Black Gown and Blue Blood
By Pamarty Venkataramana
The pot calling the kettle black is as age old as the present controversy raging over alleged corruption in ranks of judiciary.
Nepotism and bribery with foregone conclusions are the much debated topics today in rungs of administrative corridors of judicial hierarchy.
That the monster of rampant corruption stalks judiciary is an outspoken statement nowadays, under the peculiar three-pillar societal eddifice where Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary are beacons of a constitutional democracy.
It is also common knowledge that the criminal justice system has miserably fallen to the vagaries of poor governance and shrouding of Dharma behind a veiled statute of Lady Law.
Borrowed ideals and khichdi style of quick fix book of Constitution to address a broken map which was done in haste and in pre-technology era have resulted in an anachronistic society : all men are equal in eyes of law but those born in certain groupings or communities of our plural society are still conferred with lifelong privileges which has resulted in disequilibrium and lends weight to the precious words of the pig in Animal Farm who pontificates that -‘ all men are born equal but some are more equal than others’.
The present controversy of unusually large bundles of cash allegedly being found in the burning bungalow of a sitting judge of a High Court in Indian Republic does not raise eyebrows for those who have dwelled in courtroom and court sections for years as such episodes have been a phenomenon for countless years around the globe. But,that is no justification to approve of any such misdemeanor or misdeeds,if true.
One has come across instances where one had to espouse the cause of a client battling for justice against a sitting judge who had openly betrayed the ends of Justice by pronouncing one order in open court room but the certified copy carried an order to the contrary. In all eagerness, one supported the naive and hurt client shooting off letters,petitions and mails to the Chief of the country’s judicial system only to be confronted with blank response. Every effort to pursue the matter and persuade the powers that be in the establishment ended in a dead-end situation. The Client was an indigent person and there was a limit to which one honest and conscientious lawyer could support by helping with clerical costs and total fee-waiver. Being the tendency of such laymen however, he broke communication with his benefactor by falling prey to local politicians and joining their bandwagon crying against judicial machinery of the nation rather than heeding to better counsel. And then there were instance of a pistol being recovered from baggage of a judge returning from foreign jaunt at an airport apart from the huge hue and cry ringing the lower courts of the country about ‘uncle judges’ customary practice as being abhorrent to affected parties because the practice of the Collegium body where sitting judges annoint Advocates as Judges is ‘nowhere mentioned in book of Constitution’.
But then, is there no substitute to Collegium system which buds scope for flowering of perpetual, pernicious evil of corruption stalking the country’s judicial bodies?
How can Justice be dispensed where corrupt or substandard Advocates with often literally no exposure to all-round branches of litigation (especially modern day crimes like digital arrests, corporate white collar crimes and online slander or cyber-terrorism) are said to buy their way to overall immunity as a ‘judge’ ?
There are umpteen number of cases where land grabbing, collusion and such other allegations have been brushed under the carpet of those such sitting and retired judges (and some have even risen to topmost throne of the hierarchy).
It is legal history where a certain designated senior Advocate has even brazenly announced the names of almost a dozen and more topmost judges (in sealed envelope) as having been corrupt to the core. It of course is a different tale where the pot calls the kettle black.
It might not be out of place to mention the story of a certain judge in Peshawar in pre-partition of India days who was wont to receive bribe monies from both sides of the litigation but gained honour since he would ‘honestly’ return the amount to the one who lost the case. Perhaps this particular incident throws light into the psyche of the individuals who hanker to get appointed as judges but fail to uphold the sacred oath of integrity administered when they are sworn in by another higher constitutional authority.
Freedom of speech, the Right to Information Act and defamation laws have been misused to silence the lambs of society that bleat and bleat even as babudom beats about the bushes in their vague replies. It is not uncommon to see some retired judges with cloud over their tenure being often decorated with onerous responsibilities of Commissions of Inquiry and even vying to be appointed as Governors and other constitutional positions,using clout gathered in course of climbing ladder of ‘success’.
What is the solution to the endemic game of not so bright Advocates becoming Judges in a questionable multi-layer system of selection as judges and being surrounded by susceptible ‘civilian’ clerks and orderlies? Even the dafedaars, peons and drivers of judges are used as conduits to streamline judgments,says the grapevine.
Morality has to preside over tenets of legality. The procedures and processes ought to be enacted alongside the laws : these must not be left to be drafted by officials and clerks who are less conversant with nuances of jurisprudence and practical difficulties encountered in day to day lives of hapless citizens who as it is are crumbling under devious or draconian provisions of existing laws.
As one who has both acted as an amicus curae of the apex court in defending survivors of encounter deaths in prison and also one victimized by malicious extortionists,blackmailing criminal gangs and terrorists whilst dealing in matters of national interest ,one can dare say that all Advocates are aware of this omnipresent hazard tailing professional etiquette but very few choose to voice the collapse of good conscience in matters of judicial scrutiny. Who judges judges? This is the conundrum of the millennium.
The ongoing debate about a special law to protect lawyers from miscreants and greedy wolves lusting for wealth or power speaks volumes about injustice meted out even to so-called saviours of the downtrodden and affected litigant public.
All of these recent trends renew the need to adopt a fresh,updated book of Constitution integrating interests of diverse sections of society and having a relook at system of recruitment of both judges and civil servants.
The latest episode in Delhi High Court and the ‘are we a dustbin’ query of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association are a wake-up call for much needed reforms in both teaching standards at law colleges as well as recruitment procedures in both entry level and higher level judicial posts in the country which has been facing a formidable rise in both crime-rate as well as court-litigation.
How can we be a free society when such insolent and indolent elements crawl through corridors of power and pelf?
- Black Gown and Blue Blood - March 24, 2025
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- Nation Unchained, People in Chains - February 10, 2025
