Need for introspection in Indian judicial system
Dr VK Bahuguna
July 11, 2024, 19:24:05
More often than not Indian judiciary is hailed as a saviour of democratic values and works as a watch dog to see that the rule of law is practised by our rulers, bureaucrats and legislatures. Because of an independent judiciary the democracy has taken deep roots in the country compared to other third world countries. Our founding fathers have given us a flexible people centric democratic constitution which reflects the wishes and dreams of a changing society. The constitution had been amended for more than 100 times so far and since then the Judiciary played its role through its land mark judgements like Golaknath case in which in 1967 the Supreme Court ruled that the Parliament could not curtail or restrict any of the fundamental rights of the citizens. In 1973 in another landmark Keswanand Bharti case the full bench of Supreme Court ruled that the Parliament cannot alter the basic structure of the constitutions. The Apex Court thus laid down a ‘Laxman Rekha’ for the law makers so that the democratic fibre of the nation is kept intact. The Court from time to time had also intervened through the concept of ‘Public Interest Litigation’ which was first developed in USA in 1960 to provide representation to disadvantaged groups. Justice PN Bhagwati in 1985 brought this concept of Public Interest Litigation Jurisprudence in India. It delivered few other landmark judgements like Godavaram forest case in 1996 and in 2019 the Amrapali Real estate case giving relief to 45000 flat buyers of Noida.
So far so good for the judiciary in preserving the democracy and bringing back the derailed governance in some sectors. However, the real success of the judiciary can only be assessed from the point of view of common citizen and poor people getting quick justice and at reasonable cost. As on 2024 more than 5 crore cases are pending in the country and out of this 1, 80,000 cases are pending for more than 30 years and consider the exorbitant fees being paid and time being spent by people to sustain these cases. The former Judge of Supreme Court Justice Deepak Gupta in 2020 speaking in his farewell address to Bar Association of India stated that the “laws and legal systems are totally geared in favour of rich and powerful. If real justice has to be done, then the scales of justice have to be weighted in favour of underprivileged”. One of the biggest criticisms of the judiciary is lack of accountability and procrastination in deciding the case. If we analyse the news making quick hearing cases in Supreme and High Courts, we find either these relate to political quibbling in legislatures, political corruption, and the court are hearing such cases even in the night. On contrarily civil and other cases involving common citizens linger on for years. The government had created a post retirement sinecure for bureaucrats/ judges and advocates close to political powers in the form of many Tribunals for quick disposal of cases ostensibly to reduce the burden on High Courts. But these Tribunals are also trapped in the delay same way as courts.
In lower judiciary on many occasions the habitual criminal elements take advantage of law and misguide the courts either obfuscating facts or through other means. It will be interesting to narrating a true story of a defamation case filed by me in 2014 against a notorious corrupt officer and how the West Tripura judiciary has handled this case for last ten years. After 6 years of trial in CJM court in fact the complainant had been made an accused by the accused by twisting/ blatantly misconstruing the facts about his own criminal disobedience of judiciary. The judicial magistrate despite knowing the facts through our affidavit admitted the case and refused to accept the facts. This writer while serving in the Planning Commission in government of India had taken a mild disciplinary action against one under secretary in 2011 for harassing vendors by transferring him from his desk. He absconded from the office in and started writing defamatory emails to all constitutional and administrative authorities against the head of institution and me. He continued writing false emails even after I joined back in Tripura in 2013 as Principal Secretary when he sent defamatory emails to the Chief Minister with copies to most senior functionaries alleging that I have drawn travelling allowance for my son who is an IPS officer and the daughter who lives in California USA and several other fictitious allegations. Finally, getting tired of his mischief I decided to lodges an FIR and also filed a CR case No 337/2014 in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) West Tripura. The Agartala Police and the CJM after examining the facts issued him several summons in the address he mentioned in a Delhi High Court order in the year 2012. This address he mentioned while he at the behest then corrupt Environment Minister filed a case for not complying with her corrupt practice. In September 2014 he acknowledged the Agartala police notice sent to him at this very address but wilfully evaded CJM court summons for almost four years. Finally an arrest warrant was issued by the CJM and the advocate was asked to trace him through proclamation/look out notice. After this he cleverly, shifted from his rented accommodation where he used to live to a nearby place and after shifting surrendered before Agartala High Court and filed a case CRL PTN case 44 of 2018. When the notice was pasted at this address many bills addressed to him were also pasted there by BSNL, gas and electricity departments. In the high court he stated that the lookout/proclamation notice was sent at wrong address. The then Chief Justice of Tripura based on his petition asked him to face trial before CJM court but accepted his version without verification of the facts quashed the arrest warrant ostensibly agreeing that summons were sent on wrong address. It was a grave miscarriage of justice.
Taking advantage of this order he filed a counter defamation Cr case 4/2020 in the same magistrate court against the complainant stating that proclamation notice was not sent to his address. Surprisingly, the case is continuing for last four years and the judicial magistrate is surprisingly refusing to take cognisance of the proof submitted in the affidavit in Novemember 2022 about his address mentioned in 2012 and on this very address he accepted the summons of the police in September 2014. Now it is seen that his Aaadhar card also reflects in the same address. If this can happen to a senior functionary like me who is sustaining this for last 10 years, the common man’s fate can be well imagined. Both the CJM’s judicial magistrate and High Court have failed to be rational and just. The truer people centric justice will come if the cases in lower courts are monitored regularly otherwise the statement of Justice Deepak Gupta will continue to hound the Indian judiciary. 1172 words
(Tripurainfo)