{"id":299,"date":"2019-04-21T12:23:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T12:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/?p=299"},"modified":"2019-05-22T12:07:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T12:07:28","slug":"time-stand-judiciary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/time-stand-judiciary\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time to Stand up With the Judiciary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pivotal position of the Chief Justice of India<\/strong><\/p>\n

The incident of a junior ex-lady employee of the Supreme Court making harassment charges against the Chief Justice of India has acquired a disproportionate magnitude.\u00a0 Such complaints, when they are made in the ordinary course of any administrative functioning, are referred to the appropriate Committee.\u00a0 However, when the complainant distributes copies of her representation to other Judges of the Supreme Court and the media in order to sensationalise her allegations, it ceases to be routine.\u00a0 When four digital media organisations with an unparalleled track record of \u2018institutional disruption\u2019 send similar questionnaires to the Chief Justice of India, there is obviously something more than what meets the eye.<\/p>\n

India has always taken pride in its independent judiciary.\u00a0 Judges decide cases which deal with life of the common man as also the most powerful commercial and political interests.\u00a0 A judge is not in a popularity race.\u00a0 He owes his commitment only to law, Justice and fairness.\u00a0 A Judge is neither to follow the ballot box nor is he to be swayed by the times.\u00a0 His judgement pleases us at times and leaves us unhappy on many occasions.\u00a0 But that is the reality of the system which we have learned to live with.\u00a0 The Chief Justice of India is the first amongst the equals in the Supreme Court.\u00a0 He is the head of the judicial institutions.\u00a0 He is both the \u2018Master of the Roster\u2019 and the \u2018Head of the Collegium\u2019 which makes binding recommendations for the appointment of judges.\u00a0 His integrity, ethics, scholarship and fairness reflect the image of India\u2019s judiciary.\u00a0 He lives by example.\u00a0 For both the Chief Justice and the judicial institutions, credibility and respect are essential.\u00a0 Once the \u2018Iqbal\u2019 of judiciary is destroyed, the institution itself will crumble.<\/p>\n

The assault on the institution<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was in the decade of 1970s that we witnessed supersession of judges, intimidation of courts and transfer of High Court Judges.\u00a0 This was coupled with appointment of politically and ideologically inclined judges in courts.\u00a0 Post the 1982 judgement in the first judges case, the appointment of politically affiliated judges continued in several High Courts.\u00a0 This process substantially stopped after the 1993 judgement in the second judges case.<\/p>\n

The last few years have witnessed the consolidation of \u2018institution destabilizers\u2019 in a major way.\u00a0 Many of these destabilizers represent Left or ultra-Left views.\u00a0 They have no electoral base or popular support.\u00a0 However, they still have a disproportionate presence in the media and the academia.\u00a0 When ousted for mainstream media, they have taken refuge in the digital and social media.\u00a0 They continue to believe in the old Marxian philosophy of \u2018wrecking the system from within.\u2019\u00a0 They use free speech to destroy the judicial institution.<\/p>\n

This section has found a convenient ally in a small but vocal section of the Bar.\u00a0 This section exploits the judicial refrain of excessively using the power of contempt.\u00a0 However, they themselves have no hesitation in contemptuous behaviour themselves.\u00a0 They go public against individual judges, including the Chief Justice, when they fail to get a favourable order.\u00a0 They carry on social media campaigns against judges who write judgements adverse to them.\u00a0 They have little regard for truth but masquerade as protectors of public interest.\u00a0 Their behaviour in courts is offensive both to the Bench and their opponents.\u00a0 They threaten walkouts if judges are in disagreement.<\/p>\n

Even though most of them subscribe to fringe ideologies and ideas, it is regrettable that a section of the Members of the Bar affiliated to the Congress Party tend to join them.\u00a0 Frequent attempts are made to get some Parliamentarians to sign Motion of Impeachment against judges and even the Chief Justice on unsustainable grounds.\u00a0 What has always puzzled me is the Congress lending support to such fringe campaigns.<\/p>\n

The power of contempt<\/strong><\/p>\n

The power of contempt is intended to protect the dignity of the Court.\u00a0\u00a0 However, the power of contempt is rarely and sparingly used.\u00a0 Ordinarily, courts tend to ignore contemptuous criticism.\u00a0 Courts are willing to accept a criticism of judgements because that aids the process of legal evolution.\u00a0 The liberal attitude of the Courts has emboldened the \u2018institution disruptors.\u2019\u00a0 At the end of the day, they get away because of the magnanimity and the compassion of judges.<\/p>\n

Independent judiciary and free media are both essential for a vibrant democracy.\u00a0 Both have to live with each other.\u00a0 In order to co-exist, both must respect the respective rights of each of these institutions.\u00a0 One cannot take upon itself the task of destroying the other.\u00a0 Ever since 1950, every judgement of the Supreme Court relating to Article 19(1)(a) has favoured the strengthening of free speech.\u00a0 The reverse is not true.\u00a0 Mainstream print media conventionally had greater editorial control.\u00a0 The ability to dissect facts and take a balanced view was much higher.\u00a0 But of late, the rat race for grabbing eyeballs or viewership has begun.\u00a0 For the \u2018institutional disruptors\u2019 there are no red lines.<\/p>\n

The history of the last several year shows that cases after cases have witnessed facts being manufactured and twisted.\u00a0 This falsehood found support in a section in the media.\u00a0 Upon deeper analysis most of them were found to be factually incorrect.\u00a0 Facts were manufactured.\u00a0 The same \u2018gang\u2019 was behind this campaign.<\/p>\n

The present case<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Judge is continuously judged every day by the Bar and the stakeholders in the course of his personal and judicial conduct.\u00a0 Every time he makes a comment or writes a judgement, every word is scrutinised.\u00a0 In terms of personal decency, values, ethics and integrity, the present Chief Justice of India is extremely well regarded.\u00a0 Even when critics disagree with his judicial view, his value system has never been questioned.\u00a0 Lending shoulder to completely unverified allegations coming from a disgruntled person with a not-so-glorious track record is aiding the process of destabilisation of the institution of the Chief Justice of India.<\/p>\n

India has witnessed a series of attacks by the \u2018institution disruptors\u2019 against judges who are unwilling to agree with them.\u00a0 It may not be an exaggeration to say that today both in Court and by creating an environment outside, a mass-intimidation of Judges is on.\u00a0 Some lawyers have used intimadatory behaviour as a tactic to expand their practise.\u00a0 Intimidation and discrediting are important weapons in the hands of these people.\u00a0 Reputation is an integral part of a person\u2019s fundamental right to live with dignity.\u00a0 An intimidated judge can fear consequences of a possible view that he is taking.\u00a0 It is, therefore, essential that all well-meaning persons stand with the judicial institution when destabilizers get ready for an assault.<\/p>\n

Since the case relating to this is pending in judicial side before the Bench of a Court, we should leave it to the wisdom of the Court as to how they intend to deal with it.\u00a0 But let it be remembered that this is not the first case of the \u2018institutional destabilizers\u2019 nor will it be the last.\u00a0 If those who peddle falsehood to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pivotal position of the Chief Justice of India The incident of a junior ex-lady employee of the Supreme Court making harassment charges against the Chief Justice of India has acquired a disproportionate magnitude.\u00a0 Such complaints, when they are made in the ordinary course of any administrative functioning, are referred to the appropriate Committee.\u00a0 However,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[255,257,256],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-its-time","tag-judiciary","tag-stand-up"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}