Issues within the judiciary came to light after top SC judges revolted against CJI Dipak Misra, alleging that democracy was under threat
Four senior Supreme Court judges have complained about ‘selective assignment of cases' by the CJI
What does democracy mean for citizens? Is it just voting when the dates come up? Or is it standing for the National Anthem when instructed by someone? Is it worshipping those in power because they are in power? Is it going on strike? Is it insisting that systems work? Is it paying your taxes? Right now, democracy is in danger. Our institutions are being diminished in an insidious manner. The Reserve Bank of India has been weakened by demonetisation. The relationship between Centre and states, far from cooperative federalism, is now based solely on the political parties in power. Constitutional freedoms are threatened. Lawlessness of a particular kind has increased. The Aadhaar system is trampling on all of us, leading to as far as deaths by starvation, not to mention theft and cheating. And now, the problems within the judiciary have spilled over, with four of the most senior Supreme Court judges, barring the chief justice, speaking out about procedures being misused and twisted to the extent that democracy was in danger.
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The attempts to scuttle this unprecedented admission by these four judges are predictable, and easy traps to fall into. The first is to say that this is not the first time this happened. It is true, that some of these have been attempted before. But, that is hardly an excuse to do it now. Murder remains murder even if it has been committed before. That is not an argument. The second is to discredit the judges. They have a personal vendetta. They are corrupt. And, so on. The third is to berate them for going public. The best way to do this is to confuse going to the public with going to the press. The judges used the press as a medium to reach the public. And surely, we the people of India have a right to know if something is going wrong.
The other way is to pretend that going public is a crime, that it is like washing dirty linen in public and other such clichés. But, the pillars of democracies are not families, they are not supposed to be hidden from the people. Any citizen has the right to enter a courtroom and watch proceedings, but for a few certain exceptional circumstances. These are our institutions. They run on our name and on our money. We have the right to know that they are functioning properly.
These four judges have said that procedure is being broken by the Chief Justice, that sensitive cases are being handled only by certain judges and this tendency is a danger to democracy. Everything else is reading between the lines. But, let us assume that whatever lies between those lines has some truth in it. If indeed cases involving the president of the ruling party are being handed to judges who might be sympathetic, and senior judges find this questionable, then our structures are in danger.
As it is, the death of Justice BH Loya is now being re-looked at, in spite of efforts by a number of people to suppress the case. Sadly, the judge's son was revisited and again made to repeat that the family has no suspicions. What bearing does the son's view have on the case, if it is looked at as murder, which becomes a case of the state against a suspect? And, lest we forget, suspicions were raised by Loya's father and sisters, and by the son, who has now changed his mind. Judge Loya was looking into the involvement of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh "encounter" case.
As more stories are "leaked" to the press, it is clear that this so-called family of the Supreme Court is not a happy one. A junior judge has leaked his own details to the media claiming he is being targeted. The conflict of interest problem remains. The roster problem remains. Spin doctors are trying to either cover up or blame the judges who spoke out.
Coming up before the Supreme Court is Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality, the validity of Aadhaar, the death of Judge Loya. All of these have strong bearings on the way democracy functions, on our rights as citizens and on the limits of government control. There is no argument to be made that citizens must be left in the dark, except by a fascist state and its minions.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist. You can follow her on Twitter @ranjona Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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