People losing faith in law of the land : CNN-IBN

[sidmis]

People losing faith in law of the land
as reported in CNN-IBN

New Delhi: In a rare verdict by the Delhi High Court, two of the
country's top criminal lawyers, R K Anand and I U Khan have been held
guilty of colluding with witness Sunil Kulkarni in the high-profile
BMW hit-and-run case.

The court observed, "There is no doubt that there was complicity
between Mr Khan and Mr Anand and that Mr Kulkarni as aware of it. We
are left with no doubt that Mr Anand was a key player in interfering
and obstructing the course of justice."

The Delhi High Court has barred Anand and Khan from practicing for
four months apart from the fine that is to be paid as punishment. The
Delhi District lawyers went into a daylong strike to support the two
senior lawyers.

The debate in the legal circles is whether the court has the authority
to suspend the licences of lawyers. An eminent senior Advocate, KTS
Tulsi has expressed shock over why the court has not utilized the
audiovisual proofs to send the duo to prison.

People's faith in the country's judiciary is on the ebb and the people
need to know if – Is it possible to manipulate judgments in our
country?

CNN-IBN asked that question on Thursday on its show Face the Nation.
On the panel, to debate the question were former judge of Supreme
Court, U C Banerjee, senior lawyer Harish Salve and convenor, National
Campaign for People's Right to Information, Shekhar Singh.

U C Banerjee denied that any such nexus between the judiciary and the
manipulators of law exists at all.


Judging the Judges

"It is mere gossip. A judge will not do any such thing to bring down
the judiciary," U C Banerjee said.


Harish Salve was of the opinion that Banerjee was not at fault for his
vision of the judiciary…after all he is one of the finest judges that
adorned our benches. But Salve emphasized that given the very high
percentage of people who said yes, it is easy to manipulate judgments,
it cannot be completely baseless.


"I will not give a carte blanche statement that judges cannot be
corrupt…I have seen some very odd judgments in my time," said Salve.

It is not as though every judge is corrupt but the credibility of the
system is not what it used to be, he added.

Salve recollected the time when society had zero tolerance for such
instances and the accused would hang their head in shame.

"But society has now accepted corruption as a part of life," lamented Salve.

"There are good judges and there are bad judges," said Shekhar Singh,
stating that his team working on the issue of Right to Information
(RTI) Act could do with seeing some more transparency in the system.

"There is a consistent effort to make sure that the RTI Act does not
apply to High Court and Supreme Court judges," he added.

Judges above Law?

Banerjee felt that Judges hold some constitutional powers and a
constitutional authority cannot be prosecuted without the sanction of
the highest judicial body in the country, namely the Chief Justice of
India.

Salve, in the latter part of the show expressed that there are
disgruntled elements in every judgment, the one who loses the case. If
every case was open for questioning then the judiciary cannot
function, he felt.

"The errant judges must be punished. There is no doubt about this that
those at fault will definitely have to be appropriately dealt with in
accordance with the law," said U C Bannerjee.

Judiciary, resembling Political arena

In a particular case two years ago, a court in Gujarat had issued
bailable arrest warrants against the then serving President of the
country. Isn't that a manipulation of courts or is it a simple case of
influence finding its way?

"If the court has ordered it, the court must have justifiable reasons
for that and if the court has ordered it, I have nothing more to add
or to say," commented Banerjee.

There have been talks of middlemen, cash exchanging hands and people
currying favours even in the judicial circles. Has the judiciary begun
to increasingly resemble the already sullied political field?

"Allegations have surfaced and I would not say that they are entirely
baseless. Judges are as much a part of the civil society as you and
me," Salve offered.

"One bad judgment and it sullies the image. It takes a million efforts
to build an image and one blow like the BMW sting case to destroy the
faith.

The judiciary is the last resort in the quest for justice. What
happens to the people's faith after such cases surface?

"It is tragic but I am not totally shocked," said a pragmatic Singh.
"What shocked me is the leniency of the sentence. It seems that if you
belonged to a privileged fraternity, you can get away with murder.
Even more shocking is the support the legal fraternity is giving to
the people the court has punished," Singh added about the Delhi
District Lawyers Association support to Anand and Khan.

And the solution:

"We need a judicial commission which strikes a balance and the errant
judges can be brought to book," said Salve.

But that would be like having a corrective setup over the judiciary.

So Salve added, "A system that has a corrective machinery is a
stronger system and that in fact is a sign of strength and not of
weakness."

Salve said this in supplement to his earlier comments that we have
become a soft society and had recalled a time when indictment by the
High Court, let alone the punishment, would be such a censure that a
person would have no place to hide his face.

"There was a time when a client came to you and requested you to study
and contest his case. But now people come to lawyers with cases and
ask outright but discreetly, if the lawyer knows any fixer or
middleman to plug the jury," Salve said.

So if we want a judiciary that is spotless, the society will also have
to evolve from within because the two feed on each other's acts. So
that brings us to our question of the day: Is it possible to
manipulate judgments in our country? While the jury is still out on
that one, the people's disillusionment is clear and in need of a fix.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/people-losing-faith-in-law-of-the-land/71814-3.html

[abhijeet]

I had a bitter experience regarding activities of the corrupt administration of many Govt. Dept. We could not able to make them taking proper action against corrupt Managing Committee of our Society, even after a prolonged legal fight.So, we are really becoming frustrated day by day. I had eloborated how a mimister stopped enquiry against a group of corrupt persons when the enquiry was initiated at the instance of many RTI activities. The Hon'ble Minister directed ----" No administrative action need be initiated . This is urgent." The concerned Minister wrote this letter on his letter pad and that type of direction was given only this occasion , within a period of 5 years. What was urgent ? To take proper action against corrupt persons or to take initiative to stop enquiry aginst them . Minister had taken the second path. It was reported twicw in the news paper, but administration , knowing fully well , avoiding it's responsibility to take legal action.
The minister directed the concerned officer to arrange a meeting with (corrupt) persons immediately and to report him. When it was asked about this under RTI application, SPIO furnished -"No record available in this regard. " Even after one year of receipt of the minister's direction to settle the matter "amicably" nothing could produce. And the enquiry was stopped . It was nicely informed to all those corrupt persons , they are happy now. Why and how the administration including minister are helping corrupt persons are easy to understand , but difficult to stop it.