The Brave Pedestrian

“MY LORDS SHOULD WEAR A BURQA and roam in the court corridors to hear the way lawyers talk about the judges of this court. You will get first-hand account of the rotting justice delivery system. The kind of lawyers who are being appointed as judges is a disgrace,” senior advocate Dushyant Dave, arguing for the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), told a Constitution Bench led by Justice J S Khehar. “It is a shame how every court is going an extra mile to protect politicians and film stars, and ordinary citizens are deprived of justice,” he added. Read  http://tinyurl.com/ burqa-judges Image: http://tinyurl.com/SC-Judges-burqa Warm Regards, Krish 9821588114

The judiciary is functioning as an unchecked power -- not as a legitimate organ of governance with checks and balances. Its various constituents are clumping together, and are wielding absolute, uncontrolled power. This is unhealthy for the nation, and it must be halted. Roughly 19,000 judges are holding 127 crore Indians hostage to their arbitrary and frequently unlawful decisions, for which they cannot be held accountable. Over 3 lakh undertrials languish in judicial custod y without a hearing, while the courts shut down for all sorts of holidays and lengthy vacations. Between 10 to 15 crore Indians are perennially harassed by pending cases of various kinds. Where is justice? Less than 100 years ago, our forefathers staged a prolonged struggle for independence from British Rule. There have been numerous struggles and movements after Independence also, against all sorts of tyranny and oppression. So, it may be reasonable to believe that people from different walks of life can...

The core values of judiciary are not just undemocratic, they are ANTI-democratic. These values are hard-wired into its DNA by its creators, the British colonialists, who used the judiciary to suppress dissent and enforce their imperialistic agenda over our country. The natural tendency of judges is to side with those who are in power. The majority of judges are blatantly pro-establishment. They safeguard the authority of government and of big business lobbies. And they silenc e the common people's dissent by making us afraid of their monarchical and unreasoned authority. Judges deal with litigants as subjects, not citizens. Judiciary is NOT the liberator of We The People. With some notable exceptions, judges are generally NOT a faithful watchdog of our fundamental rights. They continue to be instruments in the hands of oppressors – very similar to the days of British Raj. Please awaken your critical faculties, and stop having blind faith in the judiciary. ...

Chief Justices are not supposed to be pen-pushers. They are supposed to have a GRAND VISION of justice, the BIG PICTURE of the entire judicial system. Theirs is one of the topmost jobs in the country. They are given the responsibility and independence to correct the bad practices of the past, to ensure that justice reaches the common man. They are supposed to be able administrators. But the present system of appointment, it seems, gives us only short-sighted pygmies as Chief Justices -- men who don't feel sufficiently responsible and sufficiently empowered to change the system. And so they just hold hearings till they retire and get a cushy government job. Tragic. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

For the ills of our nation, the public generally points fingers at the political parties, government, police, bureaucracy, etc. But it is very rare that anybody points fingers at the judiciary. Why this conspiracy of silence? Let us discuss the reasons why various stakeholders or interest-groups have remained silent for decades... starting with the common man. And let us ask whether keeping silent is good for the nation. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Why are all well-known anti-corruption activists and human rights champions maintaining silence over judiciary? Is it the fear that they may have to go to jail for contempt? Or are they afraid of tarnishing their brand value by going where media may not support them? Adv. Prashant Bhushan is possibly the only exception. Until he joined AAP, he led a tremendous campaign against corruption in the judiciary, and took great personal risks to do so. We hope he will continue to lead. Details of his work are available here:  http://www.judicialreforms.org/ Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Although their sources often give journalists authentic documentary information about many wrongdoings in lower and higher judiciary, media bosses are afraid of publishing such stories... because of the well-known tendency of judges to interpret the law of contempt in their own favour and pass draconian orders against the media house and journalists. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Although our netas -- ruling party as well as opposition -- publicly take up issues relating to common man, they keep quiet about judiciary. The reason is, there are always criminal cases pending against almost every neta, dragging on for decades. So judges always have a firm grip on their egg-rolls, and can squeeze very hard if annoyed. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Sarkaar shares a cozy relationship with the judiciary, particularly with the important judges who hear Writ Petitions & PILs. Neither Govt. of India nor any state government wants judiciary to become a truly effective checks-and-balance mechanism in our democracy. In fact, the more slow and unresponsive judiciary is, the easier it becomes for any sarkaar to keep common people and activists under control! Judiciary is a crowd-control mechanism that enables the State to suppress the people who dissent. It is NOT a justice mechanism. This is a sad reality that We The People must work hard to change. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Lawyers and court insiders have detailed knowledge of how citizens are wrongfully deprived of their life, liberty, justice and hope. They know of various judges' corruption, malpractices and bad habits. And yet, even the honest ones among them suppress their conscience and keep quiet. This is because they have much to lose if they open their mouths, and much to gain by keeping their mouths shut and taking advantage of the faults in the system. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Judges are India's undisputed aristocratic class. They have almost nothing to fear. They live in a perfect bubble of privilege. No matter how corrupt or criminal they are -- individually and collectively -- they cannot be punished. Every attempt to impeach a corrupt judge since Independence has miserably failed. All judges are part of a grand CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE. For the most part, the only thing that they have to fear is peer-pressure and social boycott by their own brothe r-judges. They know of every malpractice and corruption of the judiciary, and some, like Chief Justices, briefly enjoy the power to DIRECTLY FIGHT these evils if they wish. But rather than fighting this great disease and antagonizing their colleagues, they maintain a "judicious silence". Even the courageous few who speak out -- like Justice Ruma Pal -- pacify their conscience by making cryptic comments and criticisms, rather than exposing the entire dirty system with details. That too, mostl...

Undertrials and convicts in jail have maximum knowledge about the human-rights abuses that our judges and lawyers are committing on a daily basis. They must be allowed to speak. We must find a way to give them back their voices. Miscarriage of justice is the norm in our country, not the exception. Due to multiple faults in our system, many of the people currently in jail don't deserve to be there. They are there because of an undue and unjust process. The judiciary derives mo st of its power from this ancient, barbaric custom of sending people into dungeons, and depriving them of family and normal society. It has almost absolute power to jail us on one or the other pretext, and it derives its moral authority from our mind-numbing fear of being judged and found guilty of something or the other. What is worse, We The People have blocked prisoners out of our consciousness. We have excommunicated them, and most of us believe that they are not citizens at all, but just outcas...

Litigants and appellants, who are court regulars, know many ugly inside truths about judges. They know about courtroom politics, malpractices, habits and biases of judges, and the channels through which they are routinely approached for corruption. On a conservative estimate, there are a hundred persons in every court who are potentially whistle-blowers. What prevents these people from actually blowing the whistle? Most of them are keeping quiet because they don't want to jeo pardize their own cases. These are the people with perfect locus-standi and cause-of-action for speaking up against the court, because they are among the most affected by malpractices and corruption. Sadly, they are silent because they feel like hostages rather than users of the judicial service provided by the nation. It is ironic that they are keeping quiet precisely because they have so little faith in the system. And so the system goes on unchecked... because all its stakeholders are part of the...

Many lawyers who defend habitual criminals BECOME JUDGES in the normal course of events. Our justice system mandates lawyers to defend criminals by using all methods fair and foul. Successful lawyers are invited by the Bar Council to become judges. Such judges have an inclination to obstruct the prosecution, enable destruction of evidence and intimidation of witnesses, to help criminals go scot-free... don't they? Many judges at all levels of judiciary, including chief justic es, have such track records. By throwing procedural obstructions in the path of prosecution with endless adjournments and stay orders, and knowingly creating circumstances for destruction of evidence and intimidation of prosecution witnesses, they help criminals escape punishment. This fatal flaw in our judicial system is generally overlooked. We need to change this grave flaw in the system of appointing judges.   Like · Comment · Share

High court judges nowadays are unusually eager to dismiss Public Interest Litigations (PILs). They go to great lengths to avoid admitting PILs. They show great zeal in defending the corrupt government from citizens. Is it because they are beneficiaries of government generosity? Like · Comment · Share

Markandeya Katju said Allahabad HC was a hotbed of “uncle judges” who favoured the family members of their brother judges – enabling them to become very successful as lawyers, and very rich soon after launching their practice. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

The Indian State is keeping lakhs of people in jail without a trial for months and sometimes years, all in the name of maintaining law-and-order. It is called "judicial custody". By refusing bail and keeping people in overcrowded lockups, Indian police, public prosecutor and magistrate keep up the traditions of British ruling classes, showing the masses who is boss! The prevalence of lengthy judicial custody exposes the WILLFUL IGNORANCE OF WE THE PEOPLE. As long as you and I  are willing to look the other way and pretend to be unaware, our ruling classes will continue to systematically treat lakhs of our fellow-citizens like caged animals... until one day, it will be your turn, or mine. If you value your freedom, raise your voice against this evil practice. Don't remain a silent spectator. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

It is wrongly believed that Judicial Appointments Commission Act is now giving government a say in the appointment of judges. The government has always had a say in appointing judges, albeit from the back door. The JAC will only bring the government's role out in the open. Peep through the wall of secrecy behind which appointments and elevations have been happening in higher judiciary. Politics, lies, sex and money-trails lurk within. The public got a hint in a viral video sh owing a senior lady lawyer giving sexual favours to Adv. Manu Singhvi, in hopes of being recommended for judgeship. The matter was hushed up with money. Media did not raise the issue again. Big Ticket lawyers like Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal and Arun Jaitley are middlemen or puppet masters who make judicial appointments happen. They are king-makers or "judge-makers" who act on behalf of government and business lobbies. Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share