Justice

Two thoughts about our judicial system have been swirling in my mind for a few years now. The incidents that happened in the past one week - the Haveliwala drunken driving, and the Rathore stabbing - make me pen my thoughts down.

Before putting down my thoughts, let me categorically state that there is no intent or attempt at contempt of court, just my personal thoughts on our judicial system.

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied:
This oft’ used phrase never rung truer to me than when I had lodged a case regarding payment made for purchasing a house which I did not get possession of. I lodged the case in court in 2000, and had nothing but ‘taareekh’ (dates) till 2007. Except for once when I went to court and the Honourable Judge just saw my face; neither the builders nor I even had to go to court once till we went together to withdraw the case. The builders were honest fellows who had gone bankrupt, and when they recovered sufficiently, they themselves called and returned my money.

But just consider - if there was not a single hearing in a clear open-and-shut case for seven long years; had the builders not been honest, would I have ever got my money back?

The 1992/93 riot cases, the 1993 blast case are all still somewhere in some ‘fast-track’ court, while the main accused are all roaming scot-free! Someone who was caught red-handed by the army – no less - has won elections and become a minister, getting protection from the same policemen who were supposed to arrest him. And I don’t think anyone even remembers about the status on the 1984 police strike cases!

I’m not sure whether the student who stabbed Rathore was mentally unsound or not, but see the circumstances – 19 years!!!!

Certain cases like the Jessica Lal case, or the Ruchika case, catch our attention due to the media coverage they have got, but just consider this – as many as 3.14 CRORE cases are pending in Indian courts (as on June 2009), possibly in many of which the defendents or the complainants have passed away waiting for justice!

In our Quest to be Just, are we being Unfair:
To my mind, the Qasab case, the Haveliwala drunken driving case, the Salman Khan accident case are all open-and-shut cases. More than enough proof, enough witnesses, and yet, the police has to sew up every thread.

Why do the police have to check out Nooria’s driving record in the US? And how does it make a difference whether there was 457 mg of alcohol in her blood or 45.7 mg. Isn’t it enough that she was drunk and driving? And even assuming for a moment that the alcohol content was within limits, the fact is that she ran over two people. Enough witnesses, clear proofs to support it. Why does the case have to involve sub-cases of in-camera proceedings, media involvement et al? (There’s something else that I’d like to ask her father. Alcohol is haraam in Islam; have you done your duty as a good Muslim father? But that’s another story altogether!)

Why is the Qasab case going through so many twists and turns? The man has massacred innocents on camera – and we’re getting more twists in his case than in an Ekta Kapoor soap!

Why does the onus of proving and re-proving guilt ‘beyond doubt’ even in clear cases like the two above, have to fall on the prosecution? Why do the accused get the benefit of the rarest of doubts, even in cases – and some have been mentioned on court records by some honourable judges – when the honourable judge believes that the person is guilty?

Is it our endeavour to not let a single innocent be proved guilty, even if some guilty people go off scot free? Or is it our endeavour to show to ourselves and the world that we deliver absolute justice?

In both these cases, is it not that we are being over-benevolent to the accused at the cost of traumatising the complainant or the victim? In this case, are we not being unjust really to the victims?

Is it therefore, any surprise that criminals cock a snoop at the legal system?

Are these the reasons for ‘encounters’?

Methinks sometimes that the old days of the rajas that we read about were better – one hearing, clear discussions, quick decisions.

Maybe in a rare case, some innocents may be pronounced guilty (although I would trust our judiciary that such a thing would not happen). But isn’t that a chance worth taking to ensure that justice is not only served, but delivered on time?

Because, at the present moment, for sure, in our quest to be just, we are just being unfair!

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