Officers on trial

The appointment of Veerappa Moily as law minister has been followed by that of former Solicitor General Goolam Vahanvati as attorney general,and the all-but-confirmed appointment of former Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian in his place. Little wonder the Centres new legal team has a certain freshness to it. These new appointments are long overdue. The previous attorney general,Milon Banerjee,was not just faithful to a different address,but he was also rarely seen in court leaving Vahanvati and Subramanian to do most of the arguing for the Union. Their new designations only legitimise the roles they were playing in any case.

The rot,though,was not confined to just a single lawyer; it was institutionalised. The law ministry under H.R. Bhardwaj was not just soporific on reform; serious questions were raised about its commitment to justice. This newspaper only confirmed widely-held fears when pointing out that Bhardwaj had influenced CBI investigations for partisan ends. A series of reports indicated that in this he was aided by Milon Banerjee,who provided legal cover to the CBIs politically-induced turnarounds. The former attorney generals role was of particular concern since,unlike the Union minister,his fidelity was to the Constitution alone. The new team,though part of the ancien régime,has a reputation for legal acumen and hard work. To this,they need to add a third virtue if they wish to resuscitate a much maligned office: independence from the political establishment.

The sure-footedness with which the UPA government has changed its legal team indicates that it takes past performance seriously. It also demonstrates renewed focus on legal reform. The scale of the challenge backlogs,delays,access to justice,judicial accountability,to name just a few is enormous. But tackling this will remain in the realm of the abstract unless the minister delivers and the officers stay neutral. It is ultimately on these criteria that the new legal team will be judged.