Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'An attempt to cleanse our political system' that was published in Newsband

An attempt to cleanse our political system

The Supreme Court has passed the order to establish special courts exclusively to try cases against politicians. The court has handed down many rulings that make legislators and holders of public office accountable for corruption. Many criminals are found entering the electoral fray. The court is now keen on establishing a time-bound and exclusive judicial mechanism to expedite trials involving “political persons”.

A few prominent leaders have been successfully tried and sentenced, but For influential politicians, a criminal prosecution is no more than a flea bite. Corruption, terrorism, sexual offences against children and drug trafficking are dealt with by special courts. It is in the public interest to expedite cases in which those in public life face serious charges.

The routine criminal process needs to be pursued with urgency, and enough courts, judges, prosecutors and investigators should be made available. Certain cases in fast track courts move at snail's speed and the accused politicians are continuing to occupy the seat of power and rule (rather misrule) the country. Therefore the establishment of special courts to try these politicians is a necessity. Better late than never.

Two things needs to be done on an urgent basis. Make sure cases are prioritized and disposed off, which means cases should be prioritized based on whether they are L&O, Assault, Terrorism, etc Interpretation of Law across courts should be uniform. Currently this is not the case. Lower courts convicts, high court overrules, SC again convicts. This happens in various formats. By having an uniform interpretation of law, the pile up of cases at High Court and Supreme Court will reduce. Accessibility to Judges of HC and SC by Influential folks should be curtailed severely. At the same time, the SC should be bold enough to advise the Executive to liberate all Investigating Agencies from Government control.

One should welcome this order of SC. In our country, all the systems, excluding the judiciary, work in favour of the political class. Since, a vast majority of the appointees to head the various institutions in the system are either directly or indirectly appointed by the political system. Common man, who is in a silent majority, looks at the various government agencies facilitating the political class and dare not approach them to face harassment. In such a scenario, the SC's order is a welcome decision to clean the political system to some extent. It may not be out of place to mention that laws are made only by the political class.

We all know how keen the agencies like the CIA function to speed up the trial of those in power. Given the corruption in the main political parties, there is little hope to expect a major overhaul of the system. A baby step in the direction for appointing special courts for politicians should be welcomed as such.

But Special courts serve the political vendetta only. Most corrupt politicians rarely come under scrutiny as they control judiciary, investigating agencies. In Telugu states the rulers openly order collectors, SPs to work for their political gains. If they disobey this order they will be in trouble. A case of this nature making rounds in media but nobody intervened to stop such menace. Instead of special courts, first judiciary and investigating agencies must be cleaned up. Without such an action, rulers will get upper hand.

Politicians like Lalu Yadav, Jagan Reddi, Yedurappa, Janardan Reddi or the MPs from Bengal and other states continue to enjoy freedom from Jail for years ecaping judicial scrutiny on one plea or the other because of their money and political power.

There is an urgent need to cleanse the political system. The Judiciary has to set its house in order. Cut the number of holidays. Throw the British system of Summar and Winter Vacations. Not more than two adjournments per case. And the gap between hearings should not be over a month. Some of the reforms will bring the Justice System more people friendly. These reforms should go across all types of cases - Constitutional, Civil and Criminal case.

The Justice system as it stands today is a joke and it is incumbent on the Chief Justice and other Judges who share his/her bench to show to the people that they are getting value for their tax money. There is need for equipping the courts with all that is necessary to expedite hearings, clear backlogs etc. The number of judges, the number of courts, the supporting paraphernalia are some of the immediate requirements. The legal machinery must be always in topping condition if the country is to have safe good night's sleep. People must be confident that matters referred to the regular courts will receive prompt attention and fair disposal. For this equipment must be increased may be more adequately and that too forthwith. Judiciary is the last bastion ensuring freedom from excesses of the various nefarious elements including the offending politicians. Early disposal is desirable.