Postscript

Explaining judicial mewing

The plaintive wail on the eve of National Law Day (November 26) of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, who heads the Supreme Court of India and the 12,980 judges-strong Indian judicial hierarchy, bemoaning the pathetic state of the justice system characterised by the law’s agonising delay, is indicative of the lack of problem solving ability within the country’s over-hyped judiciary. Addressing the public on national television, the chief justice lamented that the humongous case arrears (aggregating 25 million in the subordinate courts, 3.7 million in the high courts and 31,000 in the Supreme Court) are the consequence of the Union government’s failure to heed the apex court’s directive in the All India Judges Association Case (2002) to augment the strength of the judiciary by appointing 10,000 additional judges countrywide.

That fast-track, shining India’s judicial system is in disarray and on the point of collapse is well known. For instance, the number of judges per million population in India is a mere 13 as against UK’s 50 and 107 in the US. Moreover while Great Britain from whom we inherited our justice system and procedures spends 4.3 percent of its GDP on maintaining its judiciary, in India the annual expenditure is a mere 0.2 percent.

Apocalyptic warnings about the imminent breakdown of the justice system have been issued ad nauseam. Yet surely the learned CJI and the pantheon of loquacious judges of the apex court are aware that under the doctrine of separation of powers, they have the authority to issue a contempt notice to government to fill up judicial vacancies and augment the judiciary as per the court’s orders, or else? Moreover, if they were truly pained by the law’s delay and its impact on the long-suffering citizenry, they could threaten to close down the courts until the government does their bidding. Surely, these are better options to the pathetic mewing which judges of the higher judiciary resort to from time to time?

So why doesn’t the powerful Supreme Court wag the stick instead of begging for carrots? There’s the rub. Judges treading hard on government toes are unlikely to be awarded governorships and contracts to head commissions of enquiry and reform, post-retirement. Because of such petty considerations, initiatives of great pith and moment are sicklied by the pale cast of thought.

Unwarranted celebrations

The hubris of India’s discredited political class, and in particular the recklessness with which they expend public funds of which the public education and health sectors are perpetually starved, knows no bounds. Instances of the reckless abandon with which the public exchequer has been raided to fund the extravagant whims and fancies of ministers, members of Parliament and the twice-born bureaucratic elite who constitute the establishment, have often been highlighted on this page.

For instance a government-funded exclusive airline of almost a dozen Embraer jets purchased at over Rs.200 crore each, has become operational to cater to ministers and MPs fed up with the democratisation of air travel. Likewise the curious spectacle of over half a dozen Union ministers and assorted worthies finding the time and money to descend on New York to support the recent Rs.10 crore tourism ministry’s incredibly inept Incredible India campaign in Times Square.

Hot on the heels of these extravaganzas comes the news that Mani Shankar Aiyar, the irrepressible Union minister of panchayati raj (local government), youth and sports, is planning a massive rally in New Delhi to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the passage of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments of December 1992.

According to press reports, for a two-day national congregation of panchayat members from across the country, the Rt. Hon minister has submitted a bill for Rs.165 crore to the Union finance ministry, which following objections has magnanimously been scaled down to Rs.102 crore.

Yet given the fact that 15 years after the 73rd and 74th amendments were passed, precious few funds and powers of local governance have devolved upon the panchayats and municipal ward committees, makes one wonder whether any celebrations at all are warranted. Under the 73rd and 74th amendments, the composition and taxation powers of village panchayats and municipal ward committees are determined by legislative assemblies of the states. And expectedly, state governments haven’t devolved any worthwhile powers upon them — a cause for lamentation rather than celebration.

Perhaps the cause of local self government would be better served if the Rt. Hon minister devoted his considerable powers of persuasion to investing real power into village panchayats and municipal ward committees. Then there would be real cause to celebrate.

Notwithstanding the claims of Ms. Mayawati, the chairperson and undisputed leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who was recently sworn in as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, that she has begun to crack down on the lawlessness and goonda raj of the predecessor Samajwadi Party government, her claim of having created a bhay mukt samaj (fearless society) in UP has few takers in the state’s beleaguered teachers community. Last month (November) two college principals were murdered on their campuses within days of each other.

On November 21, Radheyshyam Tapan, principal of Jagadish Saran Hindu Inter College in Amroha was shot dead. A day later on November 22, P.C. Gupta, principal of DAV College, Moradabad was murdered on the college campus while taking his morning walk.

According to media reports, Gupta’s murder was engineered by local MLA Bhagwan Sharma, who had taken up the cause of eight students rusticated by the principal. But since Sharma is a member of the ruling BSP, no action was taken by the police or district magistrate when Gupta reported dire threats made by Sharma.

Sharma is incidentally not the first BSP MLA under a cloud. Anand Sen Yadav, a minister in Mayawati’s government is under the scanner for the murder of a 22-year-old law student in Faziabad. Despite this, neither of the alleged killers has been interrogated and continue to enjoy official privileges.

Quite obviously, UP’s culture of lawlessness is too deeply embedded to be rooted out easily. Plus ca change, plus c’est meme chose (‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’).