Let down by Judiciary

India faces a big challenge of having “tainted” politicians, business tycoons, social activists and religious advocates carry on with their activities and agendas of dubious merits because the judicial immunity of ignoring the allegations and treating all accused as innocent until proven guilty.  Allegations keep piling up but the judicial system fails to decide for decades and not years whether the accused is innocent or guilty.

Ordinary citizen therefore looks up to (or may be looks down upon) such accused people as the mighty and  bigger than the system since the proverbial long arm of justice is unable to demonstrate its reach in punishing such people. Such people successfully escape punishment due to lapses and latches in the judicial processes but the society knows their deeds and conduct. The message received by the ordinary people is that such accused are the extra-ordinary people who would remain unpunished and would never be proven guilty in spite of all the accusations and evidences.  

Such people succeed in their respective professions and pursuits. When there is no retribution from the society for the discredited, as is unfortunately the case, than these lines of work and careers earn a bad name.

Society pays a huge cost for such dubious successes. There can be nothing more ironical than persons with serious criminal cases pending against them entering legislature and becoming part of law making. Union government had informed the Supreme Court in March 2018 that 1,765 MPs and MLAs, or 36% of parliamentarians and state assembly members are facing criminal trial in 3,045 cases. The total strength of lawmakers in Parliament and assemblies is 4,896.

It is time Parliament enacts laws to ensure that people with criminal cases do not enter politics. “The sooner the better, before it becomes fatal to democracy,” a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said on 25 September 2018. How easily, the court abdicated its responsibility by throwing the ball in the arena of the legislature without taking on the responsibility of adjudicating just 3045 cases in next 30 days. If the honourable judges really thought of the matter as urgent, they could have easily taken up all these pending cases on urgent basis and set up necessary framework through its pronouncements.

Discredited people deserve legal consequences... How and to what extent did one lose ones credibility should accordingly lead to commensurate and proportional restrictions in terms of public services or business opportunities one receives thereafter? This is definitely a step in the right direction to building a society with credibility.

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