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Towards speedy justice On Record |
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SAD move a big step
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Profile Comments Unkempt Diversities — Delhi Letter
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Towards speedy
justice IT is a pity that India has failed in its constitutional guarantee of ensuring speedy, accessible and accountable justice to its citizens. The reasons are not far to seek. The rule of law has become the casualty because the role of the Bar has been minimised. Judges alone cannot deliver justice. Files can be disposed of but justice cannot be delivered in the absence of the lawyers. The steps taken so far to expedite justice have proved worse than the disease itself. There are over 8,50,000 lawyers all over India as against 13,000 judges. A minimum of 75,000 judges are required to administer justice. The country cannot afford the huge expenses entailed. The problem is acute at the trial/district court level. A judge has to dispose of about 100 or more files a day. We need a system which is speedy, accountable and affordable and does not dilute the constitutional guarantee of full and proper legal assistance. The following measures should be immediately implemented to solve the problem of arrears of cases.
The High Court directly appoints Judges for the subordinate judiciary from the Bar without approaching the Public Service Commission. The appointments on pro-tem basis will be less expensive, easily available and more accountable.
The High Courts have a pivotal role to play in any scheme to enhance the justice delivery system at the lower level. They should employ methods of enhancing the number of judges equivalent to the pendency of cases so that expeditious, effective and affordable justice is delivered. Currently, the number of judges is too inadequate to dispense speedy justice. Admittedly, the state has no enough financial resources to employ more judges. A beginning has been made by having fast track court judges. The Supreme Court in Brij Mohal Lal vs. Union of India (AIR 2002 SC 2096) upheld the constitutional validity of the fast track courts, where lawyers can also be appointed as judges to these courts. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has done this. To clear the backlog, the High Court should prepare a list of competent local lawyers at the district/sub-division level to act as temporary/pro-tem judges so that in case of need their services are available and courts are never closed. This system will be less expensive, less cumbersome and reduce the responsibility of the state. This system, as in vogue in the US, will help in many ways. The litigant need not wait for years to get justice. The High Court will get more hands to deliver justice. The government need not meet the costs. And the Bar will get employment opportunities. The courts must enforce the existing law relating to costs. Courts are empowered to do this even with no jurisdiction to try the suit. Similarly, in criminal cases, fines are invariably provided as a means of punishment to the convict. The legislature has vested the court with the power to levy costs and fines to cover its establishment expenses. The court must follow the law and levy costs and fines. The wrongdoer must bear the expenses of the trial and the victim must be compensated. To reduce the backlog of cases at the lower level, the existing courts’ offices must be utilised in morning and evening shifts. In the morning shift, cases where evidence etc., are taken and the party’s presence is required should be fixed. In the evening shift, other cases where lawyers only are needed should be fixed. Presiding/Prosecuting officers and other employees need to be hired. Many qualified lawyers will come forward to work on pro-tem basis. Those working in the courts other than the judges and the advocates must get proper training and skills to improve the efficiency of the justice delivery system. The Bar Council should open Para-Legal Schools for this purpose. This will also help generate employment opportunities. The writer, an advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, is presently Administrator, Indo-American Law Centre, Los Angeles (USA)  |
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Dignity of CM’s office must be protected: Sheila Dikshit by Ramesh Ramachandran
SHE walked out from a meeting in a huff and walked straight into a crisis, her second during the seven years she has been in office. Only this time, she was on the defensive. And it finally fell on Congress President Sonia Gandhi to resolve the quarrel. Sheila Dikshit may not have lost her position as the Chief Minister of Delhi but she has not emerged entirely unscathed either. “There may have been differences of opinion but those shortcomings will be overcome. We will work together with all MLAs and MPs,” she tells The Sunday Tribune. Her detractors, meanwhile, continue to up the ante by citing instances of lack of coordination between the party and the government but the proverbial storm has blown over. At least for now. Excerpts: Q: What is your take on the controversy surrounding your walking out of a meeting of the party’s executive committee? A: I would not like to talk about what happened and why it happened. What happened was unfortunate but I maintain that the dignity of the office must be upheld at all times. It must be so for all offices. I am not saying this because I am holding the office of chief minister...take any office; there is always a certain dignity attached to it. At the same time, the office of chief minister must be protected. Q: The Congress President has had to intervene in the matter to restore a semblance of order in the party and the government. What has been the outcome of the meeting with Ms Gandhi? A:
Well, it has been decided that a mechanism be devised for better coordination between the government and the organisation. An election manifesto committee has already been put in place but if it is felt that there is not enough coordination and that a new committee is required for that purpose, it will be constituted. Here I must add that such meetings have been held in the past. An institution of this nature already exists in the party. Q:
Your party has been in power in Delhi for almost seven years now and you have
been at its helm throughout. Is it a case of the proverbial seven-year itch...? A:
Differences of opinion are bound to be there in a party as large as ours. Differences have existed in the past; but they were also redressed. It was never the case that the government and the party were two separate entities or that there was no communication. Having said that, it is not always possible to accommodate all shades of opinion. Q: So did you fail to read the situation correctly because discontent has been brewing for some time now? A: (Pauses) Like I said differences of opinion were there but who would have imagined that things would come to such a pass? Q: Some of your party’s legislators have complained about your style of functioning. That party, and not government, is supreme. Is the outsider tag proving to be a handicap for you? A: No, absolutely not. I don’t think so. People have elected me...twice. This city has voted for me and I don’t think it is an issue for the party either. Q: Is it true that you offered to step down? There is also talk of you being accommodated in the Union Cabinet or even being asked to take up a gubernatorial assignment. A: I would not like to comment. It is an internal matter of our party and let it remain so. Q: Would you reveal what was discussed in your meeting with Ms Gandhi? A: Please understand that what happened in the meeting with Ms Gandhi or prior to that meeting is an internal matter of our party. As to the second part of your question, I would say it is speculation and conjecture. How can I comment on media reports? Q: Is the government gripped by inertia? There are some within the party who say a jaded and uninspiring leadership precipitated the instant crisis? A:
There is no lethargy. Let me tell you, motivation is not an issue with me. I am as motivated as I was before. The government is here to perform and that is what it will be doing. We are preparing for hosting the Commonwealth Games. We are also grappling with the issue of VAT (value added tax). It is a new taxation regime and has caused some sort of an upheaval. We want to make it less painful for trade and industry. Q: Whatever happened to issues like statehood and unbundling of Municipal Corporation of Delhi? How is your pet project, Bhagidari, shaping up? A: They are very much on our agenda. They have not been thrown into the dustbin or are not being given much attention to. It is just that those matters are pending with the Union Government. We have sent the files pertaining to these matters to the Centre. These issues find a mention in our party’s manifesto and we are trying to fulfil those promises. As far as Bhagidari is concerned, we have organised several programmes and more are on the anvil. It has gained popularity in certain areas of Delhi. I now want to extend Bhagidari to unauthorised colonies also. It remains to be seen how it will shape
up.
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SAD move a big step
forward THE Shiromani Akal Dal (Badal) has opened its doors to Hindus. One is not aware if the decision was ad hoc, dictated by electoral expediency by the demography of Punjab or there has been a genuine shift in the Akali thinking. But it is a big step forward for Punjab. The Hindu-Sikh divide had appeared in Punjab in the wake of its partition. It is wrong to trace the divide to the Singh Sabha- Arya Samaj differences of the late 19th century or the early 20th century. The SAD had urged the Congress to press for a division of Punjab in case the country’s partition could not be avoided. In the Constituent Assembly, Sardar Patel denied that the Congress had gone back on any promise that they had made to the Akalis by citing the Congress endorsement of the Akali demand for the division of Punjab. The partition of India resulted in mass migration of population from one side to the other. The Hindus and the Sikhs of West Punjab migrated to India almost en bloc. The Sikhs had to leave Sind, the NWFP and the East Bengal almost completely. The Sikhs and the Hindus who migrated from Pakistan mostly settled down in East Punjab and Delhi but a sprinkling of Punjabi refugees could be seen all over India. Master Tara Singh had promised Sardar Patel that if the Government of India conceded the Akali demand about reservations for the Sikh Scheduled Castes, the SAD would make no further demands from the GOI. This, however, was not to be. One agitation followed another till the Dharam Yudh Morcha of 1982 followed by a decade of violence and bloodshed that saw the Hindu-Sikh divide in Punjab at the extreme. Punjab has to be grateful to Sardar Beant Singh for restoring almost near normalcy in law and order after 1992. Sardar Parkash Singh Badal’s tenure resulted in the Hindu-Sikh amity in Punjab. His decision to throw open the SAD to the Hindus is a continuation of his policies to bridge the gap between the Hindus and the Sikhs in Punjab. Sardar Badal had told this writer in 1985 that the Anandpur Saheb Resolution of the SAD shorn of its verbiage only meant that the SAD’s aspirations to wield political power in Punjab should be respected. The Government of India has learnt this lesson and one can be sure that 1980s would not be repeated. It is the SAD’s moral obligation to fully repair the breach that came about between the Hindus and the Sikhs due to its political compulsions. Sardar Badal should exercise his influence to restore the links with the Hindus that the hardliners among the Sikhs have been trying to snap. One example is the introduction of the Nanak Shahi calendar in place of the Bikrami calendar followed from the time of the
Gurus. The writer is a former Chief Secretary of Punjab |
Profile by Harihar Swarup In half a century of its existence, the Akademi has tried to live up to the vision of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, spotted and groomed talents in the sphere of music, dance and drama. Some of them became national and international celebrities. The long journey of this premier institution, spanning over five decades, has not always been smooth; at times marked by ego clashes of maestros who managed its affairs. An artist’s ego is always skyrocketing. Some have a strong personality and some are docile but scratch their ego and the hell breaks loose. The Akademi has now plunged into a crisis as charges like “autocratic style of functioning”, “dictatorial and undemocratic”, “arbitrary and unilateral” are hurled at its Chairperson, Sonal Mansingh. The top brass which manages the affairs of the Akademi has risen in revolt against her and demanding her scalp. Even political colour is sought to be given to the unsavory episode. She is accused of campaigning for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2003 and even recommending Modi’s mother for a Padma Sri for doing commendable work in the sphere of women’s development. She denies the charge. Sonal has friends too. One of them is noted theatre personality, Girish Karnad who has taken the issue to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. As Chairman of the Akademi for five years — from 1988 to 1993 —Karnad faced virtually the same problem as Sonal is currently undergoing. “I too was accused in the press of being dictatorial and high-handed. It is an occupational hazard of the post. But once a person is appointed to this post, he or she should be removed only if proven guilty of criminal misdemeanour”, he wrote to the President. Karnad has, perhaps, brought to the fore the real issue by pointing out that many decisions taken by the Chairman in his or her individual capacity “prove unpalatable” to individual members and in such cases the chairman was accused of acting “undemocratically and dictatorially”. So bitter is the stand off between supporters and detractors of Sonal that their feud has been taken to President Kalam and Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy. One wonders what they could do as it is sheer ego clash among maestros in their respective fields except calling them and exhorting them not to derail the functioning of the Akademi. On her part, Sonal says, “I have imparted some kind of discipline in the Akademi. The root cause of all these problems is that I have disturbed a nexus which was running the Akademi as its fiefdom”. Her routine is not disturbed by the goings on in the organisation she heads. Her daily routine is unaffected. She starts her day with rehearsals and teaching assignments. “There is no change and I am not giving much time to what is going on outside”, she says. Accusations against her notwithstanding, Sonal Mansingh is a prodigy, a woman of extraordinary personality and strong likes and dislikes. This is, perhaps, the reason for clash with her colleagues, all whizkids in the sphere of fine arts. Sonal’s name has become synonymous with the dance style and she is acknowledged as master of interpreting India to the world through dance and related artistic traditions. Known as a philosopher among dancers, she firmly believes that countries can come close together in a global atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect through intra-cultural understanding. She also believes that dancers must have love for literature, poetry, languages, sculpture, painting et al. Dance, as she puts it, is after all “a rare confluence of all these arts”. Sonal took to dance at a time when it had not gained respectability and a dancer was derisively called “nauch girl”. She says prejudices still exist. Sonal has been on stage since 1961. Her role as a social activist thinker, researcher, orator, choreographer and teacher combines admirably with her dancing skills. An incident in 1975 demonstrates her strong will power. She met with a car accident and her doctor told her that she would not be able to dance anymore. It was her sheer indomitable spirit that brought her again to her feet and her movements on the stage became as swift as
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Our liberal credentials are hollow by Chanchal Sarkar
A
friend of mine has sent me the text of a couple of lectures he has delivered in the Calcutta University. His subject is “Toleration of other religions.” He has started with Hinduism or from even before Hinduism as a formulated religion. He mentions the Rig Veda which historians consider as having been put together before 1000 BC. It says “Truth is one but wise men are declaring and interpreting it in many ways; seekers trace it along many paths. The Brihadaranayak Upanishad says about Deva (God) that he is not whatever you wish to describe him as — he is not subject to and the mind, he can’t be put into any form or measurement.” In Hinduism’s history, says my friend in an early part of his lectures, there are no examples of forcibly trying to take a particular path or to pull someone away from a chosen path. There is one contrary example: when Ajatashatru succeeded his father Bimbisara he wiped away with blood all traces of his father’s religion (Buddhism) from the palace. When seeking religion Manu has said that five qualities are necessary — Ahimsa, truth, not stealing, cleanliness and control of one’s rage, and indriya. My friend later gives contrary examples of intolerance. Mahaprabhu Chaitanya has two unforgettable statements, “Cast away all criticism and call upon Krishna” and “Criticism steals away all of one’s intelligence”. That the desert sands of ritual can swallow up judgement that the quarrel between opinion and path is pointless, that outward differences are conquered by the unity of aim — we had, my friend asserts to rethink all of that when Islam arose in India’s skies with its new beliefs and customs. My friend quotes something from Acharya Kshiti Mohan Sen (grandfather of Amartya Sen): “In the homes of the rich there are many fancy plates and crockery which are not used every day but taken out when a special guest comes, and so almost-forgotten ideas and riches have to be reopened when the time comes for exchanges with new ideas like Islam’s. Medieval seekers once again pronounced the liberal ideals of India. One such great seeker was Kabir who lived in the 15th Century. His place of work was Varanasi. By then Islam was firmly established in India, but there was no meeting ground between conservative Shastriya Pandits and Mullahs and Moulivs, yet the ordinary people of both communities understood one another. Kabir said “If brick grazes brick sparks come out yet clay and clay can easily touch earth other”. Here is Kabir on differences between Hindu and Muslim. “If God resides only in the mosque then whose is the rest of the world? If Rama lives within the idol in a thirthasthan, who is running the outside world?” He gives the reply in the next verse: “Don’t worry, Hari is in the east and Allah in the west, search inside your mind, search well and thee you will find Karim-Rama”. His words penetrate deep; “Aare Bhai, how can there be two maliks in one world? Allah, Rama, Rahim, Krishna are all different names of the same God. From the same gold is produced many kinds of ornaments, the gold is the same. Aare idiot, you don’t listen nor do you speak sense — namaz and puja are the same things…Those who read the Vedas are called pandits and the reader of the Koran is a maulana. Different vessels have different names but all are made of the same clay. Kabir says, they both have lost God and haven’t found him — one is sacrificing goats and the other slaughters cows. In such useless ways they finish their lives”. The Sufistic religious men which my friend wrote about showed how religions began to love other religions as much as their own. Kabir was a Muslim weaver from Kashi, there was Dadu from Rajasthan and Rajjab, also from North India. These were all unlettered ordinary men but how deep their understanding and knowledge was! My friend names another such deep-ploughing mind, Sheikh Madan Baul, of whose life we know nothing. He was from what is today’s Bangladesh and Rabindarnath Tagore had used one of his poems in his Hibbert lecturers given at Oxford. What is interesting is that despite the listing from the Vedas to Jesus there was in the history of religions a lot of intolerance between the religions and inside them. My friend doesn’t forget India’s caste system which has plagued us for 3,000 years. He has mentioned the Hebrews who hated all who were not the ‘chosen people’, Jesus in his sermon on the Mount has tried to show how the Hebrews worshipped vengeance and the two Testaments have shown Jesus’s Christianity tried to pump life into the concept of the religion named after him. But how did narrowness come into the religion? One was the literal acceptance and following of Jesus’s words. Like “I am the road, I am knowledge and truth I am the eternal life, whoever does not accept one will not find God”. Not just the Hebrews, the Christians too believed that a man-bodied God had to be believed in to get heaven. But why all this bother about my friend’s two lectures? Because there’s so much going on about religion in a world where nations call themselves secular? America, not just middle-America, is stuffed solid with religious practices, starting with George Bush. India keeps reverting to not Hinduism or Buddhism, which are great religions but to Hindutva. The Pope’s death evoked a strange urge for a very conservative man though all over Europe the congregations are getting thinner. We call ourselves liberal but the religions live among themselves; the beautifying religion of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda is
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Summertime offerings by Humra Quraishi THE season of exhibition has started in the Capital City. My suggestion to any of the depressed souls of the region: Come over to the Capital and keep moving around, viewing one exhibition after another. You really wouldn’t find the time nor the space to sit depressed. Last week was the convention on Nomads and Adivasis at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. It focused on the varying factors related to their day-to-day life — textiles, pottery, music and dance. But omitted the very vital emotions. Maybe, we Indians actually never give sufficient and adequate importance to the emotional aspect of the being. Anyway, what I was looking for was found in much abundance at the Visual Arts Gallery (Habitat Centre). Last month the well known Bhopal based artist, Rahim Mirza, sat in this huge sprawling hall with his paintings titled ‘The Leaf’. As if he got whatever he craved for in life through leaves of all hues and forms and colours. With the Paris-based artist Raza adding more to the leafy flavour, “leaves join leaves, multiply themselves in a rhythmic sequence in innumerable situations. The leaf a vital symbol of nature, an icon.” Last week actual emotions spilled out at this very gallery with the exhibition titled, ‘private vs public views’. And this exhibition rotated around contemporary photography in Luxembourg. To be nearer precision, the emotions of five photographers — Jeanine Unsen, Olivier Thull, Jessica Theis, David Laurent, Veronique Kolber, Thierry Frisch — and the private emotions they manage to capture for public viewing made each one of their photographs stand out. To touch your emotions. And when each other’s emotions touch what else is required. Then the body takes a back seat, with emotions swirling right ahead.
Some more focus
on North-East Two films screened at the IIC, focussed on Arunachal Pradesh. Titled ‘The Green Warriors — Apatanis’ by Jyoti Prasad Das, it focussed on agricultural practices of the Apatani tribe. The second titled ‘Between God and Me’ by Moji Riba on priesthood etc on the Adi Galo tribe living in that state. This week the well known publishing house here, Katha, is hosting a festival of literature, focussing on the North-East, with several of the well known writers from the region in the capital. But as someone commented, we seem to be better versed with writers from any other part of the world than with those from this part of our country. So much in this day and age of connectivity. This brings to write that another of our states which lies neglected is Orissa. But lately there has been some focus on it, not just through its poets like Devdas Chhotray and Mohanty but through festivals held at the IIC highlighting its literature, arts and people.
Asian film festival Come July, the Seventh Film Festival of Asian Cinema will begin here in New Delhi. Starting on July 15, the 10-day festival will screen a hundred films from 40 countries. Besides, there would be supporting events such as talent campus India, auction of Indian film memorabilia etc. Together with the so-called east-west encounters, there would be ‘Arabesque’, focus on Arab cinema. With that, those myths about Arab countries rotating around deserts and veils and lashes should take a back seat. And realities take the front seat.
Summer, no longer a hurdle
It may surprise many that the country’s top fashion event — the Lakme India Fashion Week — gets hosted each year by April end in New Delhi with rising mercury levels. Yet, designers, buyers, cutters and darzis all come trooping down for a lift here and there. Much beyond skirting issues, to lifting of designs. That’s a different story altogether that how many amongst us would be able to carry on that outlandish stuff. I am still in the midst of ‘thinking’ whatever made the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visit us at this time of the year when we are in the midst of heat, dust and storms. Not just moving around in Delhi’s Metro Rail, Mr Koizumi spent considerable time at one of our public schools, DPS, R.K. Puram. Interacting rather enthusiastically with students, asking them to bridge the gap between countries. Keeping religion
off politics The Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA) is said to have prepared a Draft Bill for separation of religion from politics for secularising India in its true sense. Religion becomes the real enemy of religion and with the combination of politics and religion you get communalism, extremism, terrorism and so on. After independence, more than 20,000 religious riots occurred in India, destroying thousands of humans. Religious terrorism has become a global phenomenon. The enactment of this Bill is unavoidable to avoid all types of fundamentalism and terrorism.nThe season of exhibition has started in the Capital City. My suggestion to any of the depressed souls of the region: Come over to the Capital and keep moving around, viewing one exhibition after another. You really wouldn’t find the time nor the space to sit depressed. Last week was the convention on Nomads and Adivasis at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. It focused on the varying factors related to their day-to-day life — textiles, pottery, music and dance. But omitted the very vital emotions. Maybe, we Indians actually never give sufficient and adequate importance to the emotional aspect of the being. Anyway, what I was looking for was found in much abundance at the Visual Arts Gallery (Habitat Centre). Last month the well known Bhopal based artist, Rahim Mirza, sat in this huge sprawling hall with his paintings titled ‘The Leaf’. As if he got whatever he craved for in life through leaves of all hues and forms and colours. With the Paris-based artist Raza adding more to the leafy flavour, “leaves join leaves, multiply themselves in a rhythmic sequence in innumerable situations. The leaf a vital symbol of nature, an icon.” Last week actual emotions spilled out at this very gallery with the exhibition titled, ‘private vs public views’. And this exhibition rotated around contemporary photography in Luxembourg. To be nearer precision, the emotions of five photographers — Jeanine Unsen, Olivier Thull, Jessica Theis, David Laurent, Veronique Kolber, Thierry Frisch — and the private emotions they manage to capture for public viewing made each one of their photographs stand out. To touch your emotions. And when each other’s emotions touch what else is required. Then the body takes a back seat, with emotions swirling right ahead. |
A real teacher is one who is the best among the knowers of Brahman, who has withdrawn himself into Brahman, and is calm like the fire that has consumed its fuel. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya This world is just a gymnasium in which we play; our life is an eternal holiday. — Swami Vivekananda When you are engaged in devotional practices, keep aloof from those who scoff at them, and also from those who ridicule piety and the pious. — Jesus Christ A real teacher is he who is a boundless reservoir of mercy that is ineffable and a friend of all good people that prostrate themselves before him. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya |
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