It is a delight to read A.G.Noorani on politics, history and law. However, it is rare to find AGN to write on things other than these disciplines. Here is one book review,on an overlooked part of Indian life, which I am sure, will be equally a delight to read. For those looking to read his regular contributions, here is his review of two books on atomic bomb and cold war.
I had never imagined that the relationship between peace and human rights could be quite fascinating in practice. The two books I have reviewed in the recent Frontline issue examine this relationship from different perspectives. Sally Engle Merry identifies the conundrums facing the practice of human rights through empirical studies. The edited volume by Ujjwal Kumar Singh explores the tensions between human rights and peace through several case studies.
(ALL THE ABOVE BOOK REVIEWS COULD BE READ HERE)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Department of Justice's user-friendly website
I received the following guest post from SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL, RTI activist:
The Department of Justice should be complimented for launch of its new user-friendly website aimed towards transparency through e-governance. The website has incorporated many new features like ‘Memorandum of Appointment and Transfer of Judges in Higher Courts’, ‘Initiatives for Judicial Reforms’, ‘Vacancy Statement of High Court Judges’ etc. which were till now shrouded under secrecy-cover. The important aspect is regular updating of the website depicting the date of last updating. Even statement of ‘Disposal of RTI requests’ is now included on the website. However all government-websites should incorporate ‘Guest-Book’ column to include observations and suggestions from members of public about activities of the concerned government-department.
National Informatics Centre (NIC), responsible to manage government-websites should overhaul other websites on the same pattern. Directorate of Advertisement and Visual Publicity (DAVP) which wastes huge amount of money from public-exchequers on photo-publicity of political rulers, should rather give advertisements to make public aware of new government-websites like that of Department of Justice.
Here are the two relevant links, which would be of interest to us:
Memorandum of procedure for appointment of Judges in Supreme Court
Memorandum of procedure for appointment and transfer of Judges in High Courts
The Department of Justice should be complimented for launch of its new user-friendly website aimed towards transparency through e-governance. The website has incorporated many new features like ‘Memorandum of Appointment and Transfer of Judges in Higher Courts’, ‘Initiatives for Judicial Reforms’, ‘Vacancy Statement of High Court Judges’ etc. which were till now shrouded under secrecy-cover. The important aspect is regular updating of the website depicting the date of last updating. Even statement of ‘Disposal of RTI requests’ is now included on the website. However all government-websites should incorporate ‘Guest-Book’ column to include observations and suggestions from members of public about activities of the concerned government-department.
National Informatics Centre (NIC), responsible to manage government-websites should overhaul other websites on the same pattern. Directorate of Advertisement and Visual Publicity (DAVP) which wastes huge amount of money from public-exchequers on photo-publicity of political rulers, should rather give advertisements to make public aware of new government-websites like that of Department of Justice.
Here are the two relevant links, which would be of interest to us:
Memorandum of procedure for appointment of Judges in Supreme Court
Memorandum of procedure for appointment and transfer of Judges in High Courts
Justice Srikrishna's interim report: A few questions
Justice Srikrishna's interim report on the violent incidents at the Madras High Court complex on 19th February is now available in the public domain. Obviously, Justice Srikrishna has been concerned with the question, `who started it all?'. He correctly traced the events to the attempt to campaign, by a section of lawyers, on political issues within the High Court complex, with the connivance of the Judiciary. At the same time, he also found the excessive force used by the Police as disproportionate to the challenge posed by the unruly lawyers, as many innocent lawyers and a Judge were injured by the police lathi charge, and the police went berserk by damaging the Court's property in retaliation.
Surprisingly, Justice Srikrishna does not answer the question who ordered the police lathi charge, but says the order was interpreted by the police to unleash mayhem at will. Considering that the Supreme Court was concerned with this issue during the hearing of the case, one would assume that this was a relevant factual question to be unravelled. Justice Srikrishna writes: “It is not clear from the videos as to who was the officer that ordered the lathi charge”. Justice Srikrishna reveals in the Report that he interviewed police officers also. Do the police officers also plead helplessness in ascertaining the name of the officer who ordered the lathi charge? The report has no answers.
Secondly, as an impartial observer of the entire episode, I am concerned with the following issues, for which I have not found an answer in the Justice Srikrishna Interim Report. Hopefully, these will be addressed in his final report.
1. Justice Srikrishna's anxiety to trace the root cause of the Feb.19th incident also reveals his concern on how to avoid repetition of such incidents. Apparently, he believes that the use of excessive force by the police was a response to this root cause, and if this root cause had not been there, the temptation to use excessive force would not have been there. Many innocent lawyers, who were injured in the incidents, and who have nothing to do with the agitating lawyers, or the indifferent Madras High Court administration, (and I count myself as one among those innocent lawyers by temperament)are sure to find the Report,with utmost respect to Justice Srikrishna, disappointing in this respect.
Tracing the root cause, though useful in an academic sense, is unhelpful in fixing responsibility for what has finally happened. To be fair to Justice Srikrishna, he found the limited time inadequate to deal with the issue, and has suggested a detailed inquiry to identify the individual policemen or lawyers who indulged in hooliganism. But a recommendation for a broader reform of the police system to protect innocent lawyers or members of the public from being attacked in situations calling for a swift response from the police in case of a riot-whatever the root cause - would have been pragmatic.
2. Justice Srikrishna's aversion to lawyers' agitation over political issues not connected with Court work- again with very great respect to him - is somewhat unconvincing. He says: “The lawyers had continued their boycott of court proceedings in sympathy for the Sri Lankan Tamils, a purely political issue that had nothing to do with the work of the Courts. Yet the lawyers continued to abstain from the Courts in order to put pressure on the State and the Central Governments”. I would agree with him that the Madras High Court is not at all concerned with the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, and the lawyers' agitation over the Centre's inaction on this is not at all justified, and the call for strikes over the issue must be considered as a serious professional misconduct. Therefore, his plea for amendment of Advocates Act, and till such amendment, appropriate guidelines to be laid down by the Supreme Court to ensure certain degree of discipline by the lawyers makes sense.
But can one stretch this to say that lawyers must not be concerned with any political issue, which has nothing to do with the Courts, lawyers or the litigants to the extent that it results in boycott of courts? I only wish that such an inference from his Interim Report is just far-fetched. Because such an inference would suggest that the movement for democracy began by the lawyers in Pakistan must be considered as a serious professional misconduct; Or that the lawyers' stir in support of the freedom struggle (before independence) should be considered as unprofessional; Or that the lawyers in India justifiably did not launch a movement for democracy during the Emergency by taking to the streets.
Surprisingly, Justice Srikrishna does not answer the question who ordered the police lathi charge, but says the order was interpreted by the police to unleash mayhem at will. Considering that the Supreme Court was concerned with this issue during the hearing of the case, one would assume that this was a relevant factual question to be unravelled. Justice Srikrishna writes: “It is not clear from the videos as to who was the officer that ordered the lathi charge”. Justice Srikrishna reveals in the Report that he interviewed police officers also. Do the police officers also plead helplessness in ascertaining the name of the officer who ordered the lathi charge? The report has no answers.
Secondly, as an impartial observer of the entire episode, I am concerned with the following issues, for which I have not found an answer in the Justice Srikrishna Interim Report. Hopefully, these will be addressed in his final report.
1. Justice Srikrishna's anxiety to trace the root cause of the Feb.19th incident also reveals his concern on how to avoid repetition of such incidents. Apparently, he believes that the use of excessive force by the police was a response to this root cause, and if this root cause had not been there, the temptation to use excessive force would not have been there. Many innocent lawyers, who were injured in the incidents, and who have nothing to do with the agitating lawyers, or the indifferent Madras High Court administration, (and I count myself as one among those innocent lawyers by temperament)are sure to find the Report,with utmost respect to Justice Srikrishna, disappointing in this respect.
Tracing the root cause, though useful in an academic sense, is unhelpful in fixing responsibility for what has finally happened. To be fair to Justice Srikrishna, he found the limited time inadequate to deal with the issue, and has suggested a detailed inquiry to identify the individual policemen or lawyers who indulged in hooliganism. But a recommendation for a broader reform of the police system to protect innocent lawyers or members of the public from being attacked in situations calling for a swift response from the police in case of a riot-whatever the root cause - would have been pragmatic.
2. Justice Srikrishna's aversion to lawyers' agitation over political issues not connected with Court work- again with very great respect to him - is somewhat unconvincing. He says: “The lawyers had continued their boycott of court proceedings in sympathy for the Sri Lankan Tamils, a purely political issue that had nothing to do with the work of the Courts. Yet the lawyers continued to abstain from the Courts in order to put pressure on the State and the Central Governments”. I would agree with him that the Madras High Court is not at all concerned with the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, and the lawyers' agitation over the Centre's inaction on this is not at all justified, and the call for strikes over the issue must be considered as a serious professional misconduct. Therefore, his plea for amendment of Advocates Act, and till such amendment, appropriate guidelines to be laid down by the Supreme Court to ensure certain degree of discipline by the lawyers makes sense.
But can one stretch this to say that lawyers must not be concerned with any political issue, which has nothing to do with the Courts, lawyers or the litigants to the extent that it results in boycott of courts? I only wish that such an inference from his Interim Report is just far-fetched. Because such an inference would suggest that the movement for democracy began by the lawyers in Pakistan must be considered as a serious professional misconduct; Or that the lawyers' stir in support of the freedom struggle (before independence) should be considered as unprofessional; Or that the lawyers in India justifiably did not launch a movement for democracy during the Emergency by taking to the streets.
Friday, March 6, 2009
No Criminals in Politics
As India goes to elections in a month’s time, there is a pervading sense of concern and of dismay about the candidates, political parties and alliances that form part of the electoral canvas. A staggering 20% of the current members of Parliament have criminal records, some of whom have charges of heinous crimes such as murder, rape, dacoity and kidnapping against them. While section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 provides for the disqualification of a candidate from election following conviction for an offence listed in that section, section 8(4) provides that such a disqualification shall not take effect if there is an appeal or application for revision pending in respect of that offence. Given that there is an automatic right of appeal with respect to most criminal convictions and the tremendous backlog of cases in courts as discussed in previous blogposts here and here, not only do most MPs complete their terms before an appeal against their conviction is disposed off but also often if they belong to the party in power, the cases against them fall apart due to political pressure on the investigative agencies and presumably also on the courts.
In an attempt to rectify this situation and galvanized into action by the Mumbai terror attacks, the Public Interest Foundation in New Delhi chaired by Bimal Jalan, a nominated member of Parliament, has launched the “No Criminals in Politics” campaign. According to the campaign concept note, “[t]he recent Mumbai attacks have once again highlighted the need for individuals with a high level of personal integrity to provide effective leadership for our country.” The core idea of the campaign is to initiate a nationwide effort to enable large numbers of citizens to appeal to political parties not to give tickets to people with criminal antecedents in the upcoming elections. The campaign website provides information on the criminal antecedents of sitting MPs and also provides details of such criminal cases. It also provides news and updates about the election alongwith its partners, the Association for Democratic Reforms, National Election Watch and Jaago Re. The campaign calls upon people to popularise the campaign message through email/sms, social networking sites, discussions in the blogosphere as well as through organisation of events propagating the campaign message in places across the country.
In an attempt to rectify this situation and galvanized into action by the Mumbai terror attacks, the Public Interest Foundation in New Delhi chaired by Bimal Jalan, a nominated member of Parliament, has launched the “No Criminals in Politics” campaign. According to the campaign concept note, “[t]he recent Mumbai attacks have once again highlighted the need for individuals with a high level of personal integrity to provide effective leadership for our country.” The core idea of the campaign is to initiate a nationwide effort to enable large numbers of citizens to appeal to political parties not to give tickets to people with criminal antecedents in the upcoming elections. The campaign website provides information on the criminal antecedents of sitting MPs and also provides details of such criminal cases. It also provides news and updates about the election alongwith its partners, the Association for Democratic Reforms, National Election Watch and Jaago Re. The campaign calls upon people to popularise the campaign message through email/sms, social networking sites, discussions in the blogosphere as well as through organisation of events propagating the campaign message in places across the country.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
AP High Court judgment on police encounter
Full-text of the judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the case of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee v. The Government of AP is posted here. The judgment required an FIR to be registered after every case of police encounter (I have read the case yet, this much is from news reports). The judgment was stayed by the Supreme Court yesterday.
Monday, March 2, 2009
High Courts and backlogs
There is an interesting article in the latest edition of Outlook here on backlogs and delays in the various High Courts. The article does not make any new arguments- the interesting part is really the statistics. Even assuming 5 minutes for each case, our high courts need 297 years to dispose off the backlog. That number is staggering and becomes enormous as we know it is impossible to dispose any case in 5 minutes. Of course, 297 is not the real number as it is only an aggregation of the time required by the various high courts. The actual time ranges from 1 to 60 years, with the average time required by the larger courts being more than 20 years. For lawyers, this appears hopeless. For justice seekers, this is crushing.
Panel discussion on 'Should media scrutinise religion?'
The FMP's panel discussion on 'Is religion beyond media's scrutiny?' brought forth interesting responses. Some speakers, notably Chandan Mitra and Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, took objection to the use of the word 'scrutiny' as in their view the word requires a high degree of competence on the part of journalists, who are generally unaware of the nuances of religion, which they want to scrutinise. But as Madhu Kishwar pointed out, are those claiming to be religiously outraged by contents in the media competent to understand, protest against and seek censorship of what, according to them, offends co-religionists?
The consensus was that they are not. But what appeared to divide the panelists, especially, Chandan Mitra and Madhu Kishwar was that the former wanted the continuance of S.295A IPC (India's blasphemy law) if only because the Indian society is volatile, whereas for the latter, a group of goondas claiming to represent any religion, cannot dictate what and how a law should be enforced and in what context. Chandan Mitra, however, suggested that journalists faced arrest because the Governments wanted to protect them from the wrath of the enraged public.
Madhu Kishwar referred to the 1986 law against indecent portrayal of women in the media as one instance of law coming to the aid of moral policing. She said when she opposed the law at the time of enactment, she was misunderstood, but the law appears to provide legitimacy to Hindu zealots.
Interestingly, all the three editors, who were recently arrested under Section 295A and later released were there - Basavaraj Swami, B.V.Seetharam and Ravinder Kumar - and they narrated their experiences. The question posed by the moderator of the discussion, Manoj Mitta, whether S.295A needs to be repealed or at least whittled down in view of its abuse seemed to have few takers. Manoj posed the question in the context of Britain repealing its blasphemy law last year, and Pakistan making its blasphemy provision draconian, by adding 295B and 295C to its Penal Code. The ingredients of Section 295A IPC(deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings) constitute a serious limitation on its use, though in practice, the authorities do not care to check whether these are satisfied, before it is invoked against anyone.
Siddharth Varadarajan, sharing his personal experience as a journalist, deplored the non-application of mind by the lower courts who invoke such legal provisions against anyone, be a journalist or a Union Minister (he was referring to registration of a case under S.153A IPC against Union Minister, Ms.Renuka Chowdhury, for referring to 'Talibanisation of Mangalore' in her reaction to the recent incidents there).
Justice J.S.Verma, one of the panelists, suggested there are legal remedies (civil) against wrong application of law, and an illegal prosecution can be challenged. Nandita Das, who shared her experiences with the Censor Board about her recent film, said we are becoming tolerant of intolerance, and we unwittingly give space to the so-called representatives of religions to speak on behalf of their co-religionists on the mainstream media. Even if there has been no conviction under S.295A, the process itself is the punishment, and this was a concern to all the panelists.
We, on this blog, have had an occasion to discuss the history and relevance of S.295A earlier. (This link takes you to the relevant posts on S.295A and this link takes you to the relevant High Court and Supreme Court judgments on S.295A IPC.)
Update: A detailed report on the event by Vivian Fernandes can be read on the FMP's site.
The consensus was that they are not. But what appeared to divide the panelists, especially, Chandan Mitra and Madhu Kishwar was that the former wanted the continuance of S.295A IPC (India's blasphemy law) if only because the Indian society is volatile, whereas for the latter, a group of goondas claiming to represent any religion, cannot dictate what and how a law should be enforced and in what context. Chandan Mitra, however, suggested that journalists faced arrest because the Governments wanted to protect them from the wrath of the enraged public.
Madhu Kishwar referred to the 1986 law against indecent portrayal of women in the media as one instance of law coming to the aid of moral policing. She said when she opposed the law at the time of enactment, she was misunderstood, but the law appears to provide legitimacy to Hindu zealots.
Interestingly, all the three editors, who were recently arrested under Section 295A and later released were there - Basavaraj Swami, B.V.Seetharam and Ravinder Kumar - and they narrated their experiences. The question posed by the moderator of the discussion, Manoj Mitta, whether S.295A needs to be repealed or at least whittled down in view of its abuse seemed to have few takers. Manoj posed the question in the context of Britain repealing its blasphemy law last year, and Pakistan making its blasphemy provision draconian, by adding 295B and 295C to its Penal Code. The ingredients of Section 295A IPC(deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings) constitute a serious limitation on its use, though in practice, the authorities do not care to check whether these are satisfied, before it is invoked against anyone.
Siddharth Varadarajan, sharing his personal experience as a journalist, deplored the non-application of mind by the lower courts who invoke such legal provisions against anyone, be a journalist or a Union Minister (he was referring to registration of a case under S.153A IPC against Union Minister, Ms.Renuka Chowdhury, for referring to 'Talibanisation of Mangalore' in her reaction to the recent incidents there).
Justice J.S.Verma, one of the panelists, suggested there are legal remedies (civil) against wrong application of law, and an illegal prosecution can be challenged. Nandita Das, who shared her experiences with the Censor Board about her recent film, said we are becoming tolerant of intolerance, and we unwittingly give space to the so-called representatives of religions to speak on behalf of their co-religionists on the mainstream media. Even if there has been no conviction under S.295A, the process itself is the punishment, and this was a concern to all the panelists.
We, on this blog, have had an occasion to discuss the history and relevance of S.295A earlier. (This link takes you to the relevant posts on S.295A and this link takes you to the relevant High Court and Supreme Court judgments on S.295A IPC.)
Update: A detailed report on the event by Vivian Fernandes can be read on the FMP's site.
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