I was once told by a friend of mine, who has been associated with the judiciary for a long time. And this discussion happened in 1990s.
There is lot of monetary corruption in the lower judiciary. This does not mean that Corruption do not exist in the upper judiciary. It certainly does. But the corruption there is more of 'moral corruption', which means either the Judge gives decision that is in tune with his political or religious beliefs, or because of certain inherent biases.
Much water has flown under the bridge since. It is beyond doubt that our higher courts, especially the Supreme Court, has become a cabal of self serving, holier-than-thou, crony, corrupt bunch of Judges, who has least interest in serving justice to common people.
They appoint themselves, are not accountable to anyone, they interfere in areas where they have no right to and then when they make a mess of it they just keep quiet ( A classic case is their interference in BCCI, where in three years, all they have done is to make the situation murkier in the process shaming one of the better run organization in front of their global counterparts. The Council of Administrators have only one or two left of the initial team, and Vinod Rai is already past 70, an age set by SC for BCCI Administrators to be ineligible! ). No one, including the elected Parliament has any say in the appointment of judges, and they had the temerity to strike down the bill passed by both houses of Parliament that would have brought a semblance of transparency to judicial appointments.
The four rebel judges who held a press conference were not even censured. And one of them has now been awarded with the CJI post. Now let us see if Ranjan Gogoi, the new CJI, will relinquish his Master of Roster role and ask the Senior Most Judges to be a part of allocating the Cases, as he wanted in the Press Conference. He has to walk the talk, but am sure it is not going to happen, and the so called liberals will not raise this issue.
It is a matter of concern that the SC is fast tracking cases which has an anti hindu slant, and passing judgments detrimental to the majority religion. The Sabarimala case is one such. When a more important, simple land dispute case of Ayodhya, is pending for decades, which is of more importance, SC has to rush in and meddle in Sabarimala. I am not for or against it. The 41 days vrata as an excuse for keeping women out is not acceptable to me, as 90% of men don't observe 41 days vrata. It is more like 3 days to 1 week. But every temple has a right to decide its rituals and right of entry, based on traditions. Any change has to come within the Community, and Hinduism has shown its ability to reform over a period of time, unlike the Abrahamic religions.
The issue is not SC interfering in hindu religion, but its reluctance to even touch minority religions. This is unacceptable. If not allowing women of certain age groups in Sabarimala is a violation of Fundamental right, how about not allowing women to pray with men in a mosque is not a violation of Fundamental right?
The earlier we have a uniform civil code the better.
The lower judiciary is absolutely corrupt. The higher judiciary is packed with judges of a particular political belief, who ensure only their types are promoted through an opaque, unaccountable system. They are also financially corrupt. The case of an ex CJI from Kerala is a case in point. The guy Justice Karnan, who dared to call out that the King was naked, was punished and imprisoned for 6 months. The judiciary as it stands today cannot be mended.
It has to be destroyed, dismantled and rebuilt from scratch. We cannot have a situation where SC interferes in a criminal investigation on people who are charged with assassinating the PM of the country, just because they are of the same cabal as a few high priced lawyers. Even after admitting that the case against the urban naxals has nothing to do with dissent, but everything to do with a plot to assassinate the PM, the SC refused to admit its mistakes. It should have pulled back its order on house arrest of the accused, and allowed the police to have their way. But hey! who will bell the cat?
The SC should take up only few cases a year, as it happens in US, and that too as a final stage of appeal. To interfere and give bail to Teesta Setalvad, and overturning lower court order on arrest of Urban Naxals is not what they are meant to do. Nor is it the job of HC to decide where Karunanidhi to be buried, and that too admitting a case at midnight!!
Will the next Government have the guts to take SC on? If not, then SC will face the wrath of the common man, who will just start defying their orders.
That will be a sad day, but that day is not far away.
