took 18 long years
finding the real culprits in Bhagalpur riot case
and 12 years in Krishnaiya (IAS) murder case.
Are Munna Shukla, Anand Mohan and Kameshwar
Yadav real culprits in these cases? Supreme
Court ‘only’ can decide????? What will happen,
if these cases in Supreme/High Court follow the
Shibu Soren way…… Capital (hang till death)
punishment to Afzal Guru (Parliament attack
case) by Supreme Court and to Santosh Singh (Priyadarshini
Matto case) by High Court have now started
fading from our memory (a country of a billion
plus) as if Parliament was never attacked and
amongst hundreds of Priyadarshini there was some
Priyadarshini Matto. Booming Mumbai Stock
exchange completely forgot the undelivered
justice meted out to Mr. (Late) Harshad Mehta,
one of the racketeers, as if nothing happened in
the months of May-June, 1992. Untimely death of
Mr. (Late) Shyam Bihari Sinha, the main accused
in Foddar scam, left the fodder money flowing
across India and abroad with no clear judgment
till today. Even after spending millions of
rupees (to JMM) by Congress workers in 1994 to
save the then Union Government, later found
freely walking from the judicial trap of India.
I am unable to understand why the cases like
“Fodder scam, Coal-tar scam, Stamp scam, Ram
Janambhoomi-Babri masjid” issues are being
pursued in the lower/special courts whose
judgments will finally be challenged and will be
placed under the review panels of Supreme Court.
That is why people (or Naxals) have started
running “direct action court” on the streets of
India and in Maoist dominated regions. Media has
become capable to capture a few such moments
these days, still hundreds and thousands of
cases are going unreported from our country of a
billion plus.
A special TADA court was set up under the
leadership of Judge Pramod Kode, who took 14
years to publish 4300 pages of his verdict and
found 127 people guilty. I am completely puzzled
to hear that Supreme Court allowed 16 of them to
move freely at least for the time being and will
take another six months (or 1 year or 2 year) to
review a few select cases. If that is the case,
then what is the importance of running and
wasting money on special court? A tent could
have been erected in the premise of Supreme
Court by the name of “Special Supreme Court”? If
lawyers and Judges in the Highest Court of
justice are “only” smart enough to review all
kinds of cases as an ultimate authority, then
why don’t we create branches of Supreme Court
instead of running lower level courts? Like
Brand IIT and IIM, I believe, a sense of Supreme
Court will prevail in their branches while
delivering judgments and, there will not be any
loss of time in delivering judgments followed by
punishment, moreover.
Before Independence, the fraternities of freedom
fighters were lawyers. Justice delayed is
justice denied was their theme of judicial
activism. Who are the people responsible for
creating mess in the judicial system of India,
after independence, throwing millions of cases
pending with no (or partial) ray of hope of
early judgment?
Three-tier, but branched judicial system needs
to be revamped to end crime, corruption, verdict
and judgment, which are going hand-in-hand
and/or sharing and exchanging hands.
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Comments: |
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India
is the home of educated people
although a sizable population is
illiterate. Yet people believe in
the judicial system. The problem
with our judicial system is, a large
population of mostly powerful and
elite use the legal process to get
redress. But, the people at the
bottom of the totem pole had no
advocate. The public interest
litigations have done some good.
However, its use has been so
pervasive that it appears to be a
legal nuisance. Conversely, it is
still needed to expose the malaise
of the society before the courts
until there is a judicial reform;
and the judicial reform cannot take
place without the reform of our
penal code. To be frank, a lot of
matters that are litigated in the
Supreme Court of India can be
disposed off at some lower level of
our judicial system. Instead the
litigants run to the Supreme Court.
Just to compare our Supreme Court
with the USA, I have never heard the
Supreme Court of the United States
granting bails to criminals. Of
course, Indian judiciary is
different from the USA but if we
have to mimic a good one, let it be
the US Judicial system. - Nawal
K. Pandey - Dec. 9, 2007 |
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