Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
What a lovely world ours would be. The judiciary, the executive and parliament, the three pillars of our democracy, co-existing, no, living as three siblings, serving, safeguarding this our land, India, that’s Bharat.
I was quite taken aback by the sibling description the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court appeared to have reserved for us to renew our faith in the constitutional framework given to us by our founding fathers. What a beautiful thought when families are falling apart!
How thoughtful of our CJ to remind us of how our judiciary continues to believe in familial togetherness even if only in our imagination. For, the CJ himself only a few days earlier had ignored a reminder from a brother judge, a Kerala Christian, not to host the meeting of the Chief Justies of Indian High Courts on a Good Friday, one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Good Friday, must I remind you is observed as a national holiday.
But Chief Justice Datu had also set up a meeting between the Chief Justices and Judges of Supreme Court with Prime Minister Modi, someone Justice Datu regarded very highly, as was explained by him at least twice. So, Justice Joseph was free to stay away, since attending the meeting, as the host explained, was not compulsory.
To the learned Kerala Judge’s credit it must be noted he did make the point, and boldly too, that such major meetings had never in the past been scheduled on festivals like Holi, Janamashtmi, Id etc. Justice Datu did not pursue the matter further.
But I do feel it is only proper that I remind Justice Joseph that Prime Minister Modi himself had set a precedent for the CJ to follow by declaring Christmas day last year as the day of good governance, requiring bureaucrats etc. to set an example for the rest of us by working on this the most charming festival day which, I confess as a non-Christian, I enjoy as much as any Christian.
Times surely are achanging, brother. And that’s why I at the outset expressed my delight with CJ Datu’s allusion to siblings while putting on record his expectations from the three pillars of the Indian State (siblings) on which stands the edifice called Republic of India.
I am not at this point going into the larger constitutional issue, whether the sibling description really fits in with roles clearly set out or assigned by our constitution-makers to the three independent pillars on which rests our edifice. What if, some fell moment in our lives, the three siblings took their core responsibilities all too literally and in the true spirit of Hindutva, saw themselves as a single unit, not a troika, united to serve a larger cause.?
Remember it, Prime Minister Modi less than24 hours after the sibling business, advised the Supreme Court of India not to pay heed to the five-star self appointed legal eagles who knock at the drop of the hat on one or the other door of the higher courts seeking instant judicial intervention in so-called public interest litigation.
Mr. Modi’s government is committed to somehow have the final say in the matter of appointing future judges of the higher judiciary, including appointment of Supreme Court Judges. The fate of the legislation approved by the government is currently under determination by a larger Supreme Court bench.
In our short history as a republic, albeit the world’s most populous, spanning some seven odd decades, we have seen people in authority coming to grief because they saw themselves beyond the pale of the Constitution. Indira Gandhi tried, successfully, it seemed momentarily then, to bend the Constitution to her whims only to see herself running for shelter; she had to seek the cover of the very same Constitution to finally to earn her salvation.
A remarkable thing one has noticed in recent years is that a section of the political class, that would do away with our constitution , has already started the nibbling process. Not so overtly but chipping away at the base nevertheless. There are many ways of doing it.
The Indira sledge-hammer or the very covert but subtle chipping done the Modi way ; not a direct onslaught but through crippling blows such as the deliberate refusal to fill the vacant posts in the Central Information Commission, including that of the Chief Information Commissioner and, at the last count, three more Information Commissioners.
Mind you, if you were to ask me what, if any, was the most significant contribution made by the UPA government our system of governance it was the liberating provisions of the Right to Information Act, its wings now sadly being cut by the Modi government.
Recall a petition under the RTI seeking to know the facilities available to Modi’s long separated wife (moved on her behalf) going unanswered by the concerned office. Remember also the disdain with which then Chief Minister Modi of Gujarat refused to name a Lok Ayukut for a decade when the law clearly demanded it. If I have recalled just a couple of instances of this kind it is not because there were none else. Just that these are too fresh in mind.
I am not a legal expert, a lay man, with lay interest in matters connected with the functioning of our system; what gives cause for concern is that people occupying high Constitutional positions come out with inanities like our being one big family, warts and all, like the weight of our Constitutional edifice being borne by three siblings. Puling so much wool over our eyes.
These are no siblings, these are solid pillars which need to be protected against even such inane thoughts like the sibling thought promoted by the Chief Justice. We have to guard against people who swear by the Constitution, promise to uphold and preserve it, don’t think twice before hitting the high road to unconstitutional behavior.
The history of the Supreme Court itself shows us the ugly faces of some of the learned men who had sworn to protect the Constitution to uphold the values enshrined in its various Articles et al and yet failed when tested. There have been several other great judges, learned men of law, who can be ranked among the best the world has known.
Haven’t we also known of the judge who wrote more like a servile subordinate than a senior judge complimenting then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on one particular occasion. And Indira, no softball player really, ticking off the judiciary, opting instead for the concept of a committed judiciary. If President Franklin Delano Roosevelt could send men of his choice to fill up the Supreme Court what was wrong with her doing so, she blithely asked.
Considering the size and diversity of the family, our country, I wonder if Justice Datu’s sibling doctrine is even worthy of consideration. No offence meant since the judge was speaking in an altogether different context, but we must just the same remember that it is our duty, all of us put together, to protect and uphold the principles enshrined in our Constitution; it is not open to anyone, some of Mr. Modi’s lawless junior colleagues included, to bring the Constitution into disrepute by falling back on time-worn shibboleths.
One has noticed a growing tendency among some of the BJP junior Ministers and state-level leaders to often invoke the Mhahabharta and the Ramayan to pass on myth, however interesting to read or look at, but hardly relevant to the times we live in. Interestingly, when it suits them they invoke the Supreme Court of India but only strictly with reference to one of its observations about Hindutva. Again, their interpretation refuses to see the discrepancy between the Hindutva of the Court’s description and the Hindu chauvinism they practice.
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