Aditya Sinha: The real travesty of justice

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal along with CPIs D Raja and KTS Tulsi address the media after opposition parties submitted a notice to initiate impeachment proceedings against CJI Dipak Misra in New Delhi on Friday PicPTIThis week it seemed as if the last institution that held Indias faith was demolished True many lost faith in the judiciarys lower tiers long back partially due to the case backlog that made running to courts a nightmare but also because of visible corruption The quality in lower courts is suspect The Allahabad High Court confirmed these suspicions last October when it overturned the CBI courts 2013 verdict in the 2008 Aarushi murder case it also called the earlier verdict poorly written The case has reached the Supreme Court in appeal so perhaps the Allahabad HC will experience deja vuThe Supreme Court was long the last bastion standing despite occasional blips like V Ramaswami the first SC judge the government in 1993 tried to impeach it failed If the SC remained unblemished it is possibly because its decisions were seen as sound in law and above the politics of the day Senior lawyers and jurists question neither judgments nor the Justices probityMost judges begin their careers as lawyers many of whom now openly selfidentify with the ruling party What can be said when lawyers of the Kathua Bar Association protest in support of the men accused of raping and murdering an eightyearold nomad brutally in January and then tried to stop the chargesheet from being filed in court That she was raped was established medically even before the JampK police was involved in the case They are no better than the lawyers who in February 2016 descended on Delhis Patiala House courts on the day of the hearing of a sedition case against JNUs Kanhaiya Kumar and like goons thrashed teachers students and even journalists As a crime reporter in 1988 I was present when Indu Arora accused of burning to death her two infant children was brought to court Lawyers stood and muttered filthy abuse against the magistrate while she meticulously went through the chargesheet and other papers One could argue that such behaviour is an aberration though you rarely hear of disciplinary action against such guttersnipeThings have changed Senior lawyers have supported the Oppositions notice last week to impeach Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra Though the turmoil in the higher judiciary was ongoing internally a letter of protest was submitted to the CJI last October it only became public in January when four senior judges including the seniormost after the CJI Justice J Chelameshwar and the expected next CJI Justice Ranjan Gogoi aired their anguish with Justice Misra They focussed on the CJIs poor allocation of cases under the master of roster system but the subtext apparently was their fear that the CJI was going to torpedo a petition seeking an independent probe into the mysterious December 2014 death of Judge BH Loya who was hearing the Sohrabuddin extrajudicial murder case in which BJP chief Amit Shah was accused of being a conspiratorThat fear came true The SC dismissed the petition saying there was nothing suspicious about Judge Loyas death This is a travesty 22 investigative stories by Caravan magazine which began after Judge Loyas own family raised suspicions at least introduce doubt that needed to be cleared The SC then went and accused the petitioners of intending to bring the judiciary into disrepute and that their conduct amounted to contempt of court though they smartly did not punish the petitioners for contempt as that would have opened a bigger can of wormsFinance minister Arun Jaitley got a chance to lambast the Opposition for using impeachment as a political tool forgetting his own role in the Ramaswami episode The Opposition spearheaded by the Congress party went ahead with the notice though it is likely to be dismissed by the VicePresident who is also the Rajya Sabhas chairman They did this after much deliberation Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was against the notice as were some former Congress law ministers like Veerappa Moily But if it went ahead there is a reasonThe notice came none too soon Last week was momentous in judicial decisions that filled publicminded citizens with despair Maya Kodnani whom eyewitnesses saw take active part in the 2002 postGodhra riots was freed by the Gujarat HC The Delhi HC gagged the media from reporting on the FIR filed against former Orissa HC judge IM Quddusi the four justices felt the CJI should have recused himself from this caseSenior jurist Fali Nariman is correct when he says it is a dark moment for India but not because impeachment is becoming a political weapon It is a dark moment because the judicial canopy of our democratic republic has tumbled down It is no coincidence that so many of our institutions are crumbling all subordinate to the will of one man It is textbook fascismAditya Sinhas book The Spy Chronicles HarperCollinsIndia is out next month He tweets autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates