By: Parmanand Pandey, Advocate Supreme Court
Can there be any plausible reason for the senior Supreme Court judges to make a spectacle of the great institution by holding the Press Conference? If at all there was any, it could be described to be a ludicrous one at the worst and frivolous at the best!
There have always been differences, and even squabbling, among the judges but never before they had openly expressed their inclination for the assignment to them of particular types of cases, although it has been a common complaint for long that in the high profile cases forums are fixed.
The senior most puisne judges have not set a good example by creating brouhaha about the ‘assignment of cases’. If their example is followed, then there would hardly be any District Court in the country where ASJs or ADJs will not be dissatisfied on this account with their District Judges and the High Court judges dissatisfied with their chief Justices. But can they hold a press conference to air their dissatisfaction?
If the same logic is stretched further, then can the executive officers in the districts be allowed to hold a press conference against their District Magistrates or can the police officers be allowed to hold press conferences against Superintendents of Police? No, it can never be permitted.
Nonetheless, the simmering discontentment of the Supreme Court judges, which has now flared up as a red flame of fire, should be used as an opportunity to set everything right in the Supreme Court, High Courts and all other courts in the country.
Justice in our country, as justice Krishna Aiyar has said, is somnolent. Former President K R Narayanan was so piqued with the justice delivery system in India that he compared it with a casino, a gambling.
This is the most acidic but a truthful comment on the state of affairs of justice in India.
Legal luminary the late Chandra Kishan (CK) Daphtary, the former Attorney General of India, had written that a client from Bombay came to him and he wanted him to file a case in the Supreme Court. He told him after going the case file that there was absolutely no chance for him of getting any relief. But on his insistence, Shri Daphtary most reluctantly filed the case. After hearing the case the for a few minutes, the judge granted him the relief. He was astounded so astounded that he could not believe in himself. His client later told him that it was a miracle of an astrologer, who told him that if you got the case filed and argued through Mr. Daphatry and you would certainly get the relief. Daphtary told him that your astrologer then knew more law than him.
If a legal luminary of Shri Daphtary’s stature did hold such an opinion in the nascent years of the Supreme Court, then one can imagine how much deterioration has taken place in the successive years.
The only glimmer of hope is the maximum use of the modern technology of artificial intelligence to wipe out the corruption, favoritism and forum shopping. The live streaming of the court proceedings can also be introduced, in addition to the use of this measure, to ensure more transparency so as to instill people’s faith in the judiciary.