File: Pers/jud-to cji-sharing concerns-010518 01 May 2018
Dear Mr Dipak Misra,
This is an effort
to share the concerns of a citizen who shall never tire of fighting for
justice.
To begin with I
must hold the judiciary responsible for the ultimate failure of law and order
in the society. Long before Adv Prashant Bhushan said that not even 1% get
justice in present system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJjDwGDREA&feature=youtu.be) or Asian Human Rights Commission slammed India’s Scofflaw Officialdom by
asking (19 Oct 2012) 'Why should a criminal be afraid of the crime being
detected, investigated, and prosecuted in a country where the entire justice
apparatus has fallen? ' I had heard elders claim that it was a blessing in this
country to live without entering a police station or court. And as one who has
been seriously observinging the performance of the judiciary for the last 20
plus years I have no doubt that if this country is ever driven to a civil war
like situation it will be entirely due to the failure of the justice delivery
system headed by the judiciary.
The failures of
the judiciary are on very many counts. The problems start with the very nature
of discretion given to judges in ruling on cases. In every case before a judge
there are two parties each presenting some fact, some laws and some precedences
and the judge is placed in such a position that he can as well toss a coin and
decide whom to favour with his judgment. Thereafter the only thing he has to do
is to pick up the relavent facts, law and precedences from those before him,
put together his conclusions and add to it his decision! The provisions for
punishment for contempt of court in the Constitution and the laws made there
under have made our judges living examples of the truism 'absolute power corrupts
absolutely'. While I maintain that this is one law that is required only for
ensuring compliance with judgments the unfortunate fact is that that is the
only reason for which it is hardly used whereas it is most lavishly used in
suppressing criticism about judges.
With that as a
prelude I must come to the current situation that has necessitated this
communication.
The ultimate
nail has been dug on the coffin of judicial credibility and integrity with the
four judges headed by Jasti Chelameswar casting aspersions on none other than
the Chief Justice of this country himself. Through these aspersions they have
primarily questioned even the competence of the Chief Justice to allot cases
and also attributed baseless motives to him! I am familiar with terms like
bench hunting and uncle judges prevalent in judiciary but this is the first
time I have come across a clamour from judges wanting to chose the cases they
would like to deal with! That they have been allowed to get away with such
malicious allegations is certainly a serious failure on your part. For my part
I had posted an online petition addressed to the President of India and the
Prime Minister to impeach the four judges. It is available at https://www.change.org/p/the-president-of-india-and-the-prime-minister-judges-revolt-contempt-of-court/ It was posted on
11/02/2018 and by 28/02/2018 over 200 citizens had supported it. It was communicated
to the PM through a tweet on 21/02/2018.
But what I saw
there after was even more shocking- the opposition moving for your impeachment!
Personally I believe that you were not their target but the Prime Minister
himself. And not that they themself seemed to believe in their action. It was
almost like the proverbial dogs barking at a caravan moving by!
The other issue
that is currently agitating citizens interested in justice and judiciary is the
issue of appointment of K M Joseph as a judge of the supreme court. While the
constitution and functioning of the collegium is itself questionable, but given
the fact that it is a reality, the question that arises is how the ten judges
who are chief justices of various high courts and senior ot K M Joseph have
been superceded by the collegium while making the initial recommendation. While
the judiciary can be often heard harping on transparency in the dealings of the
executive there is no doubt that there is hardly any transparency in its own
functioning, the collegium being the worst. However since the matter is now in
public domain, we, the People, do have a right to know the facts leading to
this large scale supercession. The only earlier case that is in public domain
is of the supercession of 3 judges of the apex court itself in the matter of
the appointment of the then CJI, post Indira Gandhi's conviction that led to
clamping of an uncalled for Emergency on the nation itself!
The third
concern that I would like to share with
you is regarding the cost of pursuing justice, on account of delays and
preposterous fees charged by advocates. From media reports I understand that
the Executive is on the job of compiling information on fees prescribed and
those charged by advocates. I can only hope that something postive will come
out of it. But regarding delays I am afraid even the Executive will only leave
it to the mercy of the judges. Though most of the laws prescribe time limits
and number of adjournments that can be granted you can't deny that they are followed
mostly in their breaches. Even the Consumer Protection Act mandates that a
consumer dispute be disposed off within 3 months. In one particular case, OP
282/1999 of District Consumer disputes Redressal Forum, Palakkad (OP No 85/1995
transferred from Malappuram), the opposite party had produced interim stay
order on 28/10/99 and the stay was vacated only
on 8/6/2005 but through out this period the case was listed 58 times and
adjourned! It was finally posted for orders on 6/7/07 but was opened for re-hearing
suo moto on 15/2/08 and went on an adjournment spree from 3/3/08 to 31/5/2010.
It was adjourned 17 times, including 5 times for want of members/President and
10 times for orders only! It was dismissed when an application was submitted
under the RTI Act to find out the status! When a quasi judicial organisation
can do such preposterous things I loath to imagine what could be the state of
affairs in the judiciary. But one thing has to be acknowledged that the
judiciary by itself is not seen doing anything to reduce the delays, whether it
is cutting down on holidays prevailing from colonial days or speeding up trails
by refusing unwarranted adjournments or punishing public servants who indulge
in unwarranted litigation at the cost of the public exchequer!
I do not know
what all and how much you can do to salvage the credibility and integrity of
the judiciary. But the least you can and should do before you demit office is
to ensure that the four judges who have thrown muck at you, and there by on the
institution of judiciary itself, are punished at least as severely as C S
Karnan, former judge of the Kolkata High Court, though his crime pales into
insignificance compared to what these four judges have done in a deliberate and
conspirational manner.
Yours truly,
P M Ravindran
Sri Dipak Misra, CJI
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi
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