I am sure I will be pillored for writing this.
Recently, Supreme Court passed a 'verdict' barring convicted lawmakers from continuing in Parliament or State Assemblies. This has been welcomed by almost all, except those politicians who face imminent conviction.
Much water has flown since. First the ruling party, under pressure from Lalu and Rashee Masood and a handful of others, decided to introduce a bill in the Loksabha to overturn the verdict. But it proved to be non-starter. Then the Government, ill advised, tried to take the Ordinance route. This was scuttled, first by BJP and Left, then by the President before 'Dumbo' entered the picture with his irresponsible press conference.
The subsequent events should not cover up the root cause. The Supreme Court was wrong in pronouncing the judgement.
We have a legal system which states that every person is 'innocent till proved guilty' (It is another matter that we have a mobocracy, led by TV Anchors and Media, that pronounces everyone 'guilty even if proved innocent'). Take the example of Laloo Prasad Yaday- He has been convicted by the CBI court in the Fodder Scam (well and good, though it took them 16 years to arrive at this verdict,during which he enjoyed all the perks of office and more). But this is only a lower court. He is free to appeal in the higher courts, including the Supreme Court, and he can even go scot free. If he that happens (after 10 years or so) then all of us would have been unfair to him. Right?
Supreme Court is reluctant to attack the Root Cause - the inordinate time it takes to arrive at a verdict. Why verdict, even the first trial date is more than a decade after a case comes to the court. Add to this, the shoddy job done by the Police across the country, resulting in 90% of the people getting acquitted for want of evidence. Is there any wonder people are becoming more arrogant?
Take the case of P Chidambaram's election from Sivaganga, that is being challenged. It is obvious to everyone, except our Courts, that a fraud was committed and results were manipulated. It is almost 4 1/4 years since the election, but the case has not even come up for hearing!!!. And PC has worked as Home Minister and then Finance Minister during this period. If his election was null abinitio, then whatever decisions taken by him during the past 4 1/4 years are null and void. But......?
This is true of most of the cases. Also, the accused are denied of their right to clear their name and are permanently under suspicion, which is unfair.
Supreme Court has not come up with any concrete plans to speed up the justice system, and various Police Reform suggestions are gathering dust.
The current Supreme Court verdict on disqualification of politicians on being convicted, while popular, is a grave mistake and akin to closing a hole with darkness.
