- Indian citizens will voice in unison their fondness, trust, confidence, and infallible belief in the judicial system when all other available avenues of justice/relief get unheard. The last resort for the majority of the aggrieved people is to tap on the doors of the judiciary. We all know how the politics-bureaucracy-police nexus has ruined the country’s very fabric of accountability, responsibility, and deliverance of democratic credentials. Efforts at curtailing and taming the unholy nexus between the crucial cogs of the country’s governance had negligible results among the general public. With corruption being the bane to the country and deeply entrenched in every walk of life, citizens are at the receiving end.
PC:Sentinel Digital Desk
- Of course, the judiciary is too burdened with millions of cases leading to thousands of undertrials languishing in jails awaiting to perceive. Despite no less than the Supreme Court stepping up efforts to reform the judiciary with meaningful interferences, policies, guidelines, and deadlines, the increasing number of cases only mirrors how far away the country is from addressing this issue. We all know the process of introducing reforms should be on a perpetual basis, and the judiciary also should be game for it, especially the lower judiciary. Unfortunately, the diligence, urgency, and judicial prudence have evaded percolating down to the lower judiciary going by the system certain cases are handled. Let’s look at the recent occurrence in Rajasthan.
- As reported, Rajasthan high court acquitted four convicts in the Jaipur blasts case – the trial court had sentenced them to death – which had garnered wide publicity. Mind you, this is a case for an urgent reminder of the need, repeatedly ignored, for countrywide police reforms. Not only do police often lack the training, resources, capacity, and even agency to inspect, but there is little fear of the law rebounding on them for any botched investigation, which in turn is also influenced by nexus and bias. The HC bench found the investigation agency had miserably failed. Courts taking police of almost all states to the cleaners over shoddy investigations of serious crimes from terrorism to so-called honour killings and false cases is not new.
PC: PTI
- Worryingly, the trial court judges overlooked flaws evident to the HC. As the judges took apart the prosecution’s case, the unraveling highlighted the certainty that a criminal court had not only convicted the four blasts that killed more than 80 people but given the maximum death sentence after an 11-year trial. Was it not for the trial court to spot the anti-terror unit’s shoddy investigation? The fact that these cases must reach HCs on appeal for judges to discern the deficiencies indicates weaknesses in the subordinate judiciary. A judicial self-audit is necessary, as is re-training of trial court judges. The SC should crack the whip and ensure the trial court judges are at speed to deliver on expected lines. People will look up to it for sure.
