One in five judges may be insane. Whither Life & Liberty? Whither Justice?

Have you experienced frustration while explaining an obvious point to a judge, who just can't get it? For instance, you keep pin-pointing a self-evident document, but the judge just refuses to see the obvious! Many litigants and their advocates are familiar with this situation. 

On the other side, some people are delighted when a judge misinterprets the facts in their favour despite all evidence to the contrary -- because they get an undeservedly favourable judgment without even struggling for it! The other party is left tearing out its hair in sheer frustration, while you go home smiling!

Of course such things happen because of corruption among judges, and the face-value of senior counsels -- but it also happens because of the outright insanity of some judges.

Because of simple statistical probabilities and the natural aging process, some percentage of our judges become borderline-insane. A bit soft in the head. Slightly senile. Or have over-inflated egos because of all the Milord-Milord-Milord that they keep hearing all the time. It is not uncommon that a judge is visibly incapable of listening and reasoning properly. Many a judge is incapable of distinguishing between facts and opinions, and between what is relevant and what is irrelevant to the case.

Indian judiciary has 20,000 judges, of which 1,000 belong to the higher judiciary (Supreme Court and High Court) and about 19,000 belong to lower courts and tribunals, and are appointed by various state governments.

Statistically speaking, the 20 per cent lowest on the Intelligence scale are giving judgments based on prejudices and thinking habits rather than logic. One out of every five judges is this extremely powerful and biased personality with the IQ-level of a 10th-standard-pass student.

When a person of low intelligence is constantly told that he is all-knowing and all-powerful, he is bound to lose his grip on reality and start living in a dream-world, wouldn't he? One in every five judges is lost in the world of self-aggrandizement. In short, he is insane. Borderline-insane, maybe, but insane.

Since Independence, not a single judge in the higher judiciary has been impeached on the ground that he is of unsound mind... or indeed, on any grounds including corruption. Our judiciary has no mechanism to weed out insane judges, even if one is clearly identified! It is assumed that the appointment mechanism is so perfect that all the bad apples are weeded out at inception, and the ones who are selected don't deteriorate with age. Unlike all other humans, judges are assumed to be proof against mid-life crisis, gradual decline in intelligence, and senility.

So where does that leave you and me? Going to judiciary is like playing Russian roulette with our precious right to Life-and-Liberty! Isn't it a bit like flying on an airline where one in five pilots may be stupid enough or mad enough to willfully crash the plane? And this airline has no procedure for testing and removing such insane pilots from service?

Is 20% a very high percentage? Am I over-estimating? Is 10% a better estimate? Or 5 per cent? Only one in 20 judges is insane or senile?

Or would you go as far as to say that 100 percent of our 20,000 judges are mentally sound? Think about that figure a bit, and tell me what your estimate is.

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