As per our legends there was a Raja Shibi who was a paragon of Justice. Once, a pigeon flutters into his durbar, in a frightened state of mind. An eagle follows it. Since the pigeon is now under the shelter of the king, the eagle asks the king to hand over the pigeon, since it was his meal rightfully. Raja Shibi refuses to hand over the pigeon. But since justice must prevail, he gets ready to slice a portion of his thigh, equivalent to the weight of the pigeon, and hand it over to the eagle. The Gods shower on him their blessings for his excellent Justice.
Manu Needhi Cholan, a 2nd Century BC ruler of the Chola Empire was renowned for his sense of justice. Once a cow rang the huge bell hung outside his Palace, asking for Justice. Cholan’s son had trampled upon the cow’s calf, while driving his chariot. He immediately told his soldiers to arrest his son and made him kneel down on the very road where the calf had been trampled. Then he himself sat on the chariot and drove towards his son, trampled him and killed him in the same way as the calf had been trampled. Legend says that Lord Shiva was so pleased with his sense of justice that He brought back to life the calf and Manu Needhi’s son.
But the India after Independence has made me wonder whether the courts we have, dispenses Justice or whether it only rewards the side which is craftier. What we seem to now have is a system which checks adherence to the letter of the Law, not to Justice. It is ‘Kanoonalaya’ not ‘Nyayalaya’. The strip of cloth covering the eyes of the Lady of Justice seems to be one which prevents Her from seeing the Truth, not one which prevents Her from judging all equally without any distinction.
A few cases come to mind where it is obvious as to which side should have received Justice, but the results were something else altogether …
The absolutely sad case of Umakant Mishra, a postman who was suspended because his seniors filed an FIR against him, for apparently stealing Rs.57.60. He remained suspended for nearly 30 years and it took nearly 350 hearings and 29 years for Umakant to prove that he was innocent.
The Blackbuck and the Chinkara poaching cases of Salman Khan, where obviously, the killed ones or their families could not protest against his acquittal.
The hit-and-run case of Salman Khan again where once again he was acquitted despite one of the witnesses being an ex-cop.
It is now almost 34 years since the Bhopal Gas disaster. How many of you have heard of it? It is not even being discussed any more. But this is one case which till today is haunting the people of Bhopal, via its land and water pollution. Union Carbide Corporation Chairman and CEO Warren Anderson was arrested and released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh Police in Bhopal on 7 December 1984. Anderson was taken to UCC’s house after which he was released six hours later on $2,100 bail and flown out on a government plane. By the end of October 2003, according to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, compensation had been awarded to 554,895 people for injuries received and 15,310 survivors of those killed. The average amount to families of the dead was $2,200. In June 2010, seven former employees of UCIL, all Indian nationals and many in their 70s, were convicted of causing death by negligence: Keshub Mahindra, former non-executive chairman of Union Carbide India Limited; V. P. Gokhale, managing director; Kishore Kamdar, vice-president; J. Mukund, works manager; S. P. Chowdhury, production manager; K. V. Shetty, plant superintendent; and S. I. Qureshi, production assistant. They were each sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined Rs.1,00,000 (US$2,124). All were released on bail shortly after the verdict. In December 2010, the Centre had filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking to enhance compensation from Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). But the case is yet to be heard and there seems to be no effort to push for an early hearing. The environment ministry further sought directions from the Supreme Court on the future roadmap for disposal of the remaining waste and remediation of the contaminated site. This has not yet happened reportedly. JUSTICE?
In the Uphaar Cinema tragedy, 59 people died due to the fire and another 100 sustained injuries in the stampede that followed. A three-judge bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel, which had reserved the judgement on the pleas after hearing long arguments, advanced by the counsel for CBI, AVUT and the Ansal brothers finally gave its verdict on 10 February 2017 sentencing Gopal Ansal to one year’s imprisonment whereas Sushil Ansal was let go because of his advanced age (75 years). They were fined Rs.30cr each.
I have purposely not included cases like the
*Nirbhaya Rape case where the almost 18-year old culprit was as good as exonerated quoting juvenility.
*Anti-Sikh riots
*Kashmiri Refugees
*Midnight hearings for Terrorists
*Recent Col. Purohit case where he was told to work his way up from the lower courts instead of approaching the SC directly
*Recent case of the 5 Maoists who got an urgent hearing from the SC without approaching any lower court
While I am optimistic that someday our Justice systems will be cleaner and more efficient and dispense with justice not just legalese, right now it seems like a pipe dream. May ‘Satyameva Jayate’ become a reality soon!
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