On Judicial Reform in India

 So, this is disturbing me a lot.

Yesterday, I was forced to encounter 2 pieces of news. I slept over them because usually, that which boils the blood in the evening doesn't even heat the water by morning. But not this time. The 2 things were:

A. A democratically elected government passes an Act on Judicial Appointments that make these appointments non-collegium based. The judiciary single handedly scraps this law. There is no check and balance on this action.

B. This:

https://www.opindia.com/2022/12/sc-stays-death-sentence-of-m-samivel-who-raped-and-brutally-killed-a-minor-girl-in-tamil-nadu-in-2020/

The death sentence was given by not one but TWO subordinate courts under the same Supreme Court. The crime was heinous and proved.

The trouble is, these are not isolated data points. Before this, the SC undermined the death threat to Nupur Sharma and also publicly humiliated her in court, making completely unjustified remarks. Then, they jumped into the CEC appointment, forgetting that they are themselves under a very nepotistic, subject-to-flattery collegium system.

Here are some things that I am not able to get over:

A. The Constitution provides for a system of checks and balances for the Legislature and the Executive, but NONE for the judiciary.

B. In a Brut video of the Hon. President Smt. Draupadi Murmu, she asks, very rightly, "You ask us to make more jails to house more undertrials. But what we need is speedy dispensation of justice, not more undertrials. Why are they under trial after years?"

C. In as much as I could read, there is no performance criteria for a judge other than being favoured by the senior judges. Their record of speedy dispensation of justice, ensuring that people do not abuse the judicial process, even the quality of their judgements, amounts to nothing - because of the Collegium system. These contractors of meritocracy still appoint the CJI on the basis of one thing only - seniority!

And all I can think of, as citizens, do we not have a right to ask for Judicial Reform? Isn't that the right of every litigant, and every citizen of India? To correct an institution that is not, and has not, been working effectively, for many decades now?

What judicial reforms, if any, would you like, as a citizen of India? I really would like more inputs and insights.

Why I shared Adtiya Tiwari's death

In India, hundreds of people are killed for hate each day. Aditya Tiwari was neither the first, nor the last blameless person to die. The very next day, a girl in Bulandshahr was so tarumatised by the rape and conversion threat that she hanged herself. 

So, why did I specifically share Aditya Tiwari's issue? 

3 things need to change:

1. Juvenile Law - Seriously needs to relook at the way serious criminals use it. There are gangs that use 17 year olds just because they will come under JJA. And these criminals definitely do not belong under JJA.

2. The crime of the silent bystander is as much as that of the perpetrator. Aditya Tiwari refused to be a silent bystander while his fellow student was sexually harassed and paid for it with his life. If the other bystanders had had half the integrity, he would be alive today. Even in death, this boy lives more than those who stood by and watched him being killed.

3. Something gives 15-year-olds the confidence to be this brazen in committing a public crime. Something gives them the feeling of entitlement to first sexually harass a young schoolgirl, and then to violently kill the person who opposes such behavior. Wherever that messaging is coming from - that the law will not catch up with you, or that you can do this and get away with it - that messaging needs to be systematically uprooted. Instead of showing what the criminals did, show where they ended up, and how fast. Don't show the picture of the Bulandshahr girl hanging from a rope. Show pictures of the boys in jail. Show pictures of the perpetrators in police vans, going to their court cases and getting no bail. Let the headlines scream - Bail Denied. Let the Headlines Scream - Life Sentence for 16 year old murderer.