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