Much as I hate to pick on Supreme Court of India time and again, I am afraid the SC is fast losing its respect. And I hope the judiciary don't lose the respect.
A series of verdicts, which defies logic and borders on absurdity is threatening to erode SC's credibility. It is fair to say that the SC under the current Chief Justice has been on an emotional adversarial path with the legislature and is overstepping their brief.
Their stand on the appointment of Judges, and how they decided a case where they themselves were a party should be the lowest point of our judiciary, inclusive of their pathetic stand during the Emergency period 1975-1977. It was only fair on the part of the SC to ask for Arbitration from an independent panel, while recusing from the case. That there was one judge, out of five, who had the integrity to dissent is the only salient feature of the whole sordid saga.
The allegation raised by Justice Chalameshwar that the Collegium system is not transparent in its functioning has not been addressed to yet by the cry baby Chief Justice. This is akin to how corruption allegations against 8 of the former CJIs by Bhushan was brushed under the carpet by the SC till date. Less said about SC inaction on K G Balakrishnan, the better.
Thus, we have a situation, where the judiciary appoints itself, is accountable to none, and encroaching into the domain of the Executive. This is dangerous for the Country.
Take the case of the Sahara Chief Subrata Roy. There is no doubt whatsoever that he was involved in one of the biggest money laundering exercise of recent times and needs to be punished. His case has been with SC for the past half a decade, and he was sent behind the bars for only 'Contempt of Court'. And he was given 5 Star facility in the jail, and Office with infrastructure to work and finally let out on parole on compassionate grounds, which was extended on one pretext or other. Now he is ordered back to jail not for his crime, but because the CJI led bench took offense at the attitude of his lawyer! The legal and logical thing that should have been done ages ago was to attach the Sahara properties, appoint an Administrator and then punish Roy if he has violated the law. The Administrator should have been asked to auction the properties and not Roy.
Less said about the Arunachal Pradesh Government fiasco, the better. It was known to all and sundry that the Congress speaker did not give a level playing field and suspended MLA's when there was a no confidence motion against him, and a Finance bill was not passed, which automatically means the collapse of the Government. The SC interfered needlessly, ensured that only a Congress Government was possible, restored status quo without taking into cognizance all the facts. The Result? The deposed by SC, CM Puli committed suicide and within two months, the whole Congress party barring the original CM defected to form a new party, leaving mud on the face of the honorable Justices of SC.
The next disaster was the judgment on Cauvery water. Again the SC took arbitrary decisions, changing the quantum of water released every day, without rhyme or reason, and two states burned. Finally, the Karnataka legislature had to take the extreme step of virtually telling SC that it will defy its orders and pray what did SC do? They virtually begged Karnataka to release a minimum quantity of water for 3 days just to save their faces, all the while spewing phony, un-implementable threats at all and sundry.
SC doesn't understand that they are still respected but are just being tolerated. One day, people will start defying them, and SC cant do anything about it. For example, what can SC do if Karnataka don't release water? Nothing. It can order the arrest of the Chief Secretary. But who is going to arrest them? No one. Then what happens? Nothing.
This is the result when the SC thinks a bit too much of itself and its powers
I am no great fan of BCCI. But there are far more worse associations than BCCI, which at least does a lot for the game. But the SC wont touch any of those rogue associations as they wont get any publicity. Our boxers are suffering because the national boxing association is split into two and derecognized by the International Boxing Council. Have you heard SC appointing a Committee to solve this. No.
SC appointed a committee headed by former Justice Lodha, who recommended sweeping reforms. What was the qualification of Lodha to decide the tenure of office holders, or fix an age limit, or to decide there should be only 3 selectors? None. His opinion is as good or bad as yours and mine, and quite a few are down right dumb. BCCI is one of the few associations, where past players are very active in promoting the sport, and of course they make money out of it. No one does anything for charity or for the love of the game. There were conflict of interests, but these could have been easily taken care of. When SC decides a case where it was the Aggrieved party in the issue of Judges appointment, which is a clear Conflict of Interest, how can they morally ask someone else not to have Conflict of Interest?
Today, they have threatened to enforce their decision by BCCI. Now, how are they going to implement it if BCCI refuses to pay heed? Frankly, many of the recommendations are illogical and by no means perfect. All it is doing is to shackle perhaps the only decently run sports federation in India, which has contributed immensely to the growth of Cricket and Cricketers not only in India, but world over.
The SC, which has mountains of cases to clear, is picking and choosing high profile cases filed as PIL to be in the limelight, and issuing orders left, right and centre. It made a laughing stock of itself with its ban of Diesel cars in Delhi, support of the absurd Odd-Even Scheme, Reversing the ban on Diesel cars and imposing a Cess (for which it has no authority), and their silly comments on all matters under the sun.
For many, judiciary is their last hope. Instead of ensuring speedy justice to the poorest of the poor, the judiciary is wasting time on cases which are of no great consequence to majority of the people like the BCCI case.
SC also sermons various Governments and Ministries on getting their act together, but is absolutely silent on the rot inside it. Delayed justice, poor infrastructure, corruption of judges, unnecessary adjournments, out dated functioning (Why do we still follow the old British way of dressing in courts and a bailiff announcing the arrival of the justice? Ridiculous), a confrontanist attitude with the Government that pays its salary, and stone deafness to the voice of the people, apart from rampant cronyism, opaqueness in functioning, are some of the ills afflicting our judiciary.
I dread the day people turn against it finally as this could lead to anarchy.
Will our Judges ( I wont call them Honourable, why should they be addressed like that at all?) wake up and get out of their ivory tower before it is too late?
