My personal stenographer that day came with a blanched face, proffering a duff envelope. To her, it was a letter bomb, a summons to me from a magistrate court in a dusty Andhra town. “Aha! A love letter?” I said breezily, not tormented by court summons. A power of attorney holder in the construction industry would receive them for any violation of the impractical Contract Employment and Regulation Act, 1970.
A friend of mine who is a JGM (Jt. General Manager) in his organisation, expands it to Jail Going Manager. Many facilities cannot be provided in short-term construction sites in crowded areas. Furthermore, a printed Act and Rules in three languages, the size of cinema posters, was to be displayed. They will seem to be out of print forever. Nevertheless, if the enforcement officers send notices, and the explanations are found inadequate, it will lead to a summons from the magistrate court.
And so I found myself early one morning at a magistrate court in a coastal Andhra town where the temperature was 42°C in the shade. The court was packed with sweaty lawyers, litigants, policemen, pickpockets in handcuffs, and a prim lady enforcement officer with her nose in the air, standing well away from half a dozen provocative women, perhaps arrested the previous night for plying the oldest profession in the world.The magistrate made his appearance at 12 noon inside the court compound, riding a rickety cycle rickshaw, his peon riding ahead as a pilot on a squeaky cycle to give him the air of authority. I was told by a court bird that he takes vicarious pleasure in keeping the litigants waiting.
But the dignified procession sharply turned back and went away to the horror of the assembly. The reason for such a volte-face was made clear later when he grumpily made his appearance after 5 pm. Eventually, I was called and fined a nominal sum, since I pleaded guilty to all the charges, including for failing to provide adequate toilet facility. And let off.
When I was going through the formalities of making the payments (over and under the table), I was told by the bench clerk that the honourable magistrate had a bout of unabated dysentery, due to consumption of several tall glasses of thick Banganpalli mango milk shake and the court building had no toilet to service such a need.
J S RAGHAVAN Email: jsraghavan@yahoo.com