The fall of Lalu

The result of the recently concluded Bihar state election morning can be perhaps best described as one which reposed the faith of the common masses in the Indian democracy. It gave a new mandate, one which will perhaps change Bihar; unfortunately the time which people required for making up their mind was too long.

Fifteen years was the time taken by the upper castes, the lower castes, the Muslims and the Hindus to realize that what Lalu was doing for them was not right. It's a glaring example of what castes and class politics can do . People in rural parts of India, in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, give more importance to their caste than to development.

The Yadavs and the Muslims who thought the RJD as their savior were sadly disappointed. The party itself created problems and issues which were non existence, and then gave solace to the Yadavs and the Muslims by projecting themselves as their only messiah. The MY group members also did not get any material benefits which they were expecting, what they received was cosmetic relief in forms of 'recognition in the society-contracts and some minor posts in PSUs'.

Riding on his luck, and the blind belief of people, the once rural boy of Bihar soon became the chief minister, proclaimed himself as the kingmaker, and kingmaker he did become but at the expense of his own people who once had elected him and had pinned their hopes on him.

Kidnapping, murder, rapes are now words that symbolize Bihar. The state was left in the hands of goons and the "chootbhaiya" netas of the ruling party. Medical professionals were picked up only to be released or killed after the payment of ransom money. Even Small children's like "Kishlay" were not spared. Kidnapping became a high profit yielding profession, just like politics. The state machinery including the bureaucrats is suffering from a very low morale due to the years of misuse and exploitation they were made to suffer in the hands of the politicians.

The scams during the tenure of Lalu Yadav which rocked the nation included the Rs.900 crore fodder scam, the Rs.600 crore bitumen scam, the Rs.400 crore land scam and the Rs.300 crore tree cutting scam. Many more simply were not discovered. Suraj Bhan, Mohd.Shhahbudin, Pappu yadav could not have stopped smiling when they were told that their duty as an elected member of the people is to respect the constitutional, respect the law and work for the people. How ironical that people who least respected the law were made the law makers. Incongruity has strange ways of coming true.

Corruption and casteism in Bihar were rampant even before Lalu Yadav emerged as a political leader, but he himself cannot deny that it was during his rule these became a problem of gigantic proportions. It created problems for the people of Bihar, but for the ruling RJD it became the tool, one which had the power to secure the party a secure mandate for ruling the state for fifteen years. The man in charge of RJD soon realized that if he has to make a niche for himself in the politics of Bihar, his two best friends would be caste and power. The former was an entry point for attaining the latter.

The emergence of Lalu Prasad Yadav as a leader with a mass following of the backward sections and the minorities should be seen in this context. He was aware that for him to be in power his support should come from the people of the minority and the 'backward' classes. This he demonstrated by resisting the infamous "rath yatra" of the BJP from entering Bihar. His comical, spontaneous, rural image bought him laurels and support; he was the one man party.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is what happened with him. His only objective was to keep power, and for that he did everything, except what he had promised the masses. It's also unfortunate for the Indian politics that a leader with such a mass following could not deliver. Perhaps his associates were to be blamed more then he himself, for failing to live up to the expectations.

After the previous election results were announced, it took very little time for a seasoned campaigner like Lalu to know that he was fighting a losing battle, though he didn't admit it. Political analyst will give various reasons like anti incumbency for the change of power, but only the people of Bihar will know that it took them a long time to realize the misdeeds of the ruling RJD, and it took even a more longer time to rise above the caste politics, but they rose and now are perhaps eagerly waiting to see some changes, changes which will take a while to bear fruit. It is now to the leaders of the country to realize that the time of Mayawatis, Mulayam Singh's and Paswan's who were dependent on caste and religion politics has come to an end.

The election results have shown that the Indian voters have become more responsible, more mature and more aware of the might their votes hold. It's now up to the new government to act and bring the state on the right track. People have huge expectation from the newly elected government.

Expectation of good governance, expectation of better infrastructure, expectation of employment opportunities and better amenities. And only time will tell whether Nitish Kumar, the new Chief Minister has the political will and the people's support which is required for developing the state. Getting the state out of the anarchy that Lalu and his cronies have created in past 15 years, will take time. Demolishing something is a quick process, building it back is not.

Nitish Kumar has an uphill task to restore Bihar to its pristine glory. He will have to make compromises with the different elements, which predictbly will be tough. History is nothing but a summary of changes, some good some bad; let's hope that this change would go down as good.
(http://www.centralchronicle.com/20051219/1912306.htm)

Alwar rape case verdict

A fast track court of Rajasthan in a rape case of a German national created a history of some sort and gave a new meaning to the term "speedy justice" when it took only 23 days to announce the verdict of the case, whereby it convicted the accused and sentenced him to seven years in prison. In a similar incident in May 2005, a Jodhpur court just took an astonishing 16 sittings to convict and sentence two men for raping a German woman.
This two decisions will go a long way in reposing the faith of judiciary in the mind of the 'common Indian' citizen or would it be more appropriate to use 'foreign nationals'?
The common and perhaps the most crucial factor that led to the justice being delivered in such a quick time was that the victims in both cases were foreign nationals. The scenario would have been quite different had the victims been Indian national.
The word "prolonged litigation" has stagnated the judiciary to such en extent that even a small petty offence takes year to be decided. Though in the present case the high court taking a suo-motto cognizance of the offence ordered the investigating agency to complete the investigation in one month time, thereby paving the way for a quick investigation, prosecution and judgment. The judicial activism showed by the court was exemplary to say the least, but then why is this "activism" active in some cases only?
In the present case the cops filed the chargesheet in four days, though they had ninety days and the forensic lab too followed suit by submitting its report in four days rather than taking months.
The question that needs to be answered is that why this job-efficiency and determination not practiced in other rape cases or crime?
It was not the first rape case that was to be before the Rajasthan high court and surely it would not be the last. Why isn't the same thrust put on disposing and hearing the rape cases in which the victim is an Indian national?
The reasons for this two-pronged approach are clear. In the present case the victim was a German tourist, and the incident occurred in a state which is heavily dependent on foreign tourism. So it was more than vital for the state government to take a personal interest in the case. Secondly the victim had right people at the right places. All that was required was pulling some strings in the German embassy.
The media too played its part and made sure that the plight of the German woman was felt by everyone. It has once again proved that it has its own idea of what should be covered and what shouldn't be. It seems that the media through all these years of print and electronic journalism has arrived at a position where it can decide which "rape" is to be highlighted and which is not to be. Or else why the rape of a poor village woman is not reported as extensively as this present case was covered?
All this proves that the judiciary, the police and the media have adopted a double standard, which is based on the status of the victim.
No doubt that our judiciary does deserve a pat on the back, for showing that if it wants it can deliver what is expected from it. It has set a precedent which if ideally followed would go a long way in upholding justice. However "double standards" should be done away with. A rape is a rape, a crime which kills a woman before she dies, and differentiating this unpardonable crime on grounds of social status is just not tolerable.


(http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060414/1404304.htm)

Systemic reforms needed to rejuvenate the judiciary

As India celebrates this year as Year of Excellence in Judiciary, one needs to explore ways to rejuvenate the administration of justice at various levels. During a recent visit to Bhopal, the Chief Justice of India, Justice R.C. Lahoti said that one of the main reasons for the judiciary’s failure to deliver quick justice is the lack of manpower to clear the huge backlog of over 30 million cases. He also advocated changes in the legal system to expedite justice.

Clearly, the increasing number of cases proves that the people’s faith in the judiciary is also increasing. But the number of judges is too small to handle the workload. One of the suggestions is for fixing a timeframe within which the case should be heard and decided. But what is required is both increasing the strength of the judges and the timeframe. At the same time, there is need for revamping the whole procedural law and bringing new laws which would reduce delays.

We still follow a legal system introduced by the British to suit their needs. Our lawmakers have designed the system in such a way that cases go on and on to give maximum chance to the accused to prove that they are innocent. One cannot blame them because the very system presented an opportunity to the law to be misguided.

The law enforcing authority (read Police) may be given more powers but with necessary safeguards so that petty cases are solved at the ground level itself, thus reducing the burden on the judiciary. Another solution is for revamping the procedural law, giving jurisdiction and authority to the police to deal with such offences which need not go to the courts.

Creating a new and parallel system, the same as the existing one, but only one with jurisdiction and authority to decide cases of petty nature can also be an answer. This will lead to the dilution of cases right at the inception stage. This will serve two purposes: easing the burden on judiciary; and settlement of these types of cases within a short time.

The aspect of appeal and re-appeal should be looked into. If a party to the dispute is not satisfied from the decision of the district court, it appeals to the High Court and, if still unsatisfied, goes to the Supreme Court. Though it is the discretion of the concerned court to allow the party to appeal, in most cases, the appeal is allowed. Consequently, loose implementation of the process of appeal leads to the loss of valuable time, though the higher court only hears the same facts again including the examination of the same witnesses.

Why, then, follow the same practice of wasting time and resources again and again? Clearly, provisions for appeal need to be tightened: the petitioner should have a substantial ground for seeking an order of appeal.

A careful study of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code would suggest that though these laws have numerous offences listed under various heads, some of the offences can be clubbed together. It would be appropriate to suggest that the minute distinction between various sections should be removed and offences of similar nature should find place in one section. This will go a long way in reducing the filing of a single case under various sections and thus help reduce the time and resources.

Keeping in view the increasing workload on the judges, it must be made explicitly clear how many cases a judge needs to hear everyday. Similarly, the region falling under the jurisdiction of a single judge should not be too large. Otherwise, it won’t be of any help because the judges will be forced to decide a large number of cases. Dividing regions into small numbers and appointing judge for every region would help reduce the burden on a single judge. The end result would be that each case could be decided within a reasonable timeframe.

Unfortunately, the Union Law Ministry has not done enough work on judicial reforms. The kind of importance this Ministry holds, one would have expected it to be treated at par with any other governmental department like Finance, Home or Defence. But this has not been the case. There is reasonable justification for increasing the budget for the Law Department. More resources should be allocated to the various branches of the Law Ministry keeping development and reforms in sharp focus.

Many state governments have put a moratorium on inducting new judges. This should be revoked, and regular induction of judges should take place on the basis of examinations. Also the time period of promotion of a Sessions Judge to the High Court should be reduced.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while delivering the convocation address at Jodhpur Law University recently, suggested the creation of Indian Judicial Service (IJS). He promised to write to the government on this issue. The creation of IJS, on the pattern of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), will help expedite pending cases as young judges will be more active, enterprising and render speedy service. The recruitment norms and procedures for the IJS could be on the lines of the Civil Services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

Institutes like the National Judicial Academy (NJA) in Bhopal should be given due attention. Every region in the country should have an institute based on the NJA model. The NJA’s basic aim is to train judges, improve their skill, and make them acquainted with legal fields like cyber law, arbitration law, environmental law etc. These areas, having developed in recent times, need to be given the attention they deserve.

National law schools in various parts of the country have been playing their part, by giving well-informed, well-moulded legal graduates. Encouragingly, there are more than 12 law schools all over the country.

As this year is being celebrated as Year of Excellence in Judiciary, we have to strive for the all round improvement in the judiciary.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050320/edit.htm#2