Supreme Court needs to govern as governance fails

We know for sure that integrity of many of the Supreme Court judges, past and present, has not been above reproach. There is a case already before the Supreme Court on this very issue. However, as an institution, the Supreme Court has been delivering well.

On the other hand, not only the actors that make the governments at the Centre and in states, the institution called government itself is failing. The omission to act against known tax evaders and alleged black money creators is one such huge failure on the part of the central government. The Supreme Court had to act by setting up its own SIT, though its resources will be much less than the combined resources of ED, CBI, etc. The Court had to act in 2G case; only after that the central government’s investigative agencies started investigation worth its name. You name a case where the government was proactive and higher courts did not have to either take action in their hand or threaten the governments to action? Remember the major recent scams relating to Commonwealth Games, land acquisition in NOIDA, Adarsh Housing Society, the CVC appointment…

No sane person would like the Supreme Court to take upon itself the administration of the country, and the Supreme Court itself took the role of investigating into black money trails when it found that the government was not acting at all, despite direct and indirect orders by the Court.

Of the auditing authority CAG, the otherwise reticent PM had the cheeks to say that the institution was exceeding its mandate when he found that CAG was bringing government’s acts of commission and omission in the public domain and embarrassing his government. Do remember that many recent skeletons have been bared by CAG and action was initiated by a reluctant government when people and media raised hue and cry after CAG’s exposures. Auditors are not known to be honest men themselves; yet the institution is delivering.
Take the case of the Election Commission. It used to be a lame duck before Sheshan gave it fangs. After that, Election Commission and only Election Commission has been able to tether the unruly political class. From the days of Indira Gandhi, when DMs were asked to declare elections to suit the ruling party and the weaker sections of the society were not even allowed to vote, the elections have come a long way. The machinery through which elections are held remains the same babudom but the Election Commission delivers as an institution.

On the other hand, there are many controlling authorities and key investigating agencies [DG Hydrocarbons, Medical Council of India, AICTE, DG Civil Aviation, CBI and ED to name a few] that have failed the nation. They are ridden with nepotism and favouritism, corruption, inefficiency and other ills at individual as well as institutional level.

In the context of the Lokpal debate, it would be worthwhile to go for a strong institution to look into complaints of corruption at high places. If strong, public-spirit minded people with high integrity and commitment man the Lokpal institution in its formative years, it would deliver; otherwise, it would be another institution investigating complaints and cases ad infinitum to avoid action against the rich and the mighty.

Coming back to governance. It is shame that the central government, headed by learned and seasoned economists, lawyers, administrators and politicians is failing as an institution. Rajas, Kanis, Kalmadis and [probably] Marans came in with wrong intent and went out, but Sonias, Manmohans, Mukherjees and Rahuls – all seemingly right-intentioned - would also go unsung or cursed if they are unable to raise the standard of governance. One least appropriate, but important, yardstick of governance would be that whenever a case is brought to the government’s notice by a court, the government acts with all sincerity and urgency.

You could visit our earlier related posts here: judiciary .. governance .. corruption.

Why does Manmohan Singh gets so pissed off with judicial activism?

Why does this guy look green these days?

We saw a high level of judicial activism a decade back when the administration was falling apart. This time again, as more and more scams have come to surface. The first time this Prime Minister was voted to power, there was a greater sense of administration and the top judiciary took some break. 


It is ironical that the same Prime Minister is sitting over a mound of huge scams, inaction and overt or covert connivance with wrong-doers. Many of his cabinet colleagues have either been charged with frauds, or are known to have amassed enormous wealth but there is no visible proof of their wrong-doings or are known to have been taking decisions influenced by personal considerations or have crime record or are even mafia kingpins. The persons in high places of authority, such as the CVC, Prasar Bharati CEO, some PSU chairmen, even the President - are known to have dubious past. Worse, the Prime Minister feigns ignorance of all the rot going on under his nose, in the departments directly supervised by him, in the committees chaired by him...


What can be more ironical than that this very Prime Minister tells the judiciary to not interfere in administration. As recently as last month he said while addressing an international conference: “While the power of judicial review must be used to enforce accountability, it must never be used to erode the legitimate role assigned to the other branches of the government." Remember, how steadfastly the government had been defending CVC Thomas and its lawyers even making observations against the powers of the Supreme Court? When the Supreme Court chided the government over massive foodgrain rotting in FCI granaries six months back, Manmohan Singh had asked the court to be within its limits while defending his food minister.  “The Supreme Court should not get into the realm of policy formulation,” Singh had said.


It is high time, Supreme Court judges stop respecting the post of the Prime Minister and show Manmohan Singh his place. If he cannot keep his house in order, he has no right to be in the saddle. BJP leader Advani said it rightly yesterday that Manmohan and Sonia should thank their stars that there is no VP Singh today. 

KG Balakrishnan: homing pigeons

'ex-Cheap Justice of India?', asks India News Today

It is amusing to see how one's deeds spin a man's fate. It looks ironical too when the man happens to be one of the most influential persons of the land and his earlier subordinates point fingers at him for his misdemeanours.

K G Balakrishnan, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and the ex- Chief Justice of India, was a long time CJI of Kerala High Court. Now the Kerala High Court Advocates Association has adopted a motion against him. They demand that he step down from the chairmanship of NHRC until the allegations leveled againt him are found false.

Earlier, the Bar Council of Kerala had petitioned the President to order a comprehensive investigation into allegations against the former Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, and his close relatives.

Balakrishnan's two sons-in-law - Sreenijan and Benny - and younger brother K G Bhaskaran have been accused of amassing huge properties. Last week, a local court in Kochi directed the police to look into these allegations.


India News Today had earlier noted the petition by Shanti Bhushan stating that at least 8 CJI of India were corrupt. Do read it here.

vinayak sen verdict: colonial law, colonial mindset

India News salutes Dr. Sen

Dr. Vinayak / Binayak Sen and his co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for a conspiracy to commit sedition. Shocking that police could fix an inconvenient human right activist so easily and the court could be convinced that Dr. Sen needed to kept behind bar for his entire life. The evidences produced by the police are said to be frivolous but enough to get the judgment.

Dr. Sen's real crime [in the eyes of the government and the police] was that he was a doctor dedicated to giving tribals cures for their ailments and also giving them strength. His leaning were to the left; any noble soul who has seen so much suffering in the hands of a corrupt and rabid police would turn well-wisher of the innocent. So was Dr. Sen. Also ironical is that Dr. Vinayak Sen was a human right activist, opposing the type of violations to which he himself has fallen victim.

Arundhati Roy's comments on the court verdict are apt: “A couple of years for the bosses of Union Carbide and a life sentence for Binayak Sen..."


Arundhati herself is facing the charge of sedition. [India News reference to the police case against her, here]

Human right activists from all over India have condemned the verdict. India News joins them all. The judgement shows how the courts can be so badly influenced. It is because the judges themselves have a colonial mindset and it becomes easy for them to apply this mindset to colonial and colonial-type laws  to give pervert judgements.

talk of police police reforms? they're not ready to even file an FIR

Five years back, the Supreme Court had directed State governments to implement police reforms. Not only have the States taken shelter behind lame excuses, the Centre too has not done enough to encourage States in reforming the police system. The Court had to issue fresh directions, but – going by the past experience – States would again buy time. Mind it, the reforms that the Court is talking about is just one bit, not broader reforms.

The total lack of will to reform police, even abhorrence to it, is understandable. States fear that in the name of reforms, the police will get more autonomy from government. Thus, the authority of the political rulers of the states to use police for their not-so-clean jobs will get eroded. A professional police force would resist illegal and extra-legal actions on behalf of the rulers that a corrupt and highly pliable police force is prone to. Besides, the rulers would not be able to threaten law-abiding policemen with transfers, or demand ‘weekly’ collections.

India News Today notes one good direction from the Delhi High Court to Delhi Police. The Court has directed that all FIRs be made available online. This will lead to transparency at least to the extent that people, NGOs, victims, government, and the courts would know the details of FIRs. This however needs to be supported with a complementary administrative action: police must be made to file FIRs in the first place. Police are reluctant to file FIRs even when the occurrence of a heinous crime is evident, to keep their records clean, to extort money from the accused with the threat to lodge FIR, and to avoid follow up action after the FIR. Will the government dare to take that step?

Quote-unquote

"The copies of the FIR, unless reasons recorded regarding the nature of the offence that the same is sensitive in nature, should be uploaded on the Delhi Police website within 24 hours of lodging of the FIR so that the accused or any person connected with the same can download the FIR and file appropriate application before the court as per law for redressal of his grievances," Delhi High Court, on 7th December, 2010

nothing moves without money... is the judiciary clean?

“It is very unfortunate that there is no control over corruption in the country. There is rampant corruption particularly in the department of Income Tax, Sales Tax and Excise Department. Nothing moves without money,” a Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and T. S. Thakur said.

This was the first line of a news report in papers of 10th October about a case before the Supreme Court. Such observations are often heard from the higher judiciary [Supreme and High Courts] now and then. They are ‘learned’ people and what they are saying must be true. However what happens to them when an effort is made to make their affairs transparent and make them accountable? Remember the objection of the previous Chief Justice of India to the recent Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, and judges’ giving specious arguments how such a bill will do no good but erode judicial independence? Earlier, when the topmost judges of the country [barring a few] fought with the Central Information Commission on disclosing their wealth.

If you were to count the right things that the successive Union Governments have done in recent years, you would be able to count them on finger-tips. One such thing, to me, is the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill. It is a well-thought of bill, taking care of fictitious and malicious complaints and has enough provisions to give the accused opportunity to defend himself. In any case, the draft bill will go through a long process before becoming an Act and misgivings about its wrong use can be addressed in this process. However, we need such an Act and judges should welcome it. If they are not welcoming, they are only proving what people think about their integrity [click here for a survey on this and Shanti Bhushan's take on judiciary ].

apex court, apex corruption?

Prashant Bhushan, an advocate, faces contempt proceedings for calling half the last 16 former Chief Justices of India corrupt. Now he has submitted evidence to the Supreme Court against five previous CJIs. The Court is to hear the case next on November 10.

In his evidence, Bhushan has depended on suspicious judgments, houses built in eco-sensitive zones, taking plots from litigants whose case they were deciding and making orders favourable to a particular industrial house. He has also taken some proof from the documents forming part of impeachment notices against two judges; it is another matter that the impeachment never occurred. It is exceedingly difficult to get documentary evidence of corruption in higher judiciary, so he has to rely on circumstantial evidence.

The advocate's father and a former law minister Shanti Bhushan, an advocate himself, has accused 8 former Chief Justices of India of corruption, asked the Supreme Court to make him a party in the case and dared the Court to send him to jail for committing contempt of court. Legal fraternity is divided whether the father-son duo have a real case.

Technically, the Bhushans may lose the case and may even be penalised for contempt of court, but even the 'evidence' they have brought out in the public domain has served its purpose: to the cynical Indian, it proves what he feels he already knows.

P.S: Bhushan says, the present CJI, Kapadia, is a man of financial integrity.

roadside shrines and legality

Supreme Court has directed states to demolish un-authorised religious structures that have mushroomed all over public property. All cities are sprinkled with temples of myriad faiths, often next to roads and in markets where their owners get good number of devotees and hence fat donations.

Everybody in India is allowed to follow the faith of his liking or not follow any faith, but no Constitution, human right or law would allow you to encroach on public or someone’s property in the name of religion. However, as happens in almost all walks of life, the authorities concerned with land use either close their eyes to such encroachments OR take their cut to allow them OR encourage and protect these activities. The number of encroached religious structures, going by figures submitted by states to the Supreme Court, runs into many hundred thousands. The real number would be much higher.

Now, it is to be seen whether governments can gather the courage to demolish such un-authorised structures. Even if some government is convinced, will it bell the cat? What will be the reaction of fundamentalists and ‘devotees’? Will it lead to pick and choose in demolishing, resulting in corruption, favoritism and a new set of court cases? Chances are that the status quo will be maintained on one or the other pretext. Any significant action would, perhaps, require another direction from the Supreme Court in such stern lines: follow the order or the get jailed for contempt of court. Or even that would be stymied by parliamentarians – a bunch of vote seeking devotees.

vijay kumar, a curious victim of circumstance

An Indian film maker, Vijay Kumar, had to suffer indignity of the worst kind because he entered the US with brass knuckles and some documents the authorities found objectionable. He was handcuffed, branded a terrorist and jailed. After over 20 days in jail he is likely to be released soon only because he has agreed for ‘no contest’, and will be deported forthwith.

Indian embassy is reported to have left Vijay Kumar to fend for himself. We don’t know how much it would have mattered once his ‘demeanour’ was made a judicial case, but other countries are known to support the cases of their citizens implicated wrongly or excessively in a foreign country. At least it would have given Vijay Kumar’s side of the story some public exposure.

Ironically, Vijay Kumar is reported to have gone to the US to attend a congregation where he would have presented documents against extremism.

As it happens in India often [mostly with Indians, not foreigners if that is any consolation], the police authorities – keen to prove their alertness, achieve targets, take revenge or whatever – make a bombshell of a harmless crime committed due to lack of knowledge of some specific provision of local law. They use it to blackmail the victim and snare him further. All types of colour and fable are added to the supposed crime and he is incriminated in crimes the victim never committed. The record of the American police is not supposed to be much better.

Well, we all will soon forget Vijay Kumar’s story, feeling that he was ‘a victim of circumstance’ as his attorney says. Are we not too forgiving to a high-handed security system with no accountability and respect for dignity of the innocent?

‘me lord’, remove your blindfold !

A survey conducted by Dainik Jagran, a popular Hindi daily, about public perception of Indian judiciary confirms what we individually feel. Look at the figures:

About 70 % people have said, they are not happy with the judicial system.

More than half of the respondents have only some faith in the judiciary and a quarter other people have lost all faith. In all, only one out of four people have faith left in judiciary.

Over 29 % people feel that corruption is the biggest bane of Indian legal system and 28.6 % feel that delays are the biggest problem. 27.8 % people feel that both these maladies, the costs involved and obsolete laws together have rotten the system.
Four out of five people have stated that judges should be bound by norms of judicial conduct.

People who have had experience of courts seem to be frustrated. An overwhelming 81.1 % of them have found the judicial system full of corruption. Only 35.8 % of them were satisfied with the judgement.