CJI is the 'Master of roster'

  

• Earlier, the Constitution Bench declared, on Nov 10, 2017, that it is the prerogative of the Chief Justice of India to decide what case has to be heard by which judge.
• The Constitution Bench held that “there cannot be any kind of command directing the CJI to constitute a Bench”. The Bench held that no judge can take up or post matters on his own. That authority is the Chief Justice's exclusive domain.
• The judicial institution would crumble if every judge acts like the Chief Justice of India.
• Judges have to act within their parameters set down by rules and precedents of the Supreme Court to protect judicial integrity and decorum.
• Constitution Bench recorded that the CJI is indeed the first among equals on the judicial side, but on the administrative side, he is the master of the roster.

  

• The judges acknowledge the CJI is the master of the roster.
• Given the context of the January 12, 2018 press conference by rebel 4 judges, the judges also feel that there was a need to make the assignment of cases more transparent, even though the CJI could reserve the right for keeping to himself hearing on certain extraordinarily important cases of national importance. 
• The four senior judges had said that listing of the PILs on judge Loya’s death before a select bench headed by a “junior” judge pushed them to hold the press conference for highlighting the systemic irregular manner in which successive Chief Justices of India have assigned important cases to handpicked benches headed by junior judges.
• There is a not a single judge who supported the four senior judges’ idea of holding a press conference to highlight the grievance.
• The CJI and judges are also aware that despite a roster system, there would always be room for a judge to be dissatisfied about the nature of the cases getting allocated to him/her and could still go ahead and hold a press conference airing grievances.
• The novel way of “discharging debt to the nation” through a press conference could turn out to be contagious, with personal ambitions and perceived irregularities fueling similar occurrences in the high courts, which have far greater number of judges than the apex court and, thus, greater possibility of disagreement with the chief justices.

Read SC Judges revolt raises more questions

Jayalalitha & Sasikala - Convicted criminals

On Feb 14, 2017, SC verdict accuses Jayalalithaa as a mastermind who misused her public office.

Late Jayalitha, Sasikala, Elavarasi and Sudhakaran were convicted by SC on Feb 14, 2017, in a 21 year old DA case. Sasikala, the unrelated acquaintance of Jayalalitha for 33 years, was also convicted by SC upholding Trial court sentence and setting aside HC acquittal reveals the deep rooted criminal attitudes of both along with Elavarasi & Sudhakaran.

• Jayalalithaa did not accommodate Sasikala at Poes Garden house out of some philanthropic urge or humanitarian concern but with cold-blooded calculation to keep herself secure from any legal complications, which may arise from their criminal activities
• deep-rooted conspiratorial design to amass vast riches
• hatching criminal conspiracy to launder the ill-gotten wealth
• purchasing huge properties in the names of masked fronts
• ten firms were constituted in a single day. Apart from buying properties, no other business activity was undertaken by them
• Jayalalitha masterminded, misused her public office, masked banking exchanges, acquired vast tracts of land for pittances and conspired with her co-accused at Poes Garden only to later feign ignorance about any crime committed
• this case is a deep-rooted conspiratorial design to amass vast assets without any compunction and hold the same through shell entities to cover up the sinister trail of such illicit acquisitions and deceived and delude the process of law
• Jayalalitha had executed a GPA in favour of Sasikala in respect of Jaya Publications only to maintain a respectable distance from inflow and outflow of money meant for property acquisitions.
• SC lauded Special Judge for his investigative approach and exhaustive research regarding every piece of evidence. The SC observed that the trial court was sensitive, vigilant and judicious in its appraisal of the evidence in this case
• SC held that Karnataka High Court judge did not even bother to appraise the evidence available and stuck to whatever the income tax authorities found in favor of the accused persons
• SC held that death of a public servant does not extinguish the corruption case against the other private accused. Private individuals can be prosecuted on the ground that they had abetted the act of criminal misconduct.
• SC expressed deep concern about the escalating corruption in the society

Jayalalithaa adopted Sasikala's nephew Sudhakaran, announced his wedding in Sep 1995 to the grand daughter of actor Sivaji Ganesan. The Rs.100 crore extravagant wedding consisted of several dining halls; state machinery misused to supply power to the hall, tankers used to supplied lakhs of litres of water and government vehicles employed for transport. This prompted Dr. Subramanyam Swamy initiate the corruption case against Jayalalitha.

It is rumored that Karnataka HC judge who set aside Trial court conviction, later purchased several plots & properties in his relatives names in Bangalore.

How Modi once saved Jayalalitha from a Frankenstein's monster Sasikala in  2011

My View:
Now that it is proven that Jayalalitha is not 'Amma' but a hard core criminal, worse than a terrorist. DMK brigade is no better is another story. Only a fortnight ago there was demand from various Tamil quarters for the award of 'Bharat Ratna' to Jayalalitha. Even without family to inherit, Jayalalitha 'amassed' so much wealth exemplifying human being's underlying greed and becomes difficult to imagine how much politicians are looting the nation. Hopefully, YS Jagan will be consigned to jail in next few months relieving AP of the demonised evils. 21 years to convict her is shamefully too long. The best could be no more than 6-12 months. The need of the hour is to reform our systems to track and book this type of culprits early and send them to jail quickly for rest of their life so that society could lead better quality of life. Bringing all politicians including Prez & PM, officials, businessmen, judiciary and all people in public domain under the purview of strong & independent Lok Pal and strengthening RTI and institutions like CVC, CBI, ACB etc. will be few steps in right direction. Self styled 'anti corruption lone crusader' Modi - whether he will do anything in this direction, even after mid way of the term,  is yet to be seen. I fear he is politician who looks at everything for political gains only.

Justice delayed is justice denied

Constitution of India - Preamble

People use to go to the judiciary in quest of justice. But sixty years after Independence, we have endless laws but not enough justice.

Justice is a consumer product and must therefore meet the test of confidence, reliability and dependability like any other product if it is to survive market scrutiny. Judicial responsibility, accountability and independence are in every sense inseparable. Credibility of the judiciary is at stake now due to mounting arrears of cases, delays in disposal and also high cost of obtaining justice. The denial of justice through delay is the biggest mockery of law. It does not amount to mere mockery, the delay in fact kills the entire fabric of justice delivery system of the country.

Justice and the judiciary is the inevitable result of that civilization. But the present day society is a victim to the dilatoriness of the process of justice. People unfortunately fall victim to injustice. They suffer day after day. A major portions of the Indian people are very poor and illiterate as well. They come to the court to get justice by paying their hard-earned money. They pay to advocates, law clerks day after day, and wait for justice. They become gradually destitute by selling their everything to meet the fees of advocates, law clerks and other expenses and eternally wait for justice. Sometimes they pass away from the world and never get justice. Thus justice remains untouched by many victims in the Indian judicial system.

The more they do not get relief, the more they lose their faith in judiciary. As a result, people gradually will take law in their own hand, which will lead a social anarchism. There will be deep darkness of frustration and futility, nihilism and cynicism all around. The whole society will be in jeopardy, as the entire judicial system will collapse under its own weight.

There are about 10,000 courts in India .Out of these, one Supreme Court, 21 High Courts, 3150 District Courts, 4861 Munsif and 1st class Magistrate courts and 1964 2nd class Magistrate courts are there. Besides, there are many tribunals. There are 4 crores cases pending in different district courts across the country while there is a backlog of 34 lakh cases in State High Courts. Nearly 2 crores criminal cases are pending before Magisterial courts and over 70 lakh civil cases are pending in various subordinate courts. As many as 70 percent of these cases are litigations from villagers. Again some of these cases are as long as 25 to 30 years old. The longer a case runs, the more expensive it becomes to pursue. At the present pace of cases disposal, to clear entire backlog it takes more than 300 years.

Causes behind Law's Delays:

1. Inadequate number of judges and also courts.
2. Cumbersome judicial process.
3. Incompetence and inefficiency of judges. Poor quality of law education is underlying reason.
4. Good judgment prevents multiplicity of proceedings. Good advice by lawyers followed by good assistance prevents unnecessary litigation and wastage of time.
5. The habit of taking adjournment by the lawyers is another reason behind delay. Some lawyers take adjournment unnecessarily to harass opposite parties and to extract money from clients.
6. Delay by continuing meaningless argument day after day. 
7. In Government cases, adjournment are freely sought to file affidavit because the offices of the Advocate General, the Attorney General and Solicitors General to the Central and State Governments are inadequately staffed and equipped. 
8. However, the habit of taking adjournment by lawyers day after day, poses a serious threat to the entire judiciary, which only can be equated with the disease of cancer.
9. Too many amendment of laws is another reason behind delay.
   These endless amendments make the legal system slow and confusing. Our propensity for enacting laws is really a problem. The Income Tax Act, for example, has been amended over 4000 times since it came into force in 1961.
   "The tragedy of India is the tragedy of wastage of national time, energy and manpower for grappling with torrential countless amendments ... Nani A. Palkhivala
10. Absence of work culture in the courts. 
11. Attraction to the holidays makes the work of judiciary dilatory and procrastinating. 

Even Supreme Court is not immune to delays. Some judgments were delivered after 10 years. If a judgment takes this long time in the Supreme Court what can be expected from courts of lesser authority?

Some of the principal causes of accumulation of arrears of cases in the High Courts are :

1. Litigation explosion
2. Accumulation of first appeal
3. Inadequacy of staff attached to the High Court
4. Inordinate concentration of work in the hands of some members of the Bar
5. Lack of punctuality among judges
6. Granting of unnecessary adjournments
7. Indiscriminate closure of Courts
8. Indiscriminate resort to writ jurisdiction
9. Inadequacy of classification and granting of cases
10. Inordinate delay in the supply of certified copies of judgments and orders etc.

Justice delayed is not only justice denied but rule of the law destroyed
... William Ewart Gladstone 

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere ... Martin Luther King.

My View:
Today justice in courts is limited to rich and educated due to its very high costs and delays for have-not's. Middle class and poorer classes look at local goons or mafia's for quick justice. Land settlements by local thugs and petty politicians at below 25% value to its legitimate owner is rampant. Even in USA any litigation less than $5 million it is widely recommended to settle face to face or write-off. While Supreme Court and High Courts purview is largely occupied by rich & famous, at least lower courts processes could be modified for quick justice delivery for middle class and poor. Appeals should never be endless. Most appeals should be limited to one higher court only. Only judgments with wide ranging ramifications should escalate to HC & SC. Unfortunately even bail petitions (of course for famous rogues only) are heard by SC even during holidays. Corruption must be eliminated, especially in the noble professions namely education, healthcare and judiciary otherwise we diminish ourselves to be called a rogue nation.

Technology has made our lives easier in almost all fronts. Financial sector, Banks and Communications have improved their efficiency and customer service delivery extraordinarily. Process reforms and leveraging Technology will definitely improve the efficiency of Justice Delivery System manifold.

The present system of justice delivery gives a long rope in the name of benefit of doubt to wrong doers, no deterrent for telling blatant lies in the courts and no punishments for advocates encouraging accused to defend his wrong doings for their hefty fees most of which is in cash, truth will never come out in courts. At best, judgments will be in conformity of laws & rules and should be termed as 'law administration' rather than 'justice delivery' or 'judgment'. The burden of proving guilty must not be on the litigant but proving innocence must be on the accused, where ever prima facie exists.The reforms must encourage advocates persuading their clients for 'pleading guilty' for reduced punishments, severe penalties for telling lies and submitting forged documents and compel advocates to collect their fees with in ethical, moral & legal limits. Advocates taking the side of wrong doers for monetary gains should be debarred from considering for judge position or any other public positions in future.

Judiciary should realize its limits of authority and never encroach into the domains of Executive & Legislature and control temptations of 'Judicial Activism'. Because judiciary is truly independent and not answerable to any one under the Constitution of India except to themselves, they must preserve their worthiness of this provision.

Finally, the argument that judges are 'human beings', and prone to temptations, errors and mistakes is unacceptable non-sense. Will you accept similar argument from a aeroplane pilot or heart surgeon? They must have sufficient education, undergo training and gain enough experience before occupying the seat of justice.

Supreme Court Collegium

The present practice of selection of Judges for Supreme Court & High Court by "Supreme Court Collegium" is neither authorised by Constitution nor by any Act of Parliament.

• The Collegium system was evolved through Supreme Court judgments in the Three Judges Cases. But not by a Constitutional provision or by any Act of Parliament.
• The inception of the collegium system was well-intentioned. In all fairness, it did solve the problem of excessive executive interference. But on the whole, the collegium system is a solution which has proved much worse than the disease. Judges are today chosen on undisclosed criteria in largely unknown circumstances. It is remarked that it is one of the best-kept secrets in the country. The system is completely opaque.
• The Collegium system of judicial appointments has resulted in incompetent, inefficient, ethically compromised individuals being appointed as judges.
• The Central government has criticised it saying it has created an imperium in imperio (empire within an empire) within the Supreme Court. 
• The Supreme Court Bar Association has blamed it for creating a “give-and-take” culture, creating a rift between the haves and have-nots. “While politicians and actors get instant relief from courts, the common man struggles for years for justice.”
• The NJAC (National Judicial Appointments Commission) was established by amending the Constitution. The NJAC Act and the Constitutional Amendment Act came into force from April 13, 2015.
• The Supreme Court rejected the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and the 99th Constitutional Amendment which sought to give politicians and civil society a final say in the appointment of judges to the highest courts. 
• If politicians are involved, what about judicial independence? The judiciary representatives in the NJAC - the Chief Justice and two senior-most judges – can veto any name proposed for appointment to a judicial post if they do not approve of it. Once a proposal is vetoed, it cannot be revived. At the same time, the judges require the support of other members of the commission to get a name through.
• The rationale of having the Commission instead of the collegium system is to strengthen the quality of appointments made, promote diversity and sustain public confidence in judicial system.

My View:

India is a democratic country and political winners in elections will rule the nation. They have to have a say in every aspect of country's administration, including judiciary appointments within the frame work of constitution, laws, rules and procedures. The essence is merit & transparency. 

The collegium suffers from: (1) It is neither constitutional nor in compliance of any Acts. (2) No methodology for selection of candidates. (3) It doesn't provide opportunity to all eligible candidates for competing in the selection process, the essence of a democracy. (4) Group of judges sitting in closed room and announcing the selected persons names, without any supporting material, doesn't impress any one.

Constitution has accorded SC extraordinary power of making laws by a judgement only to award justice to the needy but not for usurping powers for appointment of judges not specifically granted by Constitution or Parliament. The present system of Collegium makes Union Law Ministry, a mere secretariat to type out Judges appointment orders is unacceptable. It must have a larger role.

I am sure in the past two decades several meritorious candidates lacking right connections must have missed the deserving opportunity to become Judge. This has lead to sub-standard judiciary today. Lacking authorization, process & transparency Collegium system must be disbanded immediately.

"Among the four pillars of democracy Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and Media - 

none can be taller than Executive"