law and Life. VI

Chief Justice from Other States

As I have said elsewhere in this book an outside Chief Justice does not take serious and keen interest in the improvement of our State Judiciary. They do not have the time also. During working days they sit in the Court and during week ends and vacation they are away at their native States.

But one Chief Justice made a difference. Though his tenure was not free from conflicts and controversies, the Hon’ble Mr. Justice Subhashan Reddi took pains to identify, locate and acquaint himself with the local issues and Advocates. He could atleast identify and address 500 advocates by their names in the High Court. He worked hard and followed up the proposals he had sent to / pending with the State Government atleast once in a week. He can locate even small towns in our State without
any difficulty.

On the judicial side he had a remarkable knowledge of law and peculiar presence of minid. He would listen to theAdvocates for 3 or 5 minutes without interruption so that the Advocate would have the satisfaction of having said what he or his client wanted. After 5 minutes the Chief Justice would just ask one question. The reply or the absence of any reply would determine the fate of the case. He always ensured that some relief was given without harming the other side. He had a special knack and flair for extending such reliefs.

Almost every Judge would say that their doors are always open to Advocates and Advocates may come to them for any help. But even Gates of their compound walls would also be locked. In the compound of some of the Hon’ble Judges even the cars are not permitted. One would be asked to leave the car outside the compound and enter. But Mr. Justice Subhashan
B. Reddi was an exception. He mingled with the Bar freely and was willing to extend a helping hand wherever possible.

He is responsible for bringing many facilities to the High Court. Whether the bifurcation and formation of Madurai Branch of High Court is appropriate or otherwise is a matter to be determined by time. But the entire credit (or blame) should go to Mr. Justice Subhashan Reddi. In my humble view he is the best Chief Justice of our High Court in the last 25 years.

Blaming the Judges

Now-a-days there is a tendency to blame the Judges for the failure of cases. The advocates find it convenient to say without hesitation that they have lost the cases because of either the impatience or inexperience or ignorance of the learned Judges. This is the greatest disservice the Bar does to itself. These cheap lies invented to console the clients would definitely, in the long run, undermine the dignity of the Bar and expose them to incurable helplessness. A well equipped lawyer shall never use these petty tricks to impress the clients.

European Judges were fair in their assessments. While discharging their duty as a Judge they had no bias of caste/race. There was one British Advocate General who was not shrewd or sound. One native Indian Advocate was instructing the Advocate General in a case and the Advocate General could neither catch nor grasp the instructions fully and our Advocate looked at the Judge helplessly. The European Judge observed “Mr. Swaminatha Iyer, I realize, you are pumping air into the punctured tube.”

The Brahmins as a class had done a great deal of service to the administration of justice. Till 1960 or so the Bar was dominated only by Brahmis in our State. Whatever they did or did not, they always ensured  that the dignity of the Bar was maintained intact. They never dance, drink or dine with the clients. Now men and women from all communities come to the Bar. I am also a non-brahmin, first generation lawyer. But I am not too sure whether we, the present generation of lawyers, would hand over the profession with the same dignity with which we received from the Brahmins to the next generation.

A very disturbing Development

As I have understood the criminal law of this country, the State have assumed the powers of prosecuting and punishing the offenders to ensure that the affected and their relatives / friends do not take law into their hands and revenge. In my humble view, sadly, it is failing slowly. There is a variety of reasons for the same.

a)   Police and other investigating agencies are unable to tackle the failure of law and order.

b)  80% of the men manning such agencies are
inexperienced, lethargic and corrupt.

c)   The other 20% of such men are willing to act and demonstrate their ability only when their administrative or political boss is interested in the investigations or some incentive is offered.

d)  Supreme Court has declared that death sentence shall be awarded only in the rarest of rare cases. And in such rarest cases either the State or Central Government deliberatelysleeps over or His Excellency, the most merciful President do not want to reject the clemency petitions. In other words they are not willing to perform even their constitutional duties. It is so even in the rarest cases like the assassination of a former Prime Minister or the attack on the Parliament. The resut is the offenders/culprits live longer at the taxpayers
cost.

e)   The State Governments on their part release the life convicts in 5 or 7 years under some pretext or the other.

In this background the common man is highly dis-illussioned and having lost faith in the State retaliate or revenge himself.

To say the least it is a sad realtiy. We, the lawyers, the Judges and the State have only brought about this situation. I am afraid the Soverign State is surrendering back its right to prosecute and punish the guilty to the citizens. It is bad for any civilized society.

Distribution of What?

Often I come across news items and television coverage showing senior police officers distributing stolen (recovered) ornaments and other articles to the owners in a kind of function got up for this. As a legal practitioner I do not at all follow this. The return of stolen articles is regulated under the criminal
procedure code. The trial courts do have a control or at least many think like that.

In view of arrangements of such functions for return, the return is postponed for several months. I know one such function was delayed for 8 months as under.

a)   It was cancelled in view of a Minister’s visit to a town.

b)  The I.G. had gone on leave for his son’s wedding.

c)   S.P. was under orders of transfer.

d)  There was a tragedy in which (bus accident) several persons died.

At last when the function was arranged the owner was instructed to depute his wife for receiving as the I.G. felt that it was appropriate that ladies receive the ornaments from him(?) When she received she was asked to pay Rs. 2,000/- (her share for arranging the function). I saw the photo in which the I.G. gave away the ornaments with the pride and happiness that are usually noticed on the face of politicians when they distribute largess to the poor. She had to wait for 4½ hours for this function. Fortunately all her ornaments were returned.

An elderly gentleman from Sivaganga District settled in East Anna Nagar, Chennai whose house is only four houses away from the residence of a sitting Judge of our High Court had told me something different. He is wealthy. Police recovered jewels stolen from his house in his native Village. The acknowledgement for return of ornaments was taken well in advance. When he received and verified, about 15 sovereigns were missing. When a central cabinet Minister (then and now) holding a powerful portpolio intervened the police showed ‘Him’ the acknowledgement signed which stated that ‘he has received the entire ornaments after full verification and nothing more was due.’ The well qualified (in law) Minister advised him not to agitate as he cannot succeed in the light of his acknowledgement. Such functions are a disgrace to the Rule of Law. I am not sure whether such functions are a weakness of Judiciary. But convinced that they do not demonstrate its strength.

Fast to Kill Justice

In a function arranged in Madras High Court to felicitate the Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, the former Chief Justice of India, I participated and spoke on the topic ‘Role of Judiciary’ as desired by the then Chief Justice Mr. A.P. Shah. The substance of my speech (in 2006) was that the so called Fast Track Courts are on a wrong track. I said “One Fast Track Court heard, decided and punished an accused in a murder case in some 3 weeks, another in another murder case punished in 18 days and in that context another Fast Track Court Judge thought he must be super fast and accordingly heard, considered and punished the accused in another murder case in 8 days.” I concluded that “these trials are a mockery and the Fast Track Courts are quickly killing Justice.”

The Subordinate Judges are like Corporation school students. The former has a compulsion to attend all High Court meetings and the latter, the meetings of ministries. Both are supposed to clap hands for the speech of the Chief Guest. Many Fast Track Court Judges who attended that meeting were unhappy at my remarks.

Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan refered to my speech and said that my views were not appropriate and Fast Track Courts were rendering a great deal of service. But he was very gentle and soft in his remarks. Chief Justice A.P. Shah became very much disturbed and agitated when I made the remarks.

In 2008 or early 2009 the Division Bench consisting of the Hon’ble Mr. Justice D. Murugesan had set aside the judgement of the Fast Track Court which I referred second in my remarks on the ground that concluding the murder trial in days was a mockery of justice. I am convinced that justice would prevail, of course always a little late. I do hope Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr. Justice A.P. Shah would have read the judgement of the Division Bench.