6 Feb 2009, 0102 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday sounded the grim warning that the criminal justice system had been subverted, with witnesses being manipulated and trials being hijacked with judges and lawyers remaining "handicapped witnesses".
Making the chilling observation, which to many only confirmed the widely held perception of the erosion of the system, a Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam also said that the lower judiciary had decayed.
"The courts of magistrate and munsif have ceased to be an option for the common man," the Bench said and compared the lower courts to ill-equipped and ill-staffed public health centres (PHCs) in rural areas.
"Only those people go there who have no other option," said the Bench as an apparent indicator of the low measure of public faith in these courts, which are the first points of dispute settlement for the masses.
The comment, perhaps the sharpest-ever from the apex court on the health of the country's judicial administration system, came in a case arising from the appeal filed by two senior advocates — R K Anand and I U Khan — against Delhi High Court's order hauling them up for criminal contempt for influencing a key witness in a hit-and-run case.
Salve said not only the judicial system, but there was a general tendency in all quarters to disregard the majesty of law and the judgments passed by the judiciary. "The apex court has repeatedly told the lawyer community not to go on strike. But we do not seem to care. The SC has told the police not to handcuff accused, but they have scant regard for it. The single directive principle protecting bureaucrats has been struck down repeatedly, but it still holds good. SC has ordered police reforms, but few states have implemented it," he said.
"I belong to a fraternity which has a lot to answer to society," the leading lawyer, appearing for NDTV, told the Bench in response to its caustic comments on the obnoxious manipulations happening in trials.
Criminal justice system has collapsed: SC
Comment: Every form of Justice not Criminal alone, is thwarted by the Government and Bureaucracy. The Pension anomalies created by successive Pay Panels have been given clear rulings by the Judiciary for immediate resolution by adopting One Rank One Pension. The Bureaucrats have slapped SLP's to bury the issue in Judicial Jargon, delaying tactics and Judicial irrelevance and imprudence! The Government is party to criminalisation in not implementing the Police Reforms. Notorious states like UP, Bihar, Orissa, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka are dubious players in criminalistion of the Police and Judiciary in tandem- Criminals prefer no Police Reforms.
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