JUDICIAL ABERATIONS

DEMOCRACY IN INDIA: JUDICIAL ABERRATIONS by Colonel SS Rajan, Military Veteran Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as, ‘Government of the people, By the people, For the people’. The founding fathers of our democracy gave unto us a world-class Constitution; yet, they could not have imagined that democracy in India based on its Constitution would be subverted to the extent that we see today. We now have rogues & rascals ruling this country, as the elected representatives of the people; we also have unscrupulous elements like GE Vahanvati as the country’s Attorney-General, the highest law officer of the Union Government. I am tempted to recall what Sir Winston Churchill said at the time of our Independence. . . ."Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters. . . .All leaders will be of low calibre & men of straw. . .They'll have sweet tongues & silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power & the two countries will be lost in political squabbles. . . .A day would come when even air & water will be taxed". It is distressing for a former soldier like this writer to quote an unabashed imperialist and racist like Churchill to buttress my arguments, but one has to confess that the old colonialist rogue had a point. Today, democracy in India can be safely defined as, ‘Government of the Thugs, by the Thugs, for the Thugs’. And I can confidently say, the country today is being ruled by a ‘Gang of Four’, viz. (1) The Politicians (needless to say they are corrupt), (2) The Bureaucrats who constitute the very fountain-head of corruption and are, in fact, the Gurus of the politicians, for, it is they who have taught the politicians the ABC of corruption, (3) The law enforcement & investigative agencies, and lastly, and most importantly, (4) the Business Class, Tatas, Birlas, Reliance and a host of other business houses & corporates. I always thought the judiciary in India was the last bastion of democracy; and the courts, a hallowed institution meant to ensure justice and deliver justice to the down-trodden and the oppressed, especially against tyranny & injustice by the State against its own citizens. Alas, study of a few cases which have been allowed to be dragged on indefinitely by vested interests or absence of pronouncement in certain cases, make me feel that I may be wrong and may have to revise my understanding of the role of Judiciary in India. Why so? It has been said for centuries that “Justice delayed is Justice denied”. I submit that the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India may like to do some soul searching about the following cases: 1. Rank Pay Case. Why, on filing of a Review Petition by the Union of India praying for recall of judgement delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on 8 March 2010 in favour of Officers of the Army, Navy & Air Force, with regard to payment of Rank Pay, the case was allowed to drag on & on by granting extensions & adjournments in favour of the Government, till the apex court delivered its judgement once again on 4 Sep 2012, after a lapse of two years and a half, by which time a number of beneficiaries and their Next of Kin (wives) had died. The Judges of the Supreme Court need to ask themselves whether they have or have not denied justice by delaying justice, by playing into the hands of the Bureaucracy, wittingly or unwittingly. 2. Gen VK Singh’s case. When the case of Gen VK Singh came up for hearing at the Supreme Court, the Hon’ble Judges were expected to give their verdict only on a single point of law: whether the date, viz. 10 May 1951 recorded as the Date of Birth in the Matriculation Certificate of Gen VK Singh is to be accepted as his Date of Birth or not. Period. The point here is that the Hon’ble Supreme Court was not asked to adjudicate whether the date, viz. 10 May 1951 is the actual Date of Birth of the General or not. The law or rule on the subject is very clear. As per earlier judgements that are categorical on this issue, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has very clearly and unambiguously laid down that the Date of Birth as recorded in an individual’s Matriculation Certificate will be treated as sacrosanct for all acts & purposes. Ipso facto, the Date of Birth as recorded in an individual’s Matriculation Certificate will be treated as sacrosanct for all acts & purposes, even if the same differs from the one recorded in the Birth Certificate issued by the Municipal Corporation or the Hospital where an individual was born or in any other document purporting to show the Date of Birth. Yet, it is indeed sad, that the Hon’ble judges of the Supreme Court, instead of delivering a judgement or giving a verdict on the subject based on the General’s Date of Birth as recorded in his Matriculation Certificate, decided to skirt the issue and bamboozled the General’s lawyer into withdrawing the case. Was it not a case of miscarriage of Justice? Many people are missing the woods for the trees when they say that the General should not have gone to the Court to seek redressal of his grievance that the date, 10 May 1951, as recorded in his Matriculation Certificate be accepted by the Govt. as his Date of Birth. Gen VK Singh’s grouse was genuine. He went to the Court on a matter of principle; when the Govt of India refused to take cognizance of the date, 10 May 1951, as recorded in his Matriculation Certificate as his Date of Birth. Even if the Hon’ble Supreme Court had delivered a judgement in favour of the General, saying, the date 10 May 1951 as recorded in the Matriculation Certificate of General VK Singh ought to be accepted as his Date of Birth; it was always left to the Govt to decide as to when the General ought to retire; that being its prerogative; as such matters are beyond the jurisdiction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to adjudicate. 3. Case of EVMs. Dr Subramanian Swamy, an eminent citizen of this Country has filed a case in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India bringing out inadequacies in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) currently in use. He has suggested the incorporation of remedial or corrective measures in the EVMs to make the voting process fair & fool-proof. In a Democracy, the right to vote by a citizen is fundamental & sacrosanct. It is equally sacrosanct that the due process of voting is not only seen to be fair, but is actually fair and fool-proof. That being so, why is it that the case of EVMs is being allowed to be dragged on in the Supreme Court? As it is, Elections to four State Assemblies have been announced and a huge order has been placed by the CEC for procurement of EVMs, whose very functional integrity has been questioned. Allowing the case to drag on, thus delaying delivery of judgement is regrettable. And in case, the judgement with regard to EVMs is delivered after the announcement of Date of next General Elections, it would be meaningless; for, there would be no time to incorporate suggested remedial or corrective measures in the EVMs (assuming that the same are accepted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court); thus severely impacting the very credibility of the results of the next General Elections. 4. Case of Shri P Chidambaram. A case had been filed against Shri P Chidambaram, accusing him of getting himself elected as MP by fraud in the last General Elections held in 2009. Four years have lapsed since the time the case was filed against Shri P Chidambaram. The next General Elections are due in 2014; if not earlier. Yet, there is no sign of delivery of any judgement in the case. The relevant point here is not whether Shri P Chidambaram is guilty of getting himself elected by fraud or not; the question here is, why is the progress of the case and delivery of judgement being delayed inordinately; for, any judgement delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, in the instant case, after the next General Elections would be infructuous. 5. Shri MK Subba’s case. Shri Moni Kumar Subba, a Nepali citizen named Moni Raj Limbo, convicted on charges of murder and undergoing imprisonment in Nepal, escapes from jail and becomes an Hon’ble MP of Lok Sabha. Moni Kumar Subba (born 16 March 1958) was a member of the 12th Lok Sabha, 13th Lok Sabha and 14th Lok Sabha of India from 1998 to 2009. He represented the Tezpur constituency of Assam and is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC). Subba, three-time MP from Assam, had also cited three different places and dates of birth in his election affidavits. In 2007, the Central Bureau of Investigation submitted to the Supreme Court of India that Subba's nationality was in doubt, and that existing citizenship proofs were forged. However, the Court rejected a petition seeking his disqualification from the Parliamentary election, stating that “the courts cannot unseat legislators". Is this Democracy? Please click on the following link to read more about Moni Kumar Subba, an Ex- MP of Lok Sabha from the Congress Party. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/threetime-mp-subba-not-an-indian-cbi/102443-3.html?from=tn Three cheers to Democracy in India and Long live the Gang of Four. Colonel SS Rajan, a Military Veteran, born on 13 O9ct 1944, was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) on 30 June 1963; and retired as Additional Chief Engineer on 31 Oct 1996. He actively participated in the 1971 Indo-Pak War in the Boyra-Jessore sector in the Eastern Theatre. He has settled down at Bangalore and may be contacted on Email: )