INDIA-IS IT CONSTITUTIONALLY A BANANA REPUBLIC?

The other day I got an alert seeking support for an online petition addressed to the Minister for Law and Justice. It is available at https://www.change.org/p/v-s-shanavas-prevention-of-corruption-amendment-act-2018-legal-remedy-required?recruiter=916385015&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition

The author of the petition claims to be working against corruption and human rights violations and to protect the environment. He is presently trying to prosecute a few people including some public servants who have connived to facilitate encroachment of some land acquired for developing the national highway and making illegal gains for themselves at the cost to the exchequer.

Through the online petition he is seeking just to get clarification on a recent amendment made to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. As per the amendment, to prosecute a public servant prior permission needs to be taken from his superior authority. Now the law is not clear as to what is the remedy if the permission is not granted within a specific period or not granted at all. His apprehensions are real in that invariably in corruption cases the superior authority is a party to the crime. In fact the guy who is actually taking the bribe is the one at the tail end of the hierarchy and his own share in the spoils could be the least.

It should also be obvious that no public servant can even take away a pencil illegally from any office without a couple of colleagues coming to know of it.

While the online petition is relevant, more pertinent is the obnoxiousness of the need for members of the public to fight corruption on their own steam. As far as citizens of a democracy, priding itself on rule of law, are concerned, the only course of action required to be taken is to bring the breaches to the competent authorities for necessary action. Officially we do have a plethora of institutions and procedures for investigating corruption cases including scams. But reports of a village officer here or a police constable there being punished for taking a bribe of Rs 100/- or 1000/- are frequent (but still not adequate to be a deterrent!) how many of the big sharks have actually been convicted for their crimes? Currently we do have a Lalu Prasad Yadav, a former Chief Minister and Union Minister, undergoing a prison sentence. In fact he has been punished by more than one court to varying terms of imprisonment and since the verdicts are of different courts it is not clear whether he will undergo the terms consecutively or is undergoing it concurrently. Whatever that may be the reports appearing in the media indicate that he is mostly undergoing treatment in hospitals, including in AIIMS, Delhi, India’s premier health care institution and the short spells he is spending in prison cells are apparently with such comforts as are not available to ordinary convicts.

Dr Abdul Kalam, when he was the President of India, had once asked ‘why is it that when most of the scams that we hear of are in thousands of crores, the under trials in our prisons are mostly the poor and marginalized?’

I wish he had sought the data from the judiciary itself. Even data about the offences, bailable or not, and if bailable, the reason for not granting bail, from a few randomly selected lower courts would have been revealing. One reason I have learnt is that for getting bail from the courts, one has to present a surety who has immovable property in his name along with the latest tax receipt for such property. Now how can petty offenders like pick pockets produce such surety?

Somebody had rightly said that laws are like cobwebs. Insects get caught but birds simply fly through.

Writing in the Mathrubhumi of 10 Nov 2011 (‘Vidhi prathilomakaram thane’, meaning that the verdict is heinous), Adv Kaleeswaram Raj had stated that an extra constitutional, unannounced and invisible emergency is being imposed through our courts and civil society has to be alert to this and react effectively. He was analyzing the contempt of court verdict against a Marxist party leader, M V Jayarajan, who had used the term ‘sumban’ (dimwits) for the judges who had banned road side meetings. On the face of it such usage may be considered inappropriate. But the fact remains that an earlier order of the same court banning bandhs had not been implemented even after being upheld by the apex court. So, wasn’t this order totally impractical when it comes to implementation? Further, the judges themselves had called Jayarajan a worm even while punishing him with a stiff sentence of imprisonment. Between dimwits and worms I am sure the dimwit part makes more sense than the purely contemptuous worm.

In fact the bandh ban order has been flouted with impunity by perpetrating the same action in the name of hartal. I had submitted an application under the Right to Information Act seeking copies of the orders of the High Court and apex court. The application, submitted to the Home Minister’s office was forwarded to their Secret Section (A) and the High Court, from Secret Section to M Department of the same Ministry. The M Section tried to palm off certain court orders that were not sought. The High Court denied it saying that as the matter pertained to a judicial proceeding it could not be provided! Now the irony is that when the Right to Information Act was legislated we had heard judges tom tomming how the judiciary had always tried to protect the right to information of citizens as a corollary to the right to freedom of speech and expression. It must also be remembered that all court proceedings are usually in open court and to that extent presumed to be transparent.

Back to the ban order on road side meetings. The Kerala Government promptly enacted to law to just regulate such meetings. But contents of this regulation notwithstanding, in practice what is done is that applications are collected from the organizers, without even acknowledging their acceptance and no written permission is accorded prior to the event. The events carry on as scheduled and though not exactly randomly, some cases are filed to create some statistics!

In the context of the current vitiated atmosphere prevailing at Sabarimala, it is pertinent to highlight the response of the current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, the then State Secretary of the Marxist Party, to this order banning road side meetings. After visiting Jayarajan in jail he came out strongly against the court and even organized a protest in front of the High Court.  Needless to say it was on the road side itself, most blatantly violating the high court order which had been appealed against in the apex court but not stayed.

In fact, if you look at the overall situation, the ground reality is that the judiciary is a total failure. The touch stone is the truism that justice delayed is justice denied. And then there is also the cost factor. The renowned constitutional lawyer, Fali S Nariman, in his book 'India's Legal system: Can it be saved?’ has stated that “For more years than I can imagine we lawyers have been using our lawyering skills not in a profession but in a game, in which the more skilful (which tends to become also the  more costly), will invariably win.” Unfortunately, he has not himself answered the question he had posed. Probably, there isn’t any.

Renuka Narayanan, columnist, writing in The New Indian Express on 20/12/2004 ('Human rights, the genesis of justice is from religion') has stated that when we transformed from subjects to citizens, we forfeited our rights it seems, since what happens in our country now in the name of law is often rank injustice.

And, Aravind Kumar, writing in the Pioneer of 01/08/2006 ('Needed high speed legal redressal') has stated that justice is an intrinsic human need. We suffer much privation but we cannot suffer being wronged. Absence of justice, we must not forget, is one of the causes of crime.

Mr. Venkatachala, then Lokayukta of Karnataka had said, at a function organised by the Federation of Bar Associations, in Karnataka that "Corruption in the judiciary is a big problem. Nothing can be worse for the legal system". Citing a study done by Transparency International, he had also said that 89 per cent of the public thought that the judiciary was corrupt.

And here is a tongue in cheek view by Mahendra Gaur, who seems to know the system intimately: Good lawyers know the law; successful lawyers know the judge.

Suffice to say that the failed judiciary remains the bane of this country and the greatest impediment to its aspiration to regain its lost glory and be a power to reckon with in the comity of developed nations.

The politician-bureaucrat-underworld nexus had been the subject of many a study. But has any corrective measures been taken ever? The simple truth is that nothing is visible on the ground. The one step- enactment of the Right to Information Act- had given some hope. But that also remains belied. Not just information commissions but all institutions created to ease the process of justice delivery have remained counterproductive due to the ultimate failure of the judiciary itself because the tendency is to whimsically and waywardly deal with issues and push the aggrieved citizens to the already broken down judiciary. (For further reading refer the blogs at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com/2012/07/fraud-in-governance-and-redressal-of.html and http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2013/08/perfidy-isnt-thy-other-name-governance.html)

This is what V K Raghavan, former Director, CBI, had written in the Hindu of 23/01/2017 (“Dealing with the deadwood”): The only obstacle in the way of drastic civil service reform — like the one pursued by the present government at the Centre — is the judiciary that overturns or stays every administrative action against an erring senior officer. Courts would earn the admiration of a harassed public if they stopped interfering in disciplinary matters once they are satisfied that prescribed procedures had been followed in a case coming up before them and there is no malice writ large on a decision. Judicial overstepping, while correcting unjust action against a few honest civil servants, unwittingly promotes the cause of many unscrupulous elements. The track record of administrative tribunals in the country is a matter of great concern to those looking for a balanced and objective bureaucracy. There is need here for an immediate corrective by the Union Law Ministry.

Now ask what the Union Law Ministry can do about this. What has happened to the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act? A law, duly enacted by the competent authority through a constitutional process that is adequately severe has been dumped by a few judges on the specious argument that the executive involvement in appointment of judges would impinge on the freedom of the judges to act independently. Is it time that we asked should we do away with all institutions of government leaving alone the judiciary? Now, since the judges can only pass orders you need someone to enforce it also. So why should not we usher in a new democracy where we elect our judges and policemen and send everybody else home?  But then the questions will remain: who will judge the judges and who will police the policemen?

The Sabarimala situation shows that the ordinary citizens are not only always doomed to be in a NO WIN situation but can also be simple pawns in the power games of a handful few. (For further reading please read ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burnt…’ at http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4849, ‘Our constitutional fault lines’ at http://vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4868 and a complaint to the Chief Minister of Kerala at https://raviforjustice.blogspot.com/2018/11/sabarimala-and-other-issues-complaint.html )

26 Nov 2018

OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FAULTLINES

Commenting on my own article ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burnt’, published on 4^th November 2018 at http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4849, I had written ‘I cannot say if the apex court judgment in the hands of Pinarayi led Government can be compared to a bouquet of flowers in the hands of a monkey or a murderous weapon in the hands of a serial murderer. The fact remains that the fear of their rights related to their faith being violated is writ large and there has been reports of protests from devotees even in far away Australia, Canada and the US of A.’

The events that followed the opening of the hill shrine for 5 days from the evening of 17th November, for one day on 5^th November and the annual pilgrimage season, extending till mid January 2019, on 17 November has now exposed what a farce of a democracy have been gifted to us through a Constitution, which has been rightly criticized as a plagiarized version of the Government of India Act, 1935, enacted by the colonial rulers to grant limited self governance for the locals.

The Chief Minister of Kerala, a Marx follower, is now being referred to as Kerala Stalin with adequate justification. The way he has neglected the flood victims, a significant number of whom are still in relief camps, even after 3 months of the flood, his foreign jaunts for almost a month during this period, his failure to implement apex court orders in many cases, from implementing a minimum pay for nurses to handing over a church from one denomination to another, his effort to circumvent the apex court orders on banning admission to two medical colleges by issuing an ordinance, failure to investigate a party MLA accused as a molester by a woman victim of his own party…the list is long and enough to question his intentions when he has concentrated his efforts to ensure a woman of objectionable age (as per the devotees) is taken to Sabarimala.

The gross error in the majority judgment of the apex court has already been explained in detail in my article quoted earlier. What was left unsaid was that even before the temple opened for the first time after the verdict, in Oct, there had been filed two review petitions-one by the Nair Service Society through its advocate, K Parasaran on 8^th October and another by  All Kerala Brahmins Association through Adv Sanand Ramakrishnan on 13^th  October 2018. The court decided to take up these petitions only on 13^th November 2018, just three days before the annual pilgrimage season was to start. And on that day, after hearing the parties in the Chamber, it was decided to hear the petitions, now almost 50 in number, only on 22 January 2019, after the temple closes at the end of the season. To add insult to injury the court made it clear that there was no stay on the original order.

Whatever has happened during the periods when the temple had opened will forever remain a blotch on any democratic government, even if it is a Marxist Party led one. It appears that the Pinarayi Vijayan led government is at war with the majority of its citizens, particularly the devotees of Lord Ayyappa. Forget about repairing the assets damaged by the floods, even the available facilities, including drinking water and toilets, were denied to the devotees reaching the shrine after long journeys and an arduous trek through forest track in a mountainous terrain. The dormitory accommodation available in the temple premises were also denied to the devotees. It was an agonizing and outrageous sight to see children sleeping near garbage bins, out of sheer exhaustion.

Immediately after the temple closed on 6^th November, a video clip went viral on social media of the young District Collector of Patthanamthitta, P B Nooh, under whose jurisdiction Sabarimala is situated, ticking off the staff of the Tranvancore Devaswam Board for the lack of maintenance of the available facilities and unpreparedness for the forthcoming season that was just round the corner. But as current reports suggest, nothing had been done after that.

Leaders of groups who were I the forefront of peaceful protests earlier but were now on the way to the temple as normal devotees have been arrested. While Sasikala teacher, State president of Viswa Hindu Parishad, was let off by the Court of the RDO, K Surendran, General Secretary of State BJP, has been remanded to 14 days in custody. It is as if the Chief Minister is directly, and only, supervising the Police Raj at Sabarimala. The efforts to gag the media were foiled by just one channel, Janam TV, approaching the High Court of Kerala and getting orders forbidding government interference in media covering the events in and around Sabarimala.

Ever since the demolition of Babari Masjid there have been threats to both the temples at Guruvayur and Sabarimala, especially on the anniversaries of the event on 6^th December. And now with the apex court order permitting women of the age group 10 to 50 to visit the shrine and the public protest against it, Pinarayi Vijayan is on strong wicket as far as the deployment of the large number of police personnel is concerned. But as it happens usually, it is always a question of misuse of powers for devious purposes that have been the bane of law enforcement in this country. While devotees are harassed in every possible way, including the denial of the right to perform the most cherished ritual of anointing the idol with the ghee brought by them filled in coconuts, the police have reportedly ordered even the insufficient food stalls to shut down after the temple hours. On the flip side they themselves have been ordered to wear their shoes, belt, caps etc as per regulations (which had not been there earlier). Silly as it may seem, they have also been ordered not to address the devotees as Swamy or Malikappuram, which are the traditional forms of addressing the devotees once they begin their vrat till they return after offering their prayers at the temple.

Central intelligence agencies have reportedly indicted the State Government. Central ministers are expected to visit the shrine soon to study the ground realities personally. But how effectively they will be able to intervene remains to be seen. The fact that the apex court could issue such a blatantly unconstitutional order (yes, I repeat, it is blatantly unconstitutional as it violates the fundamental right to religion as enunciated in Article 26 of the Constitution and has not abrogated Article 25(2)(b) which is applicable to only Hindu institutions and thus violative of the much touted right to equality.) an elected Chief Minister could strive to drive the citizens of his state into near revolt cannot be dismissed easily without recognizing the faultlines of our Constitution and the lack of the much needed checks and balances.

18 Nov 2018

Sabarimala and other issues-Complaint to the Chief Minister of Kerala

from: Ravindran P M <raviforjustice@gmail.com>
to: CHIEF MINISTER KERALA <chiefminister@kerala.gov.in>
cc: CM Office Kerala <cmoffice@kerala.gov.in>
date: Oct 26, 2018, 10:50 AM
subject: Complaint-Sabarimala and other issues

Attention: Mr Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Mnister of Kerala

1. Refer my e mail of 1/9/16, copy given at the end of this mail.

2. Needless to say my hopes lie shattered.

3. You will no doubt go down in the history of Kerala as the last and worst commie Chief Minister of the State, nay, of the country itself. Maybe for some it would make no difference whether it is notoriety or fame that follows them.

4. I have read reports of you earlier telling media persons to get out in the most uncouth manner. And even reminding the Prime Minister that we have a federal system of government. And now you and your ministers are heard telling the Thanthri of Sabarimala that they are mere employees of the Devaswam Board. Now let me tell you that it will do you a lot of good if you get the following facts correct.

5. We not only have a federal system of governance, we are a democratic country too. I hope you understand what democracy means. It is rule 'of the people, for the people, by the people' as an American President put it. And the National Commission to review the working of the Constitution has unambiguously stated that 'the highest office of the land it that of a citizen'.

6. And before I go to your failures and perfidies as the Chief Minister, responsible for all that an elected government is tasked to do, let me place it on record that you and your ministers are our employees. Have no doubt about that.

7. Coming to the Thanthri of Sabarimala, being an employee of the Dewaswam Board, it is as much a fraud as the communist party did with land reforms- took land from the then owners and distributed it to a small group of persons and now doling out tax money to these very erstwhile owners for their sustenance. In the case of Sabarimala too the situation is no different. Sabarimala and the Ayyappa temple there is older than the State, the Dewaswam Board and even your party at the world level. The Thantri's income possibly is much lesser than what he would have had, had not the management of the temple's affairs been usurped by the government in a grossly unconstitutional manner and vested with the devaswom boards. We are well aware of the misuse of the voluntary donations of devotees to the temple by the employees of the devaswom boards, starting with its President.

8. This complaint will not be complete without recounting some ( I repeat some) of your gross failures during the last couple of years of governance. In the reverse chronological order they are as follows.

9. Your visit to UAE, with your family, at tax payers' cost,  with the declared objective of motivating NRKs to contribute towards the states' reconstruction after the floods. It appears, from reports in the media, after your return, that you have admitted to having had talks with business people to invest in Kerala rather than contribute to reconstruction of the flood ravaged state. In the background of the Global Investors Meet, hosted by the Government of Kerala periodically, this trip was wholly uncalled for, futile and waste of tax payer' money.

10. The plans to send 17 of your cabinet collegues abroad along with a team of about 190 bureaucrats was nothing but preposterous and we have to thank Mr Narendra Modi led government for denying permission. I am also wondering whether you and all the 17 ministers are redundant given the fact that you could plan to leave the state with your unfulfilled responsibilites of rehabilitating the victims of the flood, many of whom are still in relief camps.

11. Even when the rehabilitation activities were at its peak, you had left for the capital of the capitalist world, acclaimedly for treatment of an undisclosed ailment. While health and the treatment of indivduals are necessarily a private matter, it has to be an exception in the matter of public servants. Like freedom of speech and organisation, though fundmental rights under the Constitution, are denied to soldiers. In any case the public have a right to know of your ailment for two reasons: one, they are funding the treatment and all associated costs and two, they have to know if you are sufficiently health to fulfill the responsibilites that go with your assignment. The fact that you had not even handed over your duties while being out of the State for treatment tend to suggest that the ailment was not serious. And that also raises the question why you had misused your office to splurge tax payers money for a treatment that should have been availed within the State, which you yourself had boasted was amoung the best in the country.

12. That the floods were man made and attributable to the ineptitude of your government is no more in doubt. The involvement of the government in the rescue and relief operations were even more condemnable. Had it not been for the prompt and daring interventions of individuals and unorganised groups even the death toll would have been many fold. Even at the peak of these operations you and some of your ministers were only seen creating controversies, including insulting the armed forces who were here on aid to civil authorities.

13. The investigations into the sex scandals involving Bishop Franco Mulaikkal, priests, Fathers Abraham Varghese and Jayes K George, MLA P K Sasi have not only been unsatisfactory but also invites comparison with the molestation case in a Malappuram cinema hall. In the latter case, the theater owner had been arrested for an alleged delay in informing the police. As per  report in the Mathrubhumi of 5/6/18, the incident happened in a theater in Edappal on 18/4/18. The theater owner while going through the cctv recordings had come to know of this and reported the matter to the police on 26/4/18. The police had not taken any action till 12/5/18 when the information, along with the vidoe clip, was shared with Mathrubhumi and the accused was arrested. Now, in the cases involving the Bishop and the priests, the matter had been reported to the Church authorities who had been sitting on it and caliming that they were investigating into it. They NEVER even reported the matter to the police. Finally teh victims had to go to the police themselves. And those who supported the bishops's victims even had to stage protest outside the High Court of Kerala before things started to move, even though at snails pace. To the best of my knowledge the offence was one which warranted arrest under non-bailable charges.

14. The case of MLA Sasi has still not been registered by the police, even though the media has covered it adequately to warrant his arrest and prosecution too. And the party is certainly entitled to make their own investigation under party rules but not under the CrPC. If the Chief Minister, who is also in charge of the Home portfolio and controls the police, doesn't know this it is time that he relinquished the job on grounds of incompetence.

15. To cut this list short, I invite your attention to the following video reports on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/cHZTz-Rl1Vc  a muslim girl to CM, Kerala

https://youtu.be/15Qws5jVPvI  an advocate on judiciary, govt and faith

https://youtu.be/zEYThhjVoGo  a christian on xtian women adventurers

16. You may also like to hear what Vivek Oberoi, a bollywood star, has to say on Sabarimala. His views are at https://www.facebook.com/100002730811315/posts/1522850971149249/
And the views of Mr K P Anil Kumar during a talk show on Mathrubhumi channelon 20 Oct 2018 on the subject  Kaval kondu kaaryamundo? Your representative Mr Mohanan was also a participant.

17. Strictly speaking when a democraticlly elected government loses the faith of the majority it is required to demit office and not cling on to it claiming that they have been elected for 5 years and taking advantage of the absence a law to recall elected representatives. If the argument is that the ayyappa devotees and their supporters do not constitute the majority then the challenge is to prove it by calling for mid term elections.

Yours truly,

P M Ravindran
raviforjustice@gmail.com
26 Oct 2018

from: Ravindran P M <raviforjustice@gmail.com>
to: CHIEF MINISTER KERALA <chiefminister@kerala.gov.in>
date: Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 9:58 AM
subject: 100 days of governance!

Coming events cast their shadows before them!

These 100 days have been disappointing.

The reduction in the number of personal staff, though notional, was welcome. One cannot understand why ministers should have more than 3 assistants as personal staff.

The decision to do away with police escort doesn't seem to have been implemented.

The attitude towards citizens' right to know what their government is doing is totally unacceptable.

The Kerala State Information Commission is defunct. Not that it needs additional information commissioners to be appointed urgently. What is needed is to ensure that the available information commissioner does his job in the letter and spirit of the law. In fact the loss to the exchequer due to information commissioners not imposing the mandatory penalty can be more than the 2G, Coalgate and Vadragate put together. While the defaulting information commissioners are liable to be prosecuted under Sec 219 of the IPC no such action has been ever taken by the concerned authorities. Or should we take it that the role of all public servants is only to cheat and loot the public?

To cut the story short, the only hope I had when you took over the reins of government was that the onus was on you to provide meaningful and purposeful governance if your party has to retain the toe hold it has in this nation. It seems you are not yet alive to this responsibility.

Hoping for better days!

NERO FIDDLED WHILE ROME BURNT…

Remembering the above quip in the context of the events that have unfolded in Kerala during the last week, post the Sabarimala verdict of the apex court on 28 Sep 2018, is not just coincidental.

It was a 4:1 judgment of a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, himself. The majority opted to rule in favour of a cosmetic notion, touted as gender equality. Cosmetic, because the restriction in Sabarimala is not a matter of gender discrimination as girls below 10 years of age and women above 50 years of age are permitted and they have been visiting the temple since ages. And, more importantly, there are more fundamental issues which are required to be viewed from the point of gender discrimination.

In our country women have been demanding 33 percent (I wonder why only 33 and not 50 percent) reservation in Parliament and state legislatures for many, many years now. And, shouldn’t such reservation be there in the judiciary too? 

In fact the very composition of the Constitution bench needs to be challenged on this ground of gender discrimination.

The only woman member of the bench had given a dissenting judgment which is acclaimed by even many former judges and legal luminaries as a more balanced and acceptable one in a plural society like ours.

Various reports in the media, sharing views by legal experts tend to suggest that there is an apparent conflict between Article 25(2) (b) and Article 26 of the Constitution.

Article 25(2)(b) mandates the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus. But Article 26 provides the right to every religious denomination: (a) to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes; (b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion; (c) to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and (d) to administer such property in accordance with law.

The conflict is apparently in identifying Hindu religious institutions of a public character and religious denomination.

Just because public are allowed to visit a temple it doesn’t mean that it is a public place, like, say a park or a theatre. (In fact couldn’t the Chamber of the CJI be considered to be a public place being funded by the tax payers’ money? Well, I can almost hear some legal pundit shouting blasphemous!)   

Coming to denomination, here are a few definitions of the term from various dictionaries/thesauruses.

*(Theology) a group having a distinctive interpretation of a religious faith and usually its own organization- Collins English Dictionary

*A class of persons or things distinguished by a specific name-Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary

*A set of the same persons, called by the same name and therefore of the same views.-Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms

*Religious group, belief, sect, persuasion, creed, school-Collins Thesaurus of the English Language

*A religious group that has slightly different beliefs from other groups that share the same religion- Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus

I am sure that we need not leave it to the judiciary to give any new meaning to this term. (Remember how the judges did that to the term ‘consultation’ used in Article 124(2) and usurped the powers of the President to appoint judges?)

By no stretch of imagination can the temple of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala be considered a public place nor can the rights of the denomination of Ayyappa devotees to manage its own affairs in matters of religion be abrogated.

While on these two articles of the Constitution, one glaring inequality, nay, blatant discrimination, needs to be highlighted.

While the rights under Article 26 is provided to every religious denomination, the mandate of Article 25(2) (b) is to throw open Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus only.

Now even hard core rationalists cannot deny that if any change has to be made it is to be made for Article 25(2)(b) by making it non-religion specific.

Coming to matters of equality, the apex court itself needs to answer some simple questions with respect to its own functioning.

One, forgetting the lack of equality in the number of women judges in our courts, do the courts treat the litigants themselves as equal? Here, let us not forget that it is the litigants who are the raison d'etre of the judiciary.

Two, what have the judges been doing to reduce the massive back log of cases which have reduced justice to a farce in our courts?

Three, given that the judiciary is only another organ created by the Constitution, why is it that the judiciary has long vacations that are not available to the other organs?

An article dated 23 May 2014 in Live Law had the title: Justice Delivery System Working 365 Days; Pressing Needs of the Indian Judiciary. And this was not the author’s imagination taking wings. It was a need articulated by the then CJI while addressing the legal fraternity during the foundation stone laying ceremony of the building for Rajasthan Bar Council at Jodhpur. But the only requirement projected by him to enable this was to improve the judge to population ratio by increasing the number of judges to at least 3 to 4 times the present strength.

I will hold anybody who talks of judge to population ratio instead of the judge to case/docket ratio as incompetent to be a judge at all. I have with me a Power Point Presentation, authored by Adv KTS Tulsi, on the subject ‘Justice Delayed in India’ for a program of the Supreme Court Bar Association on 24 Aug 2004. Here are some statistics presented by him:

Cases filed in one year (1999): India - 13.6 Million (13,668,073); USA- 93.81 Million

Docket’s per judge: India - 987; USA- 3235

He had quoted these figures to demolish the judge to population ratio quoted by Malimath in his report.

The judiciary is also known to propagate another preposterous theory- that even if the judgment is wrong it has to be complied with. Is there any wonder, that the crime rate is increasing the way it is and people are taking law into their own hands? Even advocates, quite often, seem to prefer to take to the streets rather that pursue the judicial process.

Coming back to Sabarimala, while there is no room for doubt that the present situation is the creation of the apex court, the role of Pinarayi Vijayan led government in Kerala in handling the events have been no less abominable. In the name of enforcing the judicial order the police, driven by the government, has been almost on a murderous spree. Devotees protesting peacefully on the routes to the temple have been brutally assaulted and photographs of them being lathi charged, bleeding profusely and dragged through roads have flooded social media. The rampaging police, in riot gear, and some doubted to be even hired or party hooligans in uniform, can be seen wantonly kicking and hitting with lathis, parked vehicles and causing them unwarranted damage. A few hundred cases, some even non bailable, have also been registered against protestors. Rahul Easwar, a strong defender of the faith and the rituals and a peaceful protestor, was arrested and allegedly taken to the police station wrapped in a tarpaulin. He was apparently given third degree treatment by the police and is currently admitted in the Medical College Hospital at Thiruvananthapuram with a slip disc in the spine.

Interestingly there were no devotees from the newly permitted age group who visited Sabarimala during the five days from 17 to 22 Oct 2018 when the temple had opened for the monthly rituals. The intelligence agencies had warned the state government of terror outfits and naxalites exploiting the opportunity for nefarious reasons. But, as it turned out, it was the state government that arranged for a posse of about 250 police personnel led by an IG of Police to escort two women- Rehana Fathima, an activist notorious for her involvement in Kiss of Love protests that had rocked the State more than a year back, and Kavitha Jakkal, a Christian reporter based at Hydrabad- to the temple. Even while emotions ran high amoung the helpless devotees the police managed to take them up to 200 meters short of the temple. It was then that the employees of the temple also joined the protestors. Finally, the activists and their escorts had to retreat when the trustees of the temple and the thanthri, the ultimate authority on religious matters and the rituals of the temple, threatened to close the temple. There were a few other women too, mostly in the role of activists, who tried to use the opportunity provided by the apex court to visit the temple, but were dissuaded by the protesting devotees.

I cannot say if the apex court judgment in the hands of Pinarayi led Government can be compared to a bouquet of flowers in the hands of a monkey or a murderous weapon in the hands of a serial murderer. The fact remains that the fear of their rights related to their faith being violated was writ large and there were reports of protests from devotees even in far away Australia, Canada and the US of A.

In any case it is fact on record now that the Government did not do anything to avert the untoward events. The option to file a review petition was rejected in spite of the persistent demand from devotees ever since the judgment was out. It was almost as if Pinarayi Vijayan was taking it out on the innocent devotees his rabid hatred for Modi. The fact that he had been exposed in a 700 crore non promised aid from UAE and that the Union Government had denied permission to 17 of his ministers to visit foreign countries to seek help from non-resident Keralites for ‘reconstructing the flood ravaged state’ had also added to the grouse of the CM and consequent misery of the devotees determined to protect their faith and traditions.

If anybody thinks that Team Pinarayi cannot be faulted for their decision to enforce a court verdict there is a need to recapitulate how they had treated many a court verdict in the past.

When the apex court ordered closing of all liquor vends within 500 meters of the highways, the government downgraded many of them to enable their Beverages Corporation outlets to do business as usual. (Incidentally this also provided an occasion to expose how shoddy the record keeping of the public authorities were because the existing status of most roads were not even available.)

There was an order banning admission for medical courses in two colleges and the government went to the extent of issuing an ordinance to enable them to circumvent the court order.

There is an order directing handing over a church at Piravom from one faction to another. It has also not been implemented for more than year now.

The order on minimum wages for nurses in private hospitals and nursing homes also remains to be implemented.

Not only has the government led by Pinarayi Vijayan slept over these orders their reaction to the order banning triple talaq was that it was a challenge to the minorities.

And when there was an order to regulate the slaughtering of animals, the party cadres spread the canard that it was a ban on beef and went to the extent of conducting beef festivals even in colleges owned by the Dewaswam Boards.

Pinarayi Vijayan is leading the only Marxist party led government in the country. Apparently he and his ministers are themselves convinced that they will be the last communist ministers of this country.  That could be the only reason why they have taken their prime duty, of governance, out of their agenda.  More than two months after the floods there were reportedly 66 relief camps still in operation with 1848 persons in them. Even the meager compensation of Rs 10,000/- has not been distributed fully.

It was during the peak of relief operations that one of his ministers caused a controversy with a visit to Germany to participate in a social event. This was followed by the visit of the Chief Minister himself to the US of A for 21 days for treatment of an undisclosed ailment. Since reports of ministers being ill disposed are often reported by the media, speculation is ripe amoung the public about the nature of ailment which had taken the hard core Marxist, Pinarayi Vijayan, to the epicenter of capitalism in the world. The Lavlin scam, of the times when he had been the Electricity Minister more than a decade back, is still making the rounds of the courts.

And more recently, it was reported that the CM and 17 of the remaining 20 ministers were going abroad with paraphernalia of 190 public servants, to beg for aid from NRKs for the reconstruction of the flood ravaged state. One wonders that if during crisis the ministers can go on foreign jaunts, under whatever pretext, do the state need these ministers at all. It was thanks to the firm stand of the Union Government that only the CM could go (to the UAE). And he did it with his family at the cost to the already broke public exchequer.

The temple at Sabarimala has closed today after the monthly rituals. The peak pilgrimage season is just another month away. It remains to be seen how the lack of basic amenities and the controversies are going to affect the flow of devotees visiting the shrine from mid November to mid January. But the campaign not to offer any money or buy prasadams at Dewaswam controlled temples has already started making an impact. Hundis are getting filled with chits inscribed with ‘Swaminye saranam’ (the chant of Ayyappa devotees) instead of money. For those who are ignorant about culture and its values, it may not matter. But there is also a campaign to boycott lotteries, which, apart from its liquor vends, is the biggest source of income for the government.  Ultimately, citizens are learning where to hit and hurt.

Swami Saranam!

22 Oct 2018

AN RTI CHALLENGE TO THE PRESIDENT-141018

Mr President,

I am writing this letter to you to share a shock! I have gone through your address at the 13^th Annual Convention of the Central Information Commission. You have made three points: one, there is no such thing as too much information; two, there is a need to look at declassification protocols for government and archival documents and three, the CIC is doing a good job in upholding the basic charter of RTI. I must inform you that you are right on the first score, partly right on the second and totally wrong on the third. I hold the information commissioners responsible for subverting the law lock, stock and barrel.

It is true that today, thanks to technology (and not to any grace from anybody in government in the country) there is a flood of information available to those who need it, at the mere click of a mouse. Unfortunately, this does not apply to information about what our public servants are doing though the Right to Information Act was passed with much fan fare, 13 years ago, with the avowed objective of ensuring transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. The seeds of self destruction of the sunshine act are contained in the Act itself. Precisely, in sections 13(5), 16(5) and 28 read with 2(e).

The RTI Act is a simple law which is clear and unambiguous. The procedure for its implementation is even simpler. And that makes the job of an information commissioner much, much simpler than that of a munsif in our courts, considering the variety and range of subjects and the battle of wits of the parties/advocates involved in the courts. Thus the status, pay and perks provided to information commissioners, including the Chief IC, is disproportional to the job description. It has not only burdened the exchequer with avoidable expenses, but also enabled bureaucrats, retiring from government service, to corner these jobs when, logically, they should have been strictly barred on grounds of their vested interests. In fact sections 13(5), 16(5) tend to make one believe that they were intentionally provided to subvert the law itself. In any case the law has been subverted to such an extent that it is as good as murdered by the information commissioners.

The definition of competent authorities and the powers granted to them to make rules to implement the law has also proved to be a bane. Shockingly it is the chief justices of the courts who have used these powers to introduce exorbitant fees (Rs 500/- against Rs 10/- of Central and state governments, along with the application) and even a fee with the first appeal which is not there in the case of other public authorities. Worse, these judges have even excluded the judicial side of their functions from the purview of the RTI Act, to the extent that even copies of orders issued by them (in open courts!) are denied.

That the President of India or the Governors in the states have not used the powers given to them under Sec 14(3)(d) and 17(3)(d) respectively to weed out information commissioners who are found unfit to continue in office by reason of infirmity of mind, as evidenced by their decisions, is also a matter of serious concern for the citizens demanding transparency and accountability in the functions of public servants. I had personally invoked these sections to demand removing Wajahat Habibullah, the first Chief Information Commissioner of the Central Information Commission and Palat Mohandas, the first Chief Information Commissioner of Kerala State Information Commission but had not even got an acknowledgement from the respective offices. The complaints are posted as blogs at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com/2012/01/rti-old-application-to-president-to.html and http://blogs.rediff.com/pmravindran/2007/11/27/sack-the-chief-information-commissioner/ respectively. Subsequent inquiries through RTI Act had revealed that they had been forwarded to the concerned public authorities for disposal at their end! Interestingly, there is one case of a state CIC having been removed, in UP during the tenure of Ms Mayavati as the CM. And this CIC had been a judge of a high court too. It had also been reported that within about a year of his having been removed, he had committed suicide. In contrast, there is the case of a former DIG of Police who had been appointed as an information commissioner in Kerala. He was alleged to have tried to influence an investigation in a land allotment case but was just kept suspended for the rest of his tenure of almost 3 years, enjoying the pay and status without doing a penny worth of job!

It is understood that a proposal is on to review the pay and status of information commissioners. It remains to be seen if the citizen empowered political decision maker can make any meaningful change after overcoming the manipulations of the unaccountable and self seeking babus. Also, the DoPT had put out a draft proposal for new RTI Rules, seeking suggestions from the public. It was an unabashed effort to blatantly subvert the law. Though there was no point issuing a point by point argument against it the effort was made and these suggestions are available at https://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-rules-2017draftdopt-circular1-52016ir31032017critique.  However, for simplicity sake, a totally new set of rules were suggested which is posted as a blog at https://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-rules-2017redrafted-by-rti-activist.

As far as declassifying documents are concerned this is what Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, one of the most illustrious Presidents we have had till date, had said: It is my experience that computerization of a large organization or mission is successful only if the process themselves are re-engineered for realizing the full benefits of automation. I must add that the processors also should be people of competence and of unquestionable integrity.

To conclude, here is a challenge you may take on: just check your website for compliance with Sec 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act and get at least one order from each information commission which is correct in decision and the procedure followed. In this context you may like to go through the blog at  https://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rtiexposingthetraitorsamoungpublicservantspt2glitches.

14 Oct 2018   

COURTING CONTROVERSIES-021018

If anybody asked me which is the most covetable job in my country I can say without even batting an eyelid- a judge! And the next best? An advocate, for sure! Let me explain.

In any case before a judge there are always two parties- the complainant/prosecutor and the respondent/defendant. Both the parties will of course present some facts and quote some laws including some case laws too. It is then left to the judge to take the final call on who should get the favorable judgment. And I dare say that he can do it by just tossing a coin. Thereafter all that he has to do is pick up the appropriate lines from the arguments of the concerned party and add his decision. The procedure too is so weird and antithetic to the very concept of transparency, accountability and ultimately to the very concept of justice itself. To illustrate, just consider the case of adjournments and the delays is announcing decisions even after arguments are closed. Tariq pe tariq is such a hall mark of our judicial system that it should not need elaboration but probably not so well known is the delays in passing orders even after the final arguments are over. For the sake of the uninitiated I shall use an example from a complaint taken up with the Palakkad District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum. In OP 282/99 (OP No 85/95 transferred from Malappuram), the opposite party had produced interim stay order from the Kerala High Court on 28/10/99 and the stay was vacated only  on 8/6/2005 but throughout 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. During this spree 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! Now, if this is the state of affairs in a consumer ‘court’, constituted under the Consumer Protection Act, in the form of a jury (and the implied high cost to the exchequer) to dispose of routine consumer related complaints fast and free (it was free to begin with but later a fee was introduced to even file the complaints) one can well imagine the affairs of regular courts.

The National Commission to review the working of the Constitution, headed by a non-tainted former Chief Justice of India, M N Venkatachaliah and whose 5 of the 10 other members were from the judiciary had reported 'Judicial system has not been able to meet even the modest expectations of the society.  Its delays and costs are frustrating, its processes slow and uncertain.  People are pushed to seek recourse to extra-legal methods for relief.  Trial system both on the civil and criminal side has utterly broken down.'

That nobody can have the cake and eat it too is a common refrain. If there is any exception it has to be our judges. They can always blame the shoddy investigation and shoddy prosecution for miscarriage of justice. What about the competence and motivation of the judges? To even question them would invite prosecution under the Contempt of Court Act where the prosecutor, jury and hangman are all combined in one man- the same judge whose credentials are being questioned.

The second most covetable is that of an advocate, if only because his is a job that does not need to produce any guaranteed results. And the fees? Incredible! Didn’t Ram Jethmalani claim that his fees for just a conference is Rs 1 Crore? And now the apex court itself is possessed of the exorbitant fees charged, upto Rs 50 lakhs per hearing, by senior advocates. Imagine, even a cardiologist who does beating heart surgeries is paid only a fraction, almost negligible fraction, of such amounts.

It has been mentioned earlier that the judge can always blame it on shoddy investigations and prosecution for miscarriages of justice. But isn’t it just half truth? What was the role of the investigators and prosecutors in the infamous case under the Right to Information Act where the then Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan, himself claimed that his office was out of purview of the law enacted to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed?

Less than a year back the nation witnessed a sitting high court judge being sent to six months in prison, under the contempt of court laws for making some categorical allegations about some brother judges. Even before he was out from jail we also saw the same judges who convicted him making some vague allegations against the Chief Justice himself and specifically questioning his integrity itself. But then the contempt laws seems to have vanished into thin air.

A couple of years back Times Now, a visual news channel, telecast for a few seconds the picture of a retired Supreme Court judge inadvertently while reporting a scam in which another judge with a similar name was alleged to be involved. The media promptly tendered apologies but the judge felt that it was not sincere. He claimed for defamation and was awarded Rs 100 crores as compensation. Appeals to the high court and apex court was not even heard but dismissed with the remarks to first deposit Rs 20 Crores and issue ban guarantee for Rs 80 Crores. In contrast, more than 25 years back a top scientist from ISRO was framed in a sleazy scandal. The conspirators were many and with different motives. He and a couple of his colleagues, working on a project of national importance, were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and had to live through horror for many years. He was finally acquitted by the apex court four years later. And since then he had been a litigant demanding prosecution of the conspirators and perpetrators as well as for compensation of a mere Rs 1 Crore. While the latter case is still pending in the Kerala High Court the former has been decided in his favour with the constitution of a one judge committee to investigate the allegations and an award of Rs 50 lakhs as compensation. If this doesn’t remind one of Animal Farm where all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others, then it is futile to continue to claim this to a democracy having rule of law where be you ever so high, the law is above you. In fact our judges are not just above law but a law unto themselves. The trashing of the National Judicial Appointment Commission Act also proves this, if ever proof was needed.

The recent spate of judgments by the outgoing CJI, Dipak Mishra, has also given reason to question the competence, motives and prudence of our judges. The judgments in the matter of Adhaar, entry of women in Sabarimala and adultery have raised more questions than those addressed by the judges in the respective cases.

In the matter of Adhaar, the lead petition was filed in 2012, by a former judge of a high court. During the six years the court sat on it, the executive had had a free run making it compulsory for almost every activity in the life of a citizen, from getting admission for children in schools, to reservations in railways to even pension. And now the court has circumscribed its use and ‘permitted’ citizens to demand removing the linking of Adhaar to many facilities that it has been already linked with. And there is also a ban on private parties demanding Adhaar validation when Reliance Jio has provided its services to almost 300 million customers based only on Adhaar validation.

In the matter of entry of women in Sabarimala the majority has over ruled the sane voice of its only woman member in the bench. There is quip: he who can smile when things go wrong has already thought of someone he can blame it on. Sabarimala is a seasonal pilgrim destination and the crowd has been swelling every year and become unmanageable in recent years. Even the police, deployed on security duties, have been asking for limiting the number of pilgrims visiting the shrine and extending the virtual queue management (through web booking) to 100 percent pilgrims. And now even the communist government of the State, which had supported women’s entry, is praying that the number of women will not swell during the forthcoming season in a few months. We don’t have to wait for too long to learn what a disaster bomb has fallen into hands of the state government which is already facing criticism from all quarters for its disastrous management of the recent disaster in the form of floods.

Apart from the logistics involved in Sabarimala, there is also the question how is it that the judiciary which is so active in interfering adversely with all matters affecting hindus and their faith and rituals (Jallikattu, dahi handi, fireworks etc) is pretending to be blind to questionable faith and rituals of the minority communities. Cyber space is rife with information that of the 25 lakh temples in India there are only 6 that do not allow men and 5 that do not allow women but there are over 3 lakh mosques where women are not allowed entry at all or not allowed to pray with the men. Even a former Supreme Court judge, K T Thomas, has written that in the pulpit area of the church no women are allowed even now.

The judgment on adultery is even more shocking. But the redeeming factor is it is not restricted to any particular denomination. And without going into an analysis of its sociological implications let me recollect two instances narrated in the Bible. The first is of course the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were living a life of bliss. And then came the devil in the form of snake and temptation. The rest as they say they say is history. The second one is of Jesus addressing a mob about to stone Mary of Magdalene to death for prostitution. Jesus told them ‘let the one who has not sinned throw the first stone’ and everybody dropped their stones. Though these instances raise their own questions in the present context, the one that I would ask, to conclude this article, is: will only the judges who have not sinned sit in judgment in our courts?

02 Oct 2018

AN OPEN LETTER TO FORMER CJI DIPAK MISRA

The other day when I brought home some stuff from the street corner shop I noticed an interesting report- of you claiming that you are proud to be called a champion of gender equality. It reminded me of the king who believed that he was wearing a cloak which only the wise could see until a boy innocently asked why is the king naked. And the rest you know is what moral stories are made of.

The verdict on Sabarimala by the bench headed by you just reminds me of another scenario- of a person who has covered himself with hornet repellants throwing stones at a hornet’s nest in a crowded place.  For now, I will only assert that the Contempt of Court Act is a totally anti democratic law and is the basic, if not the only, reason for the abysmal failure of our judiciary in performing its assigned task of delivering justice.

This is what the National Commission to review the working of the Constitution- a judiciary headed (the Chairman was a former CJI, Mr M N Venkatachaliah), judiciary heavy (six of the 11 members were from the judiciary)-had stated about our judiciary in their report that was submitted in 2002:

'Judicial system has not been able to meet even the modest expectations of the society.  Its delays and costs are frustrating, its processes slow and uncertain.  People are pushed to seek recourse to extra-legal methods for relief.  Trial system both on the civil and criminal side has utterly broken down.' Also, 'Thus we have arrived at a situation in the judicial administration where courts are deemed to exist for judges and lawyers and not for the public seeking justice'.

The Commission’s approach to the judiciary itself has been exposed by Dr Subhas Kashyap, a bureaucrat member (former Secretary General of Lok Sabha) through his notes. The relevant extract is:

'While no comments are being made on what went wrong in the procedure, priorities and perspective, it may be put on record that several of the recommendations now forming part of the report go directly counter to the clear decisions of the Commission on which the unanimously adopted draft report of the Drafting and Editorial Committee was based'.

And one example is:

Attention is also invited to the decision taken by the Commission at its 14th Meeting held on 14-18 December, 2001.  Para 16 of the minutes records that "There shall be a National Judicial Commission for making recommendation as to the appointment of a Judge of the Supreme Court (other than the Chief Justice of India), a Chief Justice of a High Court and a Judge of any High Court."

"The composition of the National Judicial Commission would be as under:

a) The Vice-President of India

b) The Chief Justice of India

c) Two senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court, next to the Chief Justice

d) The Union Minister for Law & Justice."

However the composition of the NJC as recommended by the Commission in its Final Report is:

The National Judicial Commission for appointment of judges of the Supreme Court shall comprise of:

(1) The Chief Justice of India                                            :Chairman

(2) Two senior most judges of the Supreme Court            : Member

(3) The Union Minister for Law and Justice                     : Member

(4) One eminent person nominated by the President

after consulting the Chief Justice of India                         : Member

And we know what happened to the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, duly enacted by the constitutional process. This is when the appointments are the least of the problems.  It can be compared with transferring elephantiasis from one foot to the other!^*1 The more important need is for a National Judicial Accountability Commission, constituted in the form of a jury, with just one member from the judiciary to guide the proceedings (like in military court martials, where a law qualified member of the Judge Advocate General’s branch act as the legal guide, but unlike them in that the members should be from the public). This r commission should have powers to try and punish delinquent judges with twice the severity of the punishment that an ordinary citizen would invite for a similar offence. In this context your attention is invited to an online petition I had hosted in 2005 and which is reproduced as a blog at https://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/310505-the-petition-toconstituteanationaljudicialcommission. The signatories and their comments are at https://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/310505thepetitiontoconstituteanationaljudicialcommissionsignatures1to429. 429 informed citizens have signed it and their comments are worth perusing by anyone interested in the rule of law and dispensation of justice.

And Ms Sumitra Kulkarni, the only woman member of the Commission and a politician, had summed up the performance of the Commission thus:

1. I believe in a Unified and truly Secular India.  However, the Commission debates seemed often to reduce the Constitution to being a platform for divisiveness and not unification.

2. The Commission did not initiate or promote sincere debate in the public with regards to the issues that it was contemplating.  The efforts was more to "evade and defer" instead of to "identify issues, table them for debate and to deal with them".

And to know that none of the judicial members of the Commission were tainted in any manner! (If it reminds you of the allegations by Chelameswar led group of judges, it is just incidental. By the way, I had hosted an online petition then too. Not that I believed them to be wrong but because after sending Karnan, whose allegations had been more substantial and specific, to prison for six months, there was no way the allegations of these judges could be condoned. It is available at https://www.change.org/p/the-president-of-india-and-the-prime-minister-judges-revolt-contempt-of-court and has been supported by 285 informed citizens so far.)

I continue to believe that the judiciary is an indispensable part of any system of governance with emphasis on rule of law. Its duties are no doubt onerous because ultimately its failure to perform can be disastrous for the society. But whether our judiciary measures up to the expectations of the people who have constituted, tasked, empowered and pays a heavy cost to sustain it, is a question that needs to be asked, firstly, by the judges themselves. To a layman in the society it remains a behemoth that is best kept away from. Wisdom through the ages say it is a blessing to pass through this life without entering a police station and a court!

09 Oct 2018

*1. There is an anecdote in Kerala about a mystical figure called Naranatthu branthan. Branthan means mad. He got that suffix to his name because he used to roll up a big boulder up a hill with great effort and then roll it down and laugh seeing it going down with great momentum on its own. It is said to have a philosophical connotation- of how difficult it is to up and easy to fall down. The story related to elephantiasis is that Narantthu branthan had elephantiasis on his left foot. One day while he was cooking his food over the fire of a pyre at midnight the goddess of the cremation ground appeared in all her ferocity. But Naranatthu was not moved. Ultimately the goddess asked him to seek any boon. He replied ‘make me immortal’. The goddess expressed helplessness. So he asked ‘make me die a second after or before I am due to die’. The goddess again expressed helplessness. Ultimately, in disdain, Naratthu asked the goddesss to transfer the elephantiasis from his left foot to the right. The goddess readily agreed and left happily.

*2. Since I do not have your contact details, this letter is being sent to you by registered post to your former official address with a request that it to be redirected to your current address. Being an open letter it is being circulated to the media also and published as a blog at https://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/ The URL will be available only on posting.