The Brave Pedestrian

Judges get to be powerful by breaking the laws, not by following them. “Yeah, I did the wrong. I overlooked the obvious. I gave a judgment contrary to law and contrary to precedents. I allowed forgeries to be admitted as evidence. I gave my judgment based on witnesses who were obviously lying. Now you go waste your entire life and money crying before various forums, trying prove that I did wrong,” says your judge. Review petitions in the same court are a frustrating exercise  in futility. And when you go in appeal to a higher court, your appellate judge says, “Prove first why I should hear you? Make it painfully obvious why your appeal should be admitted. Because I have already made up my mind to dismiss your appeal. Dislodge me from my opinion in three minutes if you can.” But most people don’t even reach the appeal stage. Because they can’t afford to. For advocates and appellants who live in the interiors, reaching the High Court or Supreme Court involves hundreds of kil...

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...