Saturday, July 30, 2011
When religion became a burden for Justice Dinakaran
What a hypocrite ? Justice Dinakaran, finally resigned when the noose tightened around his neck, in the impeachment proceedings -- with SC clearing all hurdles to go ahead. He has suddenly discovered, that he is a Christian and that too a dalit and that is why he is being prosecuted. When he was recruited based on reservation into the lower judiciary, got promoted and eventually appointed to High Court all based on his being a Christian and Dalit, he didn't find that burdening. When a caste/religion agnostic corruption probe is launched he suddenly discovers his minority origin... Shame on you Dinakaran -- you have let down all the downtrodden masses who looked up to you as a hero....
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Watch out for the "Civil Society" - Part 4
Watch out for the Civil Society Part 4
Boy, just as I thought the congress and their media inspired civil society will take a break, they are onto the next one. The topic this time is “Judicial overreach”. The debate and the orchestration of it is also going along predictable lines.
1. There is constitutional separation of powers
2. Supreme court is subsuming the government
3. Court is establishing precedent
4. Etc. on a variety of issues…
Let us ignore these morons and for ourselves, analyze the issue of what has the court done, the potential and consequences of its actions if any…
1. In the 2G case, the court admonishes the government and the ministry and assumes direct ownership of the investigations by the CBI, thoroughly delinking it from the government
2. In the black money case, the court creates a special investigation team and makes all relevant heads of government departments, who are charged with investigating financial crimes, members reporting into it.
That is it, this has ticked off the media and government with several intellectuals worrying about “Judicial overreach”. There is predictable and nauseating discourse on constitution. All these folks have forgotten that when one arm of the constitution abdicates its responsibility, the others exist to checkmate that and course correct it. Any disagreements?
Now, in light of the above, let us look as to why the courts had to “over reach”.
1. In the 2G after the initial admonishment the CBI filed charge sheet against “unknown persons” and didn’t do anything for 2+ years. That is right. Other than filling in a statutory requirement that too with the best option to let off the accused, the government (through CBI) was circumventing and totally abdicating its responsibility. Even after the second round of admonishment the CBI just filed two cases out of the 14 where there were blatant wrong doing by the minister!
2. The IT department sent a notice for concealed income and back taxes and penalties for 9000 crores to Hasan Ali, a known Congress Money launderer. Yet, other departments which charted with tracking the source of illegal income sat silent on the petition for 6 years. Yes SIX years… Even after the initial admonishment of the Supreme Court the government formed a committee of secretaries and was patting itself on the back! That is it no progress for 9 months.
For all the so called “intellectuals” and “constitutional experts” I have one question, what is the remedy? One more arm of the constitution the President is nothing more than a lapdog, which will lick and clean Antonio Maino’s feet at the drop of a hat. So which branch in the constitution the citizenry can lay its hopes on?
Please answer all these questions and judge for yourselves as to whether there is any judicial overreach? I for one am very happy at this transgression by the SC, if at all there is one.
Part 3 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2011/07/watch-out-for-civil-society-part-3.html
Part 2 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2011/04/watchout-for-civil-society-part-2.html
Part 1 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2010/10/watch-out-for-civil-society.html
Boy, just as I thought the congress and their media inspired civil society will take a break, they are onto the next one. The topic this time is “Judicial overreach”. The debate and the orchestration of it is also going along predictable lines.
1. There is constitutional separation of powers
2. Supreme court is subsuming the government
3. Court is establishing precedent
4. Etc. on a variety of issues…
Let us ignore these morons and for ourselves, analyze the issue of what has the court done, the potential and consequences of its actions if any…
1. In the 2G case, the court admonishes the government and the ministry and assumes direct ownership of the investigations by the CBI, thoroughly delinking it from the government
2. In the black money case, the court creates a special investigation team and makes all relevant heads of government departments, who are charged with investigating financial crimes, members reporting into it.
That is it, this has ticked off the media and government with several intellectuals worrying about “Judicial overreach”. There is predictable and nauseating discourse on constitution. All these folks have forgotten that when one arm of the constitution abdicates its responsibility, the others exist to checkmate that and course correct it. Any disagreements?
Now, in light of the above, let us look as to why the courts had to “over reach”.
1. In the 2G after the initial admonishment the CBI filed charge sheet against “unknown persons” and didn’t do anything for 2+ years. That is right. Other than filling in a statutory requirement that too with the best option to let off the accused, the government (through CBI) was circumventing and totally abdicating its responsibility. Even after the second round of admonishment the CBI just filed two cases out of the 14 where there were blatant wrong doing by the minister!
2. The IT department sent a notice for concealed income and back taxes and penalties for 9000 crores to Hasan Ali, a known Congress Money launderer. Yet, other departments which charted with tracking the source of illegal income sat silent on the petition for 6 years. Yes SIX years… Even after the initial admonishment of the Supreme Court the government formed a committee of secretaries and was patting itself on the back! That is it no progress for 9 months.
For all the so called “intellectuals” and “constitutional experts” I have one question, what is the remedy? One more arm of the constitution the President is nothing more than a lapdog, which will lick and clean Antonio Maino’s feet at the drop of a hat. So which branch in the constitution the citizenry can lay its hopes on?
Please answer all these questions and judge for yourselves as to whether there is any judicial overreach? I for one am very happy at this transgression by the SC, if at all there is one.
Part 3 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2011/07/watch-out-for-civil-society-part-3.html
Part 2 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2011/04/watchout-for-civil-society-part-2.html
Part 1 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2010/10/watch-out-for-civil-society.html
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Watch out for the Civil Society – Part 3
Crocodile tears for under trials and judicial system.
There is a lot of noise about judicial delays in India, in the media today. By default, a panel will be assembled with a sympathetic politician, a lawyer from SC and member of human rights forum. They will shed tons of tears for the backlog of around 3crores of cases in the judicial system. How more than 2.5 lakhs of under trials are languishing in jails awaiting trial, how we need to speed things up etc. blah, blah.
On the face of it, nothing wrong right? Well, such shedding of crocodile tears will always be followed by how unfairly, RAJA, KALMADI & KANIMOZHI are victims of this horrendous judicial system in India, how they “deserved” bail but have not been given due to media pressure, over lynch mob mentality of the public etc.
Well, now you understand the where the real sympathy lies ? They will consciously ask/mask all reasonable attempts at reason/debate.
E.g. If so many under trials are already languishing in jails for several years, what is special about Raja/Kalmadi/Kanimozhi they their cases needed to be acted with alacrity. They can ensure that they get out of jail, by asking for a fast track court for corruption, ensure that they don’t even request a single adjournment, stop all frivolous appeals unless and until the court of first instance is done with its job of conducting a fair trial. Will they take up this offer, me thinks not.
Keep in mind, no politician while in office has even been filed a charge sheet against corruption and proceeded against, while they or their allies were in power. Even in the present case, the UPA government tried every trick in the book, including browbeating the CBI into filing charge sheets against “unknown persons”! It is due to the zeal shown by the Supreme Court that some light is now in the tunnel, though not the end of it.
Considering the capability that exists in these individuals and their allies all the way to the Italian Maatha, I am say -- get them even if it means going against the norm.
Human rights are not applicable those that work against the welfare of the society. Make no mistake, corruption is clearly against societal interests. So we should ignore such crocodile tears – at the minimum for some time – to come. We all know the saying that “All is fair in Love and War” it is time we added “getting at the corrupt” to that list.
There is a lot of noise about judicial delays in India, in the media today. By default, a panel will be assembled with a sympathetic politician, a lawyer from SC and member of human rights forum. They will shed tons of tears for the backlog of around 3crores of cases in the judicial system. How more than 2.5 lakhs of under trials are languishing in jails awaiting trial, how we need to speed things up etc. blah, blah.
On the face of it, nothing wrong right? Well, such shedding of crocodile tears will always be followed by how unfairly, RAJA, KALMADI & KANIMOZHI are victims of this horrendous judicial system in India, how they “deserved” bail but have not been given due to media pressure, over lynch mob mentality of the public etc.
Well, now you understand the where the real sympathy lies ? They will consciously ask/mask all reasonable attempts at reason/debate.
E.g. If so many under trials are already languishing in jails for several years, what is special about Raja/Kalmadi/Kanimozhi they their cases needed to be acted with alacrity. They can ensure that they get out of jail, by asking for a fast track court for corruption, ensure that they don’t even request a single adjournment, stop all frivolous appeals unless and until the court of first instance is done with its job of conducting a fair trial. Will they take up this offer, me thinks not.
Keep in mind, no politician while in office has even been filed a charge sheet against corruption and proceeded against, while they or their allies were in power. Even in the present case, the UPA government tried every trick in the book, including browbeating the CBI into filing charge sheets against “unknown persons”! It is due to the zeal shown by the Supreme Court that some light is now in the tunnel, though not the end of it.
Considering the capability that exists in these individuals and their allies all the way to the Italian Maatha, I am say -- get them even if it means going against the norm.
Human rights are not applicable those that work against the welfare of the society. Make no mistake, corruption is clearly against societal interests. So we should ignore such crocodile tears – at the minimum for some time – to come. We all know the saying that “All is fair in Love and War” it is time we added “getting at the corrupt” to that list.
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