The cji has expressed a cautious optimism , about the future of the justice delivery system especially the judiciary in the country. While admitting that the legal system badly needs fixing, he pinned his hopes not on his colleagues or the young graduates he was addressing, and definitely not on those entrusted with running the system, either the political leadership or its bureaucracy. His hopes are resting on his fellow countrymen, the same whom he laments rot jail for decades only to be found innocent in the trial and who need to fight simple litigations through generations. He doesn’t mention that these are the people who suffer the indignation of powerlessness and voicelessness with no recourse. From mob lynching, to bulldozers and from bonded labor to denial of their citizenship altogether, their persecution does not even merit a news point forget judicial intervention and protection. It is from these fellow countrymen that the cji expects that they would rise up to the challenges. Organizations have a basic principle that authority and responsibility are coequal and coterminous. What Herculean responsibility the cji is placing upon these drooping shoulders. If we truly wish to forge a nation, the least we need to accept is that we owe each other justice. The challenge is do we accept that we owe justice to all our countrymen, irrespective of their religion, caste, tribe or political creed and the least, the poor amongst us. This denial that we owe, has rendered our justice delivery redundant. The constitution guarantees to all the people of India, justice, “social, political and economic “ which would be enabled by equality, liberty and fraternity. These are what the judiciary needs to protect if it wishes to enable and ensure justice. The Supreme Court is perhaps at its lowest ebb since its inception. Its independence is vulnerable and its integrity doubtful. Its commitment to safeguarding the rights of the weak and marginalized has little currency. We all witnessed the scene when 4 of its senior most judges sought refuge in the public through the press. What did the court do to ameliorate the damage, instead the same judges accepted rajya sabha berths from the same government which they had accused of influencing the court. The Supreme Court is primarily the federal court of our country. Its primary responsibility is to protect the federal structure from a hegemonic union. The manner and impunity of abolition of article 370 and the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir and its aftermath will remain the touchstone for the credibility of the Supreme Court for years and decades to come. Even habeas corpus cases went unlisted. The court has been accepting sealed envelopes for evidence from the government on serious corruption cases. Inventing niceties like jurisprudence of curiosity, which has thrown the country into a communal cauldron, just for serving political interests of the incumbent regime. The list of its failures are unending and no observer or even a historian may be able to enumerate all of them. The cji observing that the legal system needs fixing is welcome. But it needs to fix its moral compass first. Then it needs to fix the spine of its body, instead of shifting the burden to fellow countrymen.
Fix your moral compass first
