Judge who struck blows for liberty & compassion
SAMANWAYA RAUTRAY
New Delhi, May 10: India's first Dalit chief justice, who retires
tomorrow, combined two commitments that, in others, are often at odds:
welfare of the disadvantaged and support for individual liberty.
As he leaves office, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan will have earned the
thanks of millions of schoolchildren who no longer have to attend
classes on an empty stomach, and of dozens of terror suspects who will
not be forcibly injected with drugs to prise the "truth" out of them.
He also leaves behind controversies over transparency, such as his
resistance to the government having final say in judges' appointments
or to his own office being brought under the RTI ambit — issues that
senior lawyers, however, were today ready to blame on "systemic
problems" rather than the man himself.
"Some of his judgments have been significant in terms of the impact on
the lives of people; others have been a novelty in law," said senior
lawyer C.S. Vaidyanathan, who has appeared before Justice Balakrishnan
both in Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court.
"Even his day-to-day approach was tempered with compassion. I would
certainly think that the fact that he had to bear social deprivation
and had to struggle to rise made a difference."
Senior lawyer K.K. Venugopal spoke highly of Justice Balakrishnan's
ban on ruling parties organising bandhs —though it's a matter of
debate how far this has succeeded on the ground — and on forced
lie-detection tests despite a strong push by the government to retain
the option as a tool to fight terrorism.
Striking a more personal note, senior lawyer T.L. Vishwanath Iyer, who
had worked alongside Justice Balakrishnan as a high court judge, said:
"He had the perfect judicial temperament: he did not hassle lawyers
and listened patiently."
Iyer was sympathetic to the outgoing CJI over his support for the
in-house, collegium system of judges' appointment, buffeted by
accusations of a lack of transparency.
The collegium system was created long ago by larger Supreme Court
benches and "the CJI has no option but to go by it", Iyer said.
Vaidyanathan backed Justice Balakrishnan over the RTI row, in which
public sympathy lay mostly on the other side. "That was a collective
decision (by all the Supreme Court judges), so it is the fault of the
institution (rather than an) individual," Vaidyanathan said.
"A judge could always be asked to submit personal information in a
sealed cover to the CJI or the President," Iyer, the former judge,
said.
He said the numerous social welfare judgments Justice Balakrishnan had
passed had benefited the weaker sections. Much was done during his
tenure about legal education and about funds to upgrade
infrastructure.
"The problem of judicial arrears is not due to present-day judicial
administration," Iyer argued, blaming the rise in population and
proliferation of cases. "The proportion of judges to the population is
also low, but even then the disposal rate of cases by Indian courts is
one of the highest."
------------------------------------
----
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/
PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com
TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/
Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
ZESTCaste-digest@yahoogroups.com
ZESTCaste-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ZESTCaste-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
No comments:
Post a Comment