Tell us about your book.
As the subtitle of the book says, it describes “what are our courts doing? What should we do about them?” Each chapter takes up judgments or incidents, analyses them, and then sets out lessons about what we should be doing. The book takes its title from the ordeal your wife had to go through. How harrowing was the experience?
The right word would not be “harrowing” but “frustrating”. Everyone agreed that we had done no wrong, and yet it took a long time to get the case dismissed. That is one point that comes through in the book: individual judges may be compassionate, but the system has become heartless. The recent pulling back of the proposed bill to gag the media on the pretence of fake news and rolling back plans to withdraw reservations show that the voice of the people makes a difference. Or are these classic examples of the government testing waters on how far it can go before the public mood decisively swerves against it?
Both. The way RTI is being choked in state after state—beginning with Gujarat; then the Ordinance in Rajasthan; the “headline management” by the Government; the spreading of fake news day in and day out; the way the vilest abuse is hurled—all these point to the character of the rulers, and to what they intend to do.
Is the present judicial system too daunting and intimidating for the common man?
Delivering justice is a complex task. But our judges and our lawyers have put it beyond the understanding and reach of even the above-average man.Why do judges hold back from exercising the power that the Constitution gives them?So many of them also have the “chalta hai” attitude of the man in the street. Otherwise they would be using at least the powers they have—powers to prevent perjury; powers to disallow adjournments; powers to bring the prosecution to heel when it dilutes evidence, as in the terror cases recently.
The four senior judges who had held an unprecedented press conference to highlight the issues that plague the higher judiciary had said: ‘democracy is in peril’. Do you think the government has paid any heed to what they said and can the judiciary itself resolve these problems?
Of course not. When the Government is a party to creating the situation, why would it heed those who strive to rectify it?
In your book, you say, ‘If people begin to feel that judges are not above board, if they get convinced that the system has become heartless, they will not stand by the judiciary when the executive or legislators of the day raise their hand against the institution.’ In the backdrop of the recent upheavals in the judiciary, do you think the situation you wrote about is already here?Yes, that precipice is being reached. Unless what the four senior Judges have been saying is done, we will be pushed over that precipice.