CJI 'indicts' judiciary

In a damning 'indictment' of incompetence and corruption in judiciary, the CJI of India Mr Balakrishnan has highlighted several of his concerns in a judicial conference. Here are some specific comments from news below:

CJI points to judges’ ignorance

Balakrishnan warned that several people wanted to delay the conclusion of criminal cases. “(But) Judges are supposed to prevent the abuse of law by those who want to delay the delivery of judgment,” he added, alluding to the judiciary’s concern at the high number of pending cases.

This is an indirect admission that judiciary is responsible for delay in criminal cases. Going by psychology and human motivation, a person does a thing when it benefits him/her in some way. If judiciary is responsible for delays, it means judiciary or some judges are beneficiary in some way of these delays. You can put 2 and 2 together.

Balakrishnan pointed out that Section 498 (A) (anti-dowry law) under CrPC was one of the most abused laws.

“Judges are simply issuing summons and even warrants without properly verifying who are the accused. I have come across such cases in which the accused, sitting in Australia and other countries, are made accused when the case is lodged for the alleged offence of dowry,” he added.

We usually read in judgments of high court or supreme court about appeal cases that a lower court did not exercise "application of mind" in deciding on a case. It is very clear from above that "application of mind" and sound common sense is not happening. A judge being an educated human being cannot be so incompetent to go against natural principles of justice and common sense. It is clear that there is corruption involved. Otherwise how would it be possible that a 2 months child was named as accused in a dowry case, it was accepted by court, and court gave bail also for the 2 month old kid. Is this justice or brutality of the worst kind?

Balakrishnan added that the criminal procedure code was amended for the police to follow certain procedures before arrests. “We have come across cases in which even high court judges are ignorant of the legal value of statements recorded before the police under Section 161 of the Evidence Act for delivering judgments,” he said.

Judges, judge your competence first.

Former Supreme Court judge S.B. Sinha pointed out that 70 per cent of all the pending criminal cases were petty offences. “Sociological studies suggest that it is the poor who suffer the most because of delay in the delivery of judgments,” he added.

The judicial and police system has become a tool for corrupt and powerful people to terrorize the rest of society and keep it in submission. This is akin to how foreign masters of a country would like to keep large parts of society under control and submission. So then question arises - did we achieve freedom in 1947 or that was just a transfer of power from brute foreign masters to brute Indian masters?