The Brave Pedestrian

Mumbai, 16 th February, 2017: It's a proven fact that millions of innocent young lives are saved by a law named COTPA, requiring tobacco brands to display graphic warnings on 85% of their packaging surface. Naturally, India's tobacco barons – mercenary drug lords whose business consists of spreading tobacco-addition among youths -- are lobbying for dilution of this law and hunting for reliefs from court. But why are all the tobacco barons filing petitions in Karnataka High Court in particular, instead of their own states? Of all the high courts that are available to them, why Karnataka? Why is Karnataka High Court entertaining them and giving them red-carpet treatment despite lack of jurisdiction? And why is Supreme Court – the Indian citizen's last hope -- looking the other way and allowing trhis forum-hunting? These are uncomfortable questions, bordering on criminal contempt. But, with millions of lives at stake, one is compelled by conscience to raise such q...

Judges selected by the collegium for higher judiciary are sometimes worse than useless, according to Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. Rohatgi gave the instance of Justice Cyriac Joseph. As a judge of Delhi High Court, Justice Joseph performed miserably. He reserved more than 100 judgments and went out on being transferred without delivering the judgments, so that all the cases had to be reheard. Later, as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, Cyriac Joseph delivered 162 judgments of which 89 "cannot be even called orders as they did not decide rights of the parties. These are merely stating that the petition has become infructuous or allowing the petition to be withdrawn. Of the 162, only two could be called judgments... But both these were authored by the other judge who was part of the bench," the AG said. Justice Cyriac Joseph was very successful at climbing the career ladder. Only one month after being appointed as permanent judge of Kerala High Court in July 19...