June 01, 2019 Saturday
Bedtime Story
The Seven Sins of the Indian Judiciary
Justice Ruma Pal called them the seven sins
(probably and most likely based on the seven human vices as considered within
Christian teachings) and listed them out as follows:
(1.) Turning a blind eye to the injudicious
conduct of a colleague
(2.) Hypocrisy – a complete distortion of
the norm of judicial independence
(3.) Secrecy – the simple and well known
fact in the legal fraternity is that there is almost no aspect of judicial
procedure and conduct - which includes the appointment of High Court and
Supreme Court Judges - that is transparent
Almost everything about judiciary is
shrouded under a cloak of secrecy in the guise of judiciary independence
(4.) Plagiarism and prolixity – there are
two accusations or sins being made in this fourth point
One is that it has been found quite often
that the Supreme Court judges pick and lift out whole passages from the
judgments of their predecessors and stick them on their pronouncements without
openly acknowledging it.
This according me need not be considered to
be such a serious allegation for after all following precedence is the basis of
common law legal system.
The second accusation within the fourth sin
is that exasperating use of long-winded and uncalled for verboseness in their
judgments to the extent that they become a subject of literary work as much as
a legal treatise.
(5.) Self arrogance – There exists a
feeling among the judges (perhaps as in the armed forces) that they are
superior to the rest, more noble, more virtuous and exemplary than the rest in
spite of the fact that the men and women in the judiciary come from the same
lot that comprise average apes.
Under this guise of self-proclaimed
nobility and virtuosity and of course their independence the judges have great
latitude and leverage in hiding their own shortcomings, indiscipline and
transgression of norms and procedures.
(6.) Professional arrogance – judges of the
courts are supposed to read the matter or the cases listed for the day which is
called doing their homework.
It is somewhat like a surgeon who has to
operate needs to read through the case file of the patients just to be sure
what, where and how he will be tackling the surgery.
It is not uncommon for judges not to do
their homework and then arrive at their decisions which often have far-reaching
consequence affecting tens, hundreds, thousands and sometimes tens of thousands
of people without following the precedent.
After some years this feeling of arrogance
sets so well that it precludes them from hard work and reading and learning of
the previous and new case laws.
(7.) Nepotism – this vice comes in various
flavors the most common being that just like in politics, medical profession or
in Bollywood, the son often tends to get the advantage of his father’s
position.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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