My article of March 28 on the Judiciary elicited a few comments from some well wishers. They opined I could have been harsher on the Judiciary, which, according to them, has taken a toll on people’s finances and health with their delays and unwarranted adjournments. In fact, someone commented that while Courts rightly condemn people for causing mental torture to others, they themselves could sometimes be guilty of causing it to some litigants.
People pin great hopes on the Judiciary; in fact it is their only hope. Most Judges are surely conscious of their role and uphold the dignity and the prestige of their office, but unfortunately not all. My sole purpose was certainly not to target anyone, as some felt, even the courts, as some felt, but to appeal to the conscience of all concerned, particularly the lawyers and the Judges to spare a thought for the hapless and helpless litigants, most of whom are constrained to knock the doors of the Judiciary to get justice for themselves or their families, unlike those who knowing full well that they are on the wrong side of the law, have enough time and money to waste on litigations.
While justice does demand that all the parties be given a fair chance to present their case and defend themselves, this should not stretch too far so as to derail justice altogether, with long and avoidable adjournments. Some lawyers have become masters in adjournments and some have two or three cases at the same time in different Courts. This is unfair to litigants and Judges must ensure that the former are not unnecessarily harassed. Lawyers too must resist long and unjustified adjournments, so as to protect the interests of their clients and not meekly succumb to dictates on postponements.
If it is indeed unfortunate and painful that people should suffer in unending litigations to secure justice, it is even more distressing that people who stand for justice should pay the price even with their lives for their courage and uprightness. It would appear that justice eludes us nearly everywhere.. From the happenings around us, it is evident there is very little or no room for honest and upright people in this country. Take the case of the IAS Officer, D.K. Ravi, who took on the builders’ mafia in Karnataka. He was found hanging in his home in Bengaluru. The Police Commissioner was quick to pronounce his judgment that it was a case of suicide, knowing full well that, considering Ravi’s tought stand on various issues, it could well have been a murder. This was followed by the uncalled for visit to the autopsy room of none other than Siddhuramaiah, the Chief Minister of one of the few States where the Congress still has a face. What business did he have to budge into the room? It is a pity that the doctor in charge did not have the guts to show him the door. Obviously he was there to influence the autopsy report.
Thereafter comes his initial decision not to allow a CBI inquiry and the report that evidence in the room where Ravi was found hanging had been wiped off. Surely the CM had something to hide, instead of allowing a fair investigation into the death of one of his most upright officers. In Madhya Pradesh, a cop who had stopped a truck belonging to the sand mafia carrying illegal sand mowed him down. Here again, we have the Police treating the death of their colleague as culpable homicide and not a murder. We have surely not forgotten about Satyendra Dubey, a Project Director in NHAI, who was killed in Gaya, over a decade ago. He had written directly to then PM, A B Vajpayee exposing large scale corruption in the Golden Quadrangle Project involving also some of his own superiors. Despite pleading that his identity be not disclosed, the letter was forwarded to the Road Transport Ministry, which pulled him up for writing directly to PM. In Haryana Ashok Khemka, whom BJP strongly supported for unveiling some of Robert Vadra’s suspicious land deals, was a target of same BJP, which transferred him in just 11 months for the 46th time in 22 years, obviously because he could not be pressurized to toe the line of the powerful. In Goa, the Dy. CM, Francis D’Souza gives a stay on the demolition of an illegal construction of the Chairperson of Margao Municipality. What business did he have to interfere with the CO’s decision? Are there no Courts to deal with these issues, if the decision is found to be wrong? Will the Dy. CM similarly intervene in illegalities committed by ordinary people?
We had watched helplessly the antics of the Congress and we do even more frustratingly the gimmicks of the BJP. However, to the Congress goes surely the credit of being more tolerant and democratic than the BJP. As far as justice is concerned one cannot expect it from either party. The BJP has got itself exposed on many fronts and it has nearly reached a point of ridicule. On the tobacco front, it had not only a beedi baron in the Committee to decide on the warnings on tobacco, but it had some members making preposterous statements revealing their inclination towards the industry. While here they claim that people will turn jobless, they do not have the same view when it comes to beef ban that also employs lakhs. For the BJP, the slaughter of cattle is bad for local consumption, but not for export, which is in fact being encouraged. What duplicity! On Land Acquisition, the BJP has panicked as it has shown itself as being anti-farmer and pro- industrialist and powerful lobbies, which is surely the reason why it is amending the Act, supported by it earlier. In Goa, the EIA on Mopa is given legality by extending the Terms of Reference (TOR) for another year though the MOEF Memorandum of 22/8/14 makes it amply clear that “extension of validity beyond outer limit of three years shall not be considered “ and “ baseline data older than 3 years will not be used for EMP report”. So to get justice against an irresponsible Ministry, one has to take recourse to Courts. Can we ever say that there is justice in this country?
(The author is a retired banker)
