People losing faith in law of the land

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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 as they are beginning to feel that it is possible to manipulate judgments in India.

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 ResemblesPolitical 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.

Results of the SMS/Web poll: Is it possible to manipulate judgments in our country?

Yes: 95 per cent

No: 5 per cent