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Journalism of Courage
In the severest indictment of the justice system in the Gujarat riot cases so far, Chief Justice of India V N Khare said today that the Supreme Court stepped in to protect the victims and witnesses as there was ‘‘complete collusion’’ between the accused and those whose job it was to get them justice.
‘‘There was no prosecution in the riot cases at all. Therefore, the Supreme Court stepped in to break the collusion between the prosecution and the accused,’’ said Justice Khare, who retires tomorrow.
‘‘What will happen to the victims and witnesses if the prosecution and the accused collude throwing the rule of law to the wind?’’ Khare asked, adding that he was anguished by the riot trials but determined to salvage the justice delivery system.
‘‘I gave a new dimension to criminal jurisprudence as on the one hand, one bench of the Supreme Court monitored the progress of prosecution in riot cases while another bench decided on the judicial side the correctness of the High Court order (acquitting all the accused in the Best Bakery case),’’ Justice Khare said.
The justice done to some victims of the Gujarat riots by a bench of the Supreme Court that he headed was one of the high points in his eventful career, he said.
If Gujarat tested the judicial system, for Khare, it was the recent examples of ‘‘erring judges’’ that made him feel helpless, he said. ‘‘I feel exasperated that the Chief Justice of India has no powers under the Constitution to even ask for an explanation from the deviant judges,’’ he said.
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Cricket, movies
and religion |
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• CRICKET: Justice Khare, who has played a Ranji match — for Uttar Pradesh against Punjab in 1958-59 said: ‘‘They (cricketers) should be given yoga training so that they do not succumb to pressure.” |
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Justice Khare had recently chastised judges of the Punjab and Haryana High court for taking en masse leave over differences with their Chief Justice on membership of a controversial resort. It was on his intervention that two HC judges Shameet Mukherjee and Arun Madan resigned last year after being linked to scandals.
Asked if impeachment was the only option to deal with black sheep in the higher judiciary, he said: ‘‘In the coalition era, it is very difficult to impeach a judge and, therefore, either the CJI or the collegium of senior judges of the apex court headed by him should be given the power of superintendence over the HCs.’’
Although through ‘‘two or three decisions,’’ the apex court had taken some powers of superintendence, ‘‘that is more like a moral authority,’’ he said. ‘‘The framers of (the) Constitution did not know that after 50 years, things will collapse. Now time has come that the Chief Justice of India should be given power of superintendence over the High Courts by amending the Constitution,’’ he said explaining the difficulty with which he ‘‘procured’’ the resignations of tainted judges Shameet Mukherjee and Arun Madan.
Justice Khare rejected the recommendations of the Constitution Review Committee and the Law Commission for setting up a National Judicial Commission to oversee appointments and transfer of judges as also to deal with deviant judges. ‘‘It will not help,’’ he said. Favouring continuation of the present system for appointment and transfer, he said the opinion of the collegium of senior judges headed by the CJI has been rightly accorded primacy over the executive.
Justice Khare expressed concern over the ‘‘declining quality’’ of public prosecutors: ‘‘Government advocates are appointed on political grounds. How can you expect merit from them? There are good people who do not charge much money but they are not appointed.”
