WHAT ROT?

His self-flagellation, or own goal as it were, has set the cat among the pigeons. It causes a flutter when a Supreme Court Bench castigates its fellow Justices of the Allahabad High Court. Not known to mince his words, Justice Markandey Katju made a portentous remark based on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, that there was something rotten in the Allahabad High Court. This was in the context of nepotism and corruption in the country’s biggest High Court.

Justices are usually more circumspect. The erstwhile Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, seemed overly protective of his fellow members of the Bench, not wanting probity or transparency. But Katju is a different genre altogether. On a petition filed by the Registrar of the Allahabad High Court, against his observations, he stuck to his guns; saying that judicial corruption is common knowledge, and nobody is so naïve as to believe that it does not exist. Now Law Minister Veerapa Moily has endorsed that view. It augurs well for millions of litigants across the country, who cannot or will not pay up.

Since a lawyer relative cannot appear before a judge, there is tacit uncle-nephew nexus; where A’s son appears before B, and B’s son before A, in a quid pro quo. In fact unscrupulous litigants actually look for a counsel based on his “relations” rather than on his legal acumen. A pity. The people of India should salute Justice Katju for his forthrightness. Civic groups and litigants fora like Common Cause in Delhi, should assert themselves for judicial reforms. Even the senior lawyers of Allahabad have welcomed Katju’s observations.

The common man is usually in awe of the court, and afraid to say anything, lest it be construed to be contempt of court. But Justice Katju himself is on record in an earlier statement, that in England there are Crown Courts, whereas in India it is the People, not the Crown, that is supreme. Hence the People of India have a right to express themselves on matters that are in public interest, even if they pertain to the judiciary.

At a recent function Justice Ferdino Inancio Rebello, the newly appointed Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, said that we need to look for new answers to old questions. Is that why he was hand picked from the Bombay High Court and sent to stem the rot in Allahabad? Good luck to him.

There is an adage that when a fish rots, it begins from the head. Sri I.K. Gujral, then Prime Minster of India, had observed that when we sweep the steps we must begin from the top. Justice Katju’s observations have quite literally swept some off the top, to clean the Aegean stables.
* The writer is a life member of Common Cause
12th December 2010