Judiciary puts heat on Indian
politicians By Siddharth
Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In India, the
politician, for a change, is in the back seat
because of recent actions by the judiciary, so
much so that members of Parliament (MPs) from
across political parties have spoken about the
need to rein in "judicial over-activism". People
in general, though, appear quite happy and,
speaking at various forums, including the media,
have extolled the need of the judiciary to set
things right.
There is still an urgent
need for judicial reforms to shorten the
duration of cases, to change
the overarching reliance on witnesses rather than
evidence, and to ensure independent functioning of
often corrupted prosecuting and investigating
agencies. However, a series of decisions by the
courts has instilled a new confidence in a system
that has long been used and abused by the rich and
powerful.
The biggest fish in the net has
been Shibu Soren, a minister in the current
federal cabinet, convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment. Soren has enjoyed a demigod status
in the eastern state of Jharkhand, but has been
convicted of killing his secretary who threatened
to spill the beans in a corruption case. Soren is
the first serving minister to be sent to jail in
India.
Even as the opposition Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has aimed its barbs at the
Congress party member Soren, one of its own MPs,
the flamboyant Navjot Singh Sidhu from the state
of Punjab, has been convicted of assaulting a
person in a road-rage incident that resulted in
death.
There have been more instances of
the high and mighty biting dust. In the state of
Maharashtra, a minister and bureaucrat involved in
non-compliance of court orders have been forced to
resign and proceed to jail - something
unprecedented.
In Delhi, the court
reopened the case of Priyadarshini Mattoo, a young
law student, who was raped and brutally killed by
Santosh Singh. Santosh is the son of an
influential police officer, who arm-twisted the
investigators. Despite all circumstantial evidence
pointing against the accused, the court initially
let Santosh off, but has now sentenced him to
death.
Several other instances have
emboldened the spirit of the common citizen. They
include progress in the Jessica Lal and Nitish
Kataria cases. Both Lal and Kataria are believed
to have been killed by sons of powerful
politicians, who are supposed to have bribed and
threatened witnesses and police officials to turn
the case in their favor.
The nation has
been taken aback by recent revelations of Ram
Jethmalani, hired by the defense in the Lal case
at an astronomical cost. It would seem that
Jethmalani has cleverly used the lack of faith in
police officials to paint a picture that could as
well be bizarre or true, since it has confused
everybody. Lal, incidentally, was shot dead at a
crowded pub-disco. Nobody can dispute this fact.
The courts have also come down heavily on
illegal commercial activity and construction in
New Delhi, to the chagrin of affected traders and
politicians, who see some of their vote banks
being eroded because of the court action. Today,
politicians from the BJP and Congress are leading
the agitation against the Delhi court, while
shedding copious crocodile tears.
They are
the ones directly responsible as governments over
the years have failed to provide adequate
commercial space (by not allowing private
entrepreneurs to set them up) while promoting
illegal activity as a way of earning easy bribes.
The Supreme Court has also been engaging
in a running feud with the legislature/government
on the question of reservations (quotas) for
backward-caste students in institutions of higher
education. The court has been demanding that those
from affluent sections of the backward caste
(called the creamy layer) should be excluded from
further favors, a move that is being resisted by
the Congress-led federal government and the
regional satraps who enjoy power due to the
complex caste equations in the various states.
However, what seems to have incensed the
politicians the most is that the court has spelled
out new rules for prosecuting bureaucrats and
elected representatives on corruption charges.
"Taking bribes is not a part of official duty,''
said the court.
The court has virtually
cast a noose around politicians and officials who
have so far been protected from prosecutors who
require permission from the government to launch
proceedings against them.
This is expected
to have immediate impact on many cases pending in
different courts, including that of incumbent
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and others who
have been quietly hibernating because of absence
of an official go-ahead.
Commentator
Pratap Bhanu Mehta said: "It is only when the
target of so-called judicial activism changed from
policy to promoting accountability that
politicians started getting riled. This suggests
that their call for debating the judiciary's role
is an exercise in deep bad faith. It is only when
the powers of their office and their immunities
were challenged by the court that politicians
started getting agitated.''
Not
surprisingly, the Speaker of the lower house of
Parliament, Somnath Chatterjee, recently allowed a
debate on the role of the judiciary. Chatterjee
has been a strong advocate of the courts minding
their own business. In a long speech, Gurudas
Dasguptaa, a leader of the left-wing coalition,
spoke on the risk posed by an overzealous
judiciary to the balance of power among it, the
legislature and the executive.
Indeed, it
is never healthy when one wing of power bears an
overwhelming influence. However, what needs to be
asked is, how and why has such a situation come
about?
The judicial system cannot change
overnight and won't. It continues to be
overburdened and inefficient, especially at the
lower levels where it matters the most.
"Thanks to the growing desperation and
public awakening, critical issues are getting
addressed today with the speed and in a language
many in power are not used to," commented senior
police officer Kiran Bedi, who is known for her
reformist zeal. "There is a sigh of relief in some
sections, and an outcry in others.''
Without making it sound too much like
Star Wars, one hopes that the forces of
evil, including penury, slothful government
officials, and politicians and powerful crooks
walking free, are finally defeated, even as an
atmosphere of good prevails. Perhaps this is the
beginning.
For now, one can only cheer
that one big fish has been caught and others feel
uncomfortable.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based
journalist.
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