ALL THE KINGS

On last friday when I was about to leave the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) at Scindia House, I saw a king. I really felt that he is the king and all the other persons are just his slaves. what transpired is recorded below and you judge wether what title I have given to that person is right or wrong...

It was somewhere mid noon and I climbed down the stare case of Scindia House. Infact Scindia house is known for Income Tax offices and the DRT. All of a sudden just when I was on the building gate a person pushed me to the side. I was taken by shock as I was in my own dreams just walking and thinking. When I looked up I realised that 3-4 Advocates were standing in the line of the lift and 3-4 other persons were also present. At that time of the day usually there is no waiting list. I looked around. I saw one person near the lift, who had stopped the lift ( for me its hijacking). I asked him and he replied ek din sidhi use karne se koi fark nahi padta hai. I asked him further why it is being done and he said koi aa raha hai. On the main door two perons having income tax badge were there and on the road there were 2-3 more. They asked me not to stand near the gate and they were not allowing any taxi to stop in the lane.  I wanted a taxi and they did not allow any one to stop there as if the road was a private road.

After around 15 minutes or so two cars came and a gentleman, may be in his 40s came out and he was given a warm welcome by those officers only and no other person was present. He did not look like a top IRS or IAS officer. The said person did not even look around, shook hands and proceeded. I felt as if a white elephant is walking with an egoist head. The 15 minutes which passed by in this entire episode just made me wonder that forget the ministers and top level government officials now even these mid level officers or may be upper mid level officers have started haunting the lives of common man and their presence just causes inconvinience. I just recalled the Clinton issue where to police had stopped people from going and coming on a street as the ex-first lady had come to that area. According to me by such treatments of common man each day the naukarshah's just keep slapping the face of democracy and killing the message rule of the people, by the people for the people...

Very honestly I feel that we do not live in the free India as visualised by the freedom fighters but in the same colonial country with the difference being that there we had a mission to free the country from foriegners but here we cannot even fight out as they are one of us... and part of us..

siddharth murarka

IS JUDICIARY FOLLOWING POLITICIANS IN INDECISIVENESS

Whenever we talk of judicial authority, the first thing that comes to our mind is that its an authority which decides and is there to dilever the results. For survival of a civil society it is very important that such authority must not only command respect but must also be far of from the shadows of doubts.

On the other hand politician usually do not command great repect and always breed on the shadow of doubts and also allegations. The politicians are known for not deciding an issue which is complex and waits for things to cool down and people to become less concerned on an issue. When the ethopia dies down and another issue occupies the hot seat, the politians slowly decide the issue in the manner and fashion which they deem fit. However, to my mind the cannons of Justice requires that the Judiciary must be clean and straight forward, the ones who do not know two ways but only one way that is truth and only truth, justice and only justice. Thus they will lack in ability to twist and turn and always decide an issue on the basis of law only and will not keep an issue undecided or in back burners.

However, todays development has definately raised an issue as to wether the judiciary is following the footsteps of the politicians. The issue of Justice Dinakaran was today left undecided and the matter remains pending as to wether Justice Dinakaran will be elevated to the Supreme Court or not. There are several allegation against Justice Dinakaran, which is more than sufficient to decline elevation to him to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court must have each and every judge who commands great respect across all the High Courts where they have presided and also all the Advocates who appear before him. People must have fear that if they are wrong, then the chances of them being punished are very high. The people against whom wrong is done must feel that the judge is eager to give justice and remove the injustice and the matter is being heard so that truth can be found out.

But what if a peson who appears before a Judge thinks ten times wether he will get justice or not? What if he thinks that in the past there were allegations against the judge, who knows may be they might be true? What if the litigant during the entire period of litigation, instead of looking and concentrating on the law of the land, concentrates and discusses more about wether the judge will dilever justice or not, wether the allegation against him in the past are true or not? According to me loss of faith of litigant is bigger than the crime or wrong itself and hence, it is necessary that the issue of Justice Dinakaran must be decided immediately and even if the collegium feels or decides that the allegations are baseless, then also they must drop the plan of elevation of Justice Dinakaran to the Apex Court. This will send a message to the litigants that the Apex Court being the final frontier in the fight for justice, does not give a chance to litigants and masses to even think that its members are tainted or even alledged to be tainted.

I do not know what is the fact, may be Justice Dinakaran is a true man and all the allegations are devoid of any truth, but still I feel that in order to make the litigants and masses comfortable, the need is that the collegium must decide not to elevate Justice Dinakaran, unless and untill he is cleared of all doubts and allegations.

To sum up it is the right of the litigants that if an allegation of such nature is made against any Judicial Office then such office must not get elevation at all unless and untill a clean chit is given to the said person. I know that this will cause inconvinence to some, even injustice to Justice Dinakaran, as chances of him being clean are very bright ( in law you are innocent till guilt is proved), but then we must remember that in doing Justice, at times we also do a little injustice to some and it is ok if that injustice is a bearable one...

Thus the last and not the least fact is that Judiciary and legal fraternity must be ready to sacrifice themselves and their carreers and must only be concerned with the limited issue of dispencing justice and creating a sence of justice..

Siddharth Murarka