[The Raven]

Suddenly I got this doubt and wanted to see people views on this. My questions.

1. Our IAS officers are selected through highly rigorous exams, which also involve testing of ethics. Our politicians are elected by the people. Judges don't have to undergo neither of these processes. In fact the law profession itself is infamous world over for dishonesty. And the judges come from this sytem. So why do some people consider judiciary as the only surviving pillar of the Indian constitution?

2. In India, the records say 36 years of cases are waiting. And I saw some statistic from some unreliable source that in India people can not expect to received justice in 95% of the time. Even if this is wrong, how much off the mark can it be. And how many of us want to go to court for any personal disputes. Yet why is Supreme court viewed as the ultimate upholder of justice.

3. In many of the cases, jusdgement came too late when it was of no use to the plaintiff. In many cases, when court upturned government decisions, the government was hurt in no way, except the ego of some politicians. But the benefeciaries of the upturned policy, who had no hand in government's decision get affected adversely. Take the recent SC judgement on OBC quota for instance. The government introduced this idea more than a year back and so many people have been protesting and carrying out agitations. But the court chooses to wait till IIMs implement the policy, call people, conduct interviews and some colleges even give out calls. Then suddenly SC emerges from nowehere and stays the governemnt order. The government is going to do all kinds of stunts and eventually get the policy through by next year. The only loosers would be this year's OBC candidates. And neither government not court cares about them. I have seen similar things happening earlier also. This makes me wonder whether courts really care about the people or are they only asserting themselves to show their power vis a vis the politicians.

This is more a thought that occured to me rather than strong opinions. People's views are welcome.

Disclaimer: I hope this is not a RCP or inappropriate discussion

[HarshaRocks]

@ Raven,

1. IAS Officers are selected through a rigorous selection process.But that is no guarantee of their professional conduct.Politicians are elected b(u)y the people. Therefore, politics is not a service anymore and has more to do with return on investment(ROI).The babus(IAS,IPS etc.) though are some of the best people selected for the job.Now considering that the babus have no real authority and have to report to the politicians,it is too much to expect that the babus will be their own self when they lack teeth of their own and depend on the babus for almost everything(funds,transfer and (I think) promotion as well). This is not to deny the due respect to some honest officers who are lost in the cloud of corruption and the ineffeciency of our system. On the contrary, the selection of judges is made by the peers and is (I think) subject to review. The judges of a court decide on the judge who will be taking up a vacant spot based on a number of factors including integrity, past records etc. So it is very unlikely that the guys selected will be without a proper criteria. Though I remember some judge admitting not long ago that almost 20% of our judges are indeed corrupt. But that's an "acceptable" figure I think (considering that we are rated as one of the most corrupt countries and also a Prime Minister once declared that - "Corruption is a worldwide phenomenon").

2. Everyone agrees that justice delayed is justice denied. But can we blame the SC for the long list of cases? Is it humanly possible for a judge to decide on thousands of cases at one go? What is causing the number of cases to pile up? Perhaps,the ineffeciency of our legal justice system. Now I am not aware of the steps being taken up to clear the backlog,so I will leave it that. But this point cannot question the SC being the ultimate upholder of justice. Taking a look at the history of how our SC and some HC's have acted, one might just be wondering if it is necessary for the courts to have acted so pro-actively when all its judges could have done was to watch injustice being meted out and hear out cases that only come up through proper channels. For example, I'll mention the Tajmahal case where the SC took sou motto action on its own to get the industries in around Mathura to stop emissions that would have damaged the great Taj. There is also the case of Delhi CNG Compliance and clean air for Delhites. Another prime example is how the Delhi HC got Sachin Tendulkar to pay up for the Ferrari for which the duties were exempted by the government for no legal reasons. Also, the court has introduced the PIL system in which the people can bring to the notice of the court issues that concern the general public at large. Now, it is for the government to have acted in earnest in the examples that I have quoted. It is only when the government falters and it seems to do that more often now that the courts intervene. When our politicians have let us down and there seems to be only the SC for rescue one but can't consider the judiciary to be the only pillar left.

3. If we were to consider the OBC quota issue for instance, every sensible Indian knows that the politicians of this country are only interested in getting the votes they need and aren't really interested in our welfare. This issue has something to do with how our constitution was written and the framers of our constitution had in mind. The issue might be ultimately settled only by a constitutional bench and not the 2-judge bench as it is now so I will not comment further. Recently, I think the PM and the Chief Justice were on a common platform. Each of them acknowledged the need for agreements/disagreements between the executive and judiciary for the healthy functioning of our democracy. The judiciary is acting well within its rights. It is time the politicians acknowledged that there are limits to their vote bank fancies and they need to act sensibly and responsibly.

[Plumber]

@ Raven...interesting topic!
However, you are incorrect in saying that people consider Judiciary as the last pillar of democracy. Quite to the contrary, if you were to go by the Transparency International Survey that came out last year. According to survey, Judiciary is the second-most corrupt public service. Startling, isn't it? The only people who consider Judiciary as "beholder" of Indian democracy and its values, are probably those who have no idea of the ground realities and have based their conclusion on a few high profile cases where the so-called powerful people were eventually hauled up by the long-arm of the law.(read: Jessica Lal case, Priyadarshani Matoo case)

The rot has, surely, caught up with Judiciary as well. These are some of the ills that plague our Judiciary:

Nepotism: Harsha gave a very correct piece on info. that the judges are appointed by peers/superiors etc. However, the conclusion that he derived that: "hence Judges are appointed on the basis of sound criteria", is grossly incorrect. If anything it only means that chances of Nepotism and Favoritism are much greater. If I am not mistaken, some 10-15 SC judges/HC judges decide who will be appointed judges in the Lower Court. No information/evaluation process is shared with common man. Everything is so opaque and non-transparent. The cabal ends up appointing their friends/relatives etc. as the judges. Not only that, many cases have come to light, where the judge's son is a public prosecutor who's paid money to lose the case. Also, in UP, for example Anil Ambani won an SEZ case, where his counsel's father was the frigging judge. As a result, not only the case came up for hearing immediately(quite an achievement considering the backlog of cases that exist), but also lead to a verdict favorable to Anil Ambani. Travesty of justice, ain't it?

Corruption/Nexus with babus/politicians/powerfuls: Have already mentioned the Transparency International's survey-results.If not for corruption, how else can you explain such a mild punishement to Alex Pereira-the rich brat whose car ran over 7 people? How else can you explain the acquittal of Manu Sharma by the lower court, and the promotion of Justice Bhayana(who delivered the verdict) to "Hight Court Judge" status??? Isn't it obvious that Bhayana got promoted, because he acquitted Manu Sharma- a son of a rich and powerful politician?? Also, there is a case of rich Swiss paedophiles getting away scot-free because the Mumbai HC judge thought that "no purpose would be served by detaining them".

Bottomline: It's time we acknowledge that Judiciary is as corrupt and ineffective as some of the other so-called pillars of our democracy are. Let's not delude ourselves!! You cannot reduce the magnitude of the problem, unless you acknoweldge that there exists one!!

Will wait for participation from the junta here...will write more points later...

Cheers!

[Plumber]

Hajhisthan Times (HT)

Telgi to do another Scam!!!


- Vir Sunk-we


Pune/Mumbai: In an unparalleled verdict in the legal history of India, Abdul Karim Telgi- the accused in Pune Bund Garden case- has been sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment and has been ordered to pay a humongous fine of 250 crores. In the event of Telgi failing to pay up this runaway fine of 250 crores, he will be given an additional punishment of 3 years 3 months.

The judges who pronounced this judgment refused to comment on the raison de etre of imposing such an exorbitant amount of fine on Telgi. But government certainly has heaved a sigh of glee, as they might end up recovering a part of the total revenue-loss it has suffered due to Telgi’s fake stamp-paper scam.

When Chaggan Bhujbal was asked as to what does he have to say about the possibility of recovering, from Telgi, 250 crores- 8.33% of estimated scam-value 3000 crores- he was only willing to given an off-the-record reply, saying: “What BS? Recovering 8.33%?- my a*se- We all know that the scam-value was much larger than what’s been estimated! I can safely say that we can add 500 crores more, though I can’t give you a definite figure, not unless Sharad Pawar and Vilasrao declare their assets, prior to the next-elections. I promise to speak to this newspaper exclusively, whenever that happens!”

We also spoke to hero of the day Abdul Karam Telgi, who had the courage to plead guilty before the court of Law. He was quite frank when he said: “I am glad that the prosecutor’s demand of giving me a sentence of 20 years has been rejected by the Court of Law. I am contended with the amount of 250 crores fine. I am confident that I can pull off another scam and generate that amount. Infact, I will try to generate 1000 crores more, a total of 1250 crore, and get my whole punishment waived”. We did not exactly understand this statement, but it seems that Telgi is going to use a legal-precedent- actually logic employed in this case itself- to appeal to the court that his sentence of 13 years be waived if he manages to pay 1000 crores, just as: if he pays 250 crores fine, he would not get the runaway punishment of 3 years 3 months. When asked about his next move, he said that, for now, he’s hoping to be a part of the jail where he has co-operative and not-so-grumpy inmates. He’s not worried about things like mobile facilities, sympathetic hawalldars etc. as he thinks those are easily available in all Indian Jails.


Our sources confirm that Telgi’s planning to appeal to the SC, and has already appointed the top legal-eagle Ram Jethmalani as his lawyer. This will be the first time that a man who has plead guilty in the lower-court will be approaching the SC, solely for the purpose of getting his sentence revoked.

[subodh_iit]

No, they are our well-wishers only virtually

[leecian]

Originally Posted by subodh_iit

No, they are our well-wishers only virtually

you're right!