The Brave Pedestrian

27 th October, 2016, Navi Mumbai: Here is a real-life thriller. Justdial starts plundering the bank account of an HDFC Bank customer, while the bank acts like an helpless bystander. After the dust settles, the bank tells its customer to go to the police, while it does absolutely nothing to prevent Justdial from robbing other customers. In May 2016, Sanjeev Goel, managing partner of a coaching academy called Pure Energy Academy in Belapur, Navi Mumbai, signed a contract with Justdial for business promotion. June onwards, Justdial started sucking unlimited amounts of money from Pure Energy's b ank account by using a fraudulent Electronic Clearance Service (ECS) mandate . Although the bank managers now understand how the crime was perpetrated, they refuse to take steps to protect thousands of customers from Justdial and other fraudulent companies following the same modus operandi . HDFC Bank's excuse is that National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) – which handles ECS tra...

The biggest problem for litigants is judges who knowingly allow lawyers (and other parties, witnesses etc.) to misrepresent facts, present forged documents and openly tell lies in court. Judges who don’t take action against those mislead the court derail the course of the entire case, give an unfair advantage to crooks, and deprive honest litigants of justice. The damage is often permanent, as neither appealing nor complaining is sufficient to undo the damage. Approaching hig her courts is costly, time-consuming and usually not feasible. For most people of India (and also the lawyers representing them) who stay in the rural areas or small towns, travelling to the capital cities for High Court or Supreme Court hearings is not feasible. Appealing is an imperfect remedy in our judicial system. Some things such as recording of evidence is done only in the lower courts, and the higher judiciary does not review the evidence or call for a retrial. Like  ·  Com...