This refers to your cover story How Just is Our Judiciary? (February 3). Delayed or not, justice is almost always denied to us, the people of India, and especially to Dalits, adivasis, Muslims and women. The Supreme Court has no time to hear petitions concerning the lives of millions—those challenging the constitutional validity of the abrogation of Article 370 and of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act—but it has time to award the Ram temple to culprits of the crime committed on December 6, 1992, despite accepting their roles and finding no historical proof of demolition of an ancient temple. Not to speak of the sexual harassment charges against a Chief Justice by an employee of the court in which he became investigator, prosecutor and judge rolled into one, punishing just not the complainant, but her entire family! Justice in India is horribly expensive and excruciatingly slow.
Rakesh Agrawal, Dehradun
India’s founding fathers who framed the Constitution had suffered so much during the British Raj that they thought only of rights and liberties that had been snatched away by colonial rulers. Now we go on strike for our right and liberties at the drop of a hat.
Rohan Pandey, Mumbai
Any controversy involving the judiciary is a potential threat to the institutional integrity of the judicial system of India and is totally undesirable. There has been a lot of talk about the slow delivery of justice. The final verdict in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case took more than seven years and even after the final verdict, its execution is still awaited. Pendency in courts is often attributed to inadequate infrastructure and lack of facilities for judicial functionaries. State and central governments are held responsible for insufficient budgetary provisioning. Courts cannot hold governments responsible for vacancies or delays in promotional appointments as the SC and the high courts now exercise full control over judicial appointments. It is time to dispassionately examine the functioning of the courts and signs of an increasing loss of public faith in the judiciary despite individual presiding judges setting occasional examples of completing even serious criminal cases in mere months. Perhaps it may sound futile to singularly blame judges for abnormal delays. At times, due to the prosecution’s failure to establish the charges beyond reasonable doubt, an alleged criminal of limited means gets acquitted, but only after suffering incarceration for a term that ends up being longer than the maximum permissible under law. But resourceful defendants are seen escaping culpability not necessarily on merit, but due to their ability to manage judicial processes to their advantage. Delays also occur when lawyers seek unnecessary processes and repeated adjournments. The judiciary needs to overhaul and regulate itself if nobody else is empowered to do this under the Constitution.
S.R. Gadicherla, Bangalore
It is really a shame that court cases take decades to resolve in the world’s largest democracy. It is the system that is at fault. Often, we find the apex court finding fault with the prosecution when the evidence is withheld, crucial witnesses are not cross-examined and dozens of witnesses turn hostile. Police and prosecution must be free from political pressure. The way ahead is to make the police simultaneously accountable to multiple committees of the legislature and human rights commissions. The need of the hour is to speed up the process of investigation and also fill vacancies of judges at various levels in order to ensure that cases do not pile up. Village-level panchayat courts should be revived and hearings must be done in the presence of the community.
G.S. Rao, Bangalore
Your cover story of the January 27 issue (Whose Police is It Anyway?) brought back memories of the time Outlook was helmed by the legendary Vinod Mehta. I have been an ardent reader of this magazine because of its truth-speaking boldness, but this had been missing in the past few years. This issue has partly rekindled the faith I always had in Outlook. Hope you and your team don’t lose track and reestablish the magazine as a bold, honest and truth-speaking one.
Amitabh Upadhyaya, On E-Mail
Police excesses witnessed in the streets and on campuses is manifestation of a ruling juggernaut being stopped in its tracks—something it is not accustomed to. The ruling dispensation is drunk on winning elections and forming governments, especially in the states, by hook or by crook, besides usurping important institutions such as the judiciary and clamping down on freedom of speech.
George Jacob, Kochi
It is obvious that India is moving from the rule of law to rule by the gun. When people protest against egregious violations of democracy, the police do not come as friends, or even as neutrals. They come as enemies. When the police act like a lynch mob, it is a travesty of law and erosion of truth in the justice system. The police need to work for the people, not for their political masters.
Uzair Ahmed, Muzaffarnagar
I have no grudge with the performance of the Indian police; I rather admire their loyalty and sincerity to their masters since their inception as an organised force for assisting in the governance of the country. The British rulers in India tactfully kept their constabulary of all faiths united and loyal to them. Our police continued to adhere to the same work culture over the past seven decades in the absence of any reforms for making them people-friendly and suitable for a liberal democracy. Failure to implement reforms ensures that politicians of all hues, when in power, misuse and abuse the police force to suppress their critics and opponents. The police, foundation of the edifice of our criminal justice system, have been groomed to scare the people and, if required, muzzle and eliminate them in ‘encounters’. In the process of proving their loyalty, they go to any extent of barbarity and falsehood, manipulating and fabricating evidence to fulfil the wishes of their masters. The real culprits responsible for police brutalities are the selfish politicians posing as nationalists. No wonder that in the decades since Independence, no party has bothered to change this convenient state of affairs.
M.N. Bhartiya, Goa
While dealing with the JNU, AMU and anti-CAA protestors, the police have been blatantly prejudiced. What is worse is that the police have taken pride in this, throwing all standard operating procedures to the wind. This unabashed and complete subservience to the dictates of their political masters has made a mockery of rule of law as enshrined in our Constitution. The story of police excesses to please the party in power has been repeated time and again everywhere. The long-pending reforms in the police force may be a way out of this scary situation, but the moot question remains: why would politicians let go of the police baton and forsake the power to terrorise their opponents?
Vijai Pant, On E-Mail
