Honorable Judiciary

Democratic edifice of a country is supposed to be based on certain pillars like independent judiciary,  energetic executive ,vibrant parliament and unbiased press . In last 30  years ,I have  heard and read ,thousands of times from umpteen intellectuals that  judiciary in  India is last  resort for teeming millions in this developing country.                                                      But, what happens if a citizen feels dejected from judicial administration ,too.
This question has crept in my mind owing to trajectory traversed by judiciary in India. Why is judicial system considered as last  resort itself? should it not be one of the resort?  Probably, it was due to rampant corruption in administration, irresponsible behaviour of some political representatives and biased  and sometimes selfish press.
But in this country even judicial administration raises few concerns. One of them is concept  of  ” contempt of court”.Owing to certain historical  background judges were protected by    ” contempt of court” law. This law provided safety blanket to judges when they were under the control of  dictator    emperors. But today in a democratic set up judges should not be given this kind of  protection. We are free to criticize Prime Minister, government officials etc.  If someone tries to threaten or harm judges, accused will be prosecuted under Criminal Procedure Code. If democratic criticism  influences  verdict of a judge then question should be raised about intellectual and  emotional abilities of that particular judge. Any privilege which hampers dignified  freedom of speech cannot be  accepted in free  society. Someone who supports it need  to answer a question. What was wrong in   privileges which were reserved in Hindu society for Brahmins and Kshatriya ? After all they were part of ruling class in those old times . If Judges in Supreme Court decide to demolish concept of “contempt of court” then it will have domino effect. Political and administrative masters in India will find it difficult to continue with their aristocratic attitudes.
Another issue which creates Tsunami in the heart of sensible Indian is about Jammu and Kashmir issue. Now its an open  secret that provision 370 was inserted in Indian Constitution simply by
a President order . Due to this provision lakhs of Hindus suffered for 70 years. Due to presence of this provision girls of Jammu and Kashmir were robbed off some  fundamental rights.Honourable judges in Supreme Court of India and high court of Jammu and Kashmir failed to protect fundamental rights of badly affected citizens there.
At present India  is ruled  by National Democratic Alliance under bright leadership  of Shri Narendra Modi. During first tenure his government tried to link documents of immovable properties with Aadhar. Like  crores of poor and  lower middle class Indians I was enthralled. I was hoping that thousands of or may be millions of  black sheeps will be trapped in the  net. Some people challenged this effort of NDA government in the Supreme   Court of India. At that point of time  I expected that  honorable judges in Supreme Court will declare this effort lawful in the light of Indian Constitution. To my dismay this effort was declared null and void by honourable judges of the supreme court. On what ground this effort was rejected  ? Ground for rejection of this effort was security of data. According to Indian philosophy nothing is secure or permanent in this world . I have read somewhere that more than 70% people die  on their beds. So bed seems dangerous to me  but I can’t do without it. Point is that we have to live with immense sense of insecurity. Scientific advancements have proved, beyond any doubt, that nothing is secure in this world. In a world where mountains, countries, rocks ,diamonds or even human beings are not secure why  are we craving for the security of the data over cancerous existence of corruption?  In this material world I do not deny need for judicious secrecy and security.  But this particular decision by  honorable judges gave new lease of life to people who gain property through illegal and Immoral means. Honorable judges could have advised or even ordered the political and permanent executive to ensure security of the data.
Teaching fraternity gets lots of holidays in a year. They work for more than 210 days in a year. In some Public Schools Schools working days may be 240. People engaged in other jobs envy holidays enjoyed by teaching community. I was shocked to know that judges in India usually work for 190 days. They go for summer vacations of almost 30 days as a British era convention. We know that judicial system is crumbling under 3.3 crore pending cases.Should this colonial convention not come to an end?
Directive principles of Indian Constitution expect that citizens get equal pay for equal work. This expectation is neglected by the Honorable Supreme Court in  many  cases.  Many state governments have employed guest teachers who  are given petty salaries by the state governments. These guest teachers work as much as any regular teacher but obtain meagre salary.  These guest teachers  are often  treated as  outcasts  by the regular teachers . In case of guest teachers political executive as well as honorable judges in Supreme Court of India have failed to comply by the constitutional norms. Employees of public schools have, in the  past ,won cases against the school managements at high court level but  lost battle in Supreme Court. Rules of regulating agencies like Central Board of Secondary Education and state education departments clearly mention that Public School employees must get salary as are given in Government schools. Honorable  judges  in Supreme Court, without any exception,  overlooks these rules and gives verdict in favour of  Public School managements. Supreme Court should abolish those rules which favour salary to  Public School employees as per norms to end future controversies.In some other cases Supreme Court Judges pressurize government officials to abide by the written rules and regulations while in case of employees of public schools they encourage officers of regulating agencies to overlook written rules and regulations for some unknown reasons.
One more  issue which baffles me  is about removal of judges at the highest level if charges are levelled against them. We know that in our  country honorable judges at the highest level can be removed on the ground  of proven  misbehavior  or incapacity. In some cases serious charges were levelled against Supreme Court Judges. But nothing happened. Why ? Though here political executive was more responsible then judiciary. Supreme Court opened the doors for action against such judges but Central political executive failed to deliver due to  political compulsions.
Probably one of the most important parameter to judge Indian judicial system is concrete existence of “freedom of expression ” . We all know that freedom of expression is not unlimited and must be used in dignified  manner. In a  cultured society all citizens have right to  raise questions, to answer  those questions and to have debates in an open manner, without any fear or favour ,on all issues  including fundamental questions about origin  of a religion , its message and its messenger. But, what is the reality? You say something against champion of  non-violence, in modern india, you can be thrashed. You dare to go against some political leaders you can be beaten  in the public. I have seen a video( which was part of long live debate in a TV channel) where a fanatic religious leader was claiming  unequivocally  that if anyone will say anything against his religion or against his messenger he would chop off sayer’s head . Can there be  a debate without going against other party  or other person ?such undemocratic and uncultured debates are in vogue everywhere.  Compare it  with  Sanatan values  where  all human beings  were free  to raise questions  even  against  creator, protector  and destroyer  of  universe/shrishti. Upanishads of  Sanatan  values  are  full of such debates. According  to great  Greek  philosopher  Plato a good teacher  is one  who teaches  disciples to raise all all kinds of questions without any fear. Supreme Court must take suo moto notice of this issue and deliver perfect and final verdict.
Last concern which comes to my mind is how judiciary looses significant share of its time  and energy in dealing with cases which are connected with deeds and misdeeds of executive wing of the government and cases which are connected with  deeds and misdeeds of high profile celebrities. To deal with these cases extra judges  be appointed . In my opinion present lot of judges should remain dedicated for handling cases  of normal citizens.
For successful  downward seepage of democratic values each organ of the government needs to take self corrective measures. Sometimes Honorable Supreme Court did excellent work by engineering new concepts like Public Interest Litigation, basic features of the constitution and zero first investigation report (FIR) . But , on certain other issues it has failed to achieve  what was expected by citizens of this  country. Sometimes, Honorable Supreme Court failed to defend justice  due to  inefficiency or apathy of political executive and administrative executive. As a citizen of this country I hope that judiciary in India will  innovate  further to provide justice to millions of people . If verdict given by honorable judges are for the betterment of  the country and beneficial for the masses political executive will have no option but to fall in line.

by Surendra Dev Gaur