The scales of justice July 24, 2011

The scales of justice

July 24, 2011 9:18:17 PM

Joginder Singh

Politicians with clout believe they are above the law. The police, in the absence of reforms, cannot be expected to enforce the law.

Whenever some thing goes wrong in life, we look for scapegoats. Depending upon the given situation, there is no dearth of scapegoats — they could be our friends, parents, Government, teachers or colleagues. If nothing works, then we can always blame Providence. Everybody looks for scapegoats. But the biggest scapegoat-seeker, unfortunately, is our Government. For, scapegoats are useful to cover up sins of omission and commission.

On July 12 the Supreme Court questioned the circumstances leading to the brutal police action to evict people who had gathered at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in support of yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s demand for immediate action by the Government on the issue of black money. In its affidavit, Delhi Police has justified the action, saying Baba Ramdev had breached rules by taking permission to use Ramlila Ground for conducting a yoga camp and then converting it into a satyagraha. It added, perhaps as an afterthought, there were intelligence inputs about a potential threat to the yoga guru’s life. The court has also asked the Union Home Secretary and the Chief Secretary of Delhi to file affidavits explaining the reason behind the police action.It would be in order to mention that all papers filed in court by official agencies or institutions are vetted by law officers of the Government.

In a second incident, the police have arrested the former assistant of an influential Member of Parliament for his alleged involvement in the cash-for-vote scam. Three MPs, Mr Ashok Argal (Morena), Mr Fagan Singh Kulaste (Mandla) and Mr Mahavir Bhagora (Salumber) had alleged that they were offered Rs 1 crore each to abstain from the 2008 trust vote. They had carried into Parliament wads of currency notes on July 22, 2008, as evidence. During police interrogation, the former assistant of the influential MP admitted that the money he had passed on to the three BJP MPs came from his then boss, a former Samajwadi Party leader and now a member of the Rajya Sabha.

It stands to neither logic nor reason as to why the assistant of an MP should be interested in handing over such a big sum of money, even if we were to assume that he had it, to persons whom he had not known in the past. Along with him, another conduit has been arrested.

However, the police delayed action against the MP who allegedly provided the money on the ground that they needed the permission of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the Ministry has clarified that no permission is needed to interrogate anybody. Nor is permission required for arresting anybody accused of committing a cognisable offence. It is amazing that those on the periphery and who can at best be described as support staff of a politician have been arrested, but not the person who supplied the bribe money or the main actor in the cash-for-vote drama. It is anybody’s guess as to whether he will ever be brought to book.

A seven-member Parliamentary Committee was constituted to investigate the allegation levelled by the three MPs that they were offered money to abstain from voting on the confidence motion. After looking into the allegation, the committee had asked Delhi Police’s Crime Branch to further investigate the role of three individuals. Nothing was done for three years till the Supreme Court pulled up Delhi Police for its inaction.

The Constitution makes it mandatory for the Government to ensure justice for all. But the fact remains that no political party or Government in power wants to give even a modicum of independence to the police in its functioning. There is a tendency among all parties to further their partisan interests by using the police whenever and wherever they are in power.

The new Minister for Law, Mr Salman Khurshid, in an interview has pleaded for bail for high profile politicians currently behind bars on charges of corruption. According to the CAG’s report on the 2G Spectrum scam, they are responsible for causing a loss of Rs 1.76 crore to the Government. Similarly, an influential member of the ruling party has pleaded for bail to the accused in the Commonwealth Games scam.

Instead of reforming the criminal justice system, so that all cases are decided within six months to a year, Ministers are being selective in pleading the hopeless cases of high profile politicians accused of corruption, thus sending a wrong message that those with political clout are not without supporters. But for the Supreme Court monitoring investigation into the 2G Spectrum scam nothing would have come out of it. The case was registered in October 2009 but the accused Telecom Minister, A Raja, resigned and was arrested only after 14 months while another DMK MP charged in the same case, Kanimozhi, was arrested after 17 months.

In his first letter to Chief Ministers in July 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had written, “Maintenance of law and order is critical in providing an atmosphere conducive to economic development and social harmony... Frequent transfers of public servants have a debilitating impact not only on their performance and morale, but also on the whole process of governance… Therefore, I urge you to ensure stability of tenure to officials in key positions in order to ensure effective administration and proper delivery of public services.”

The Supreme Court had appointed a committee, headed by a former judge, to review the ‘State of Police Reforms in India’, as ordered through its judgement of September 22, 2006. The committee said in its report that there was near uniformity among all the States in not following the Supreme Court’s directive that a certain category of police officers, including DG, IGP, SP and SHO, should have a fixed tenure. These finding suggest that police reform is not a top priority for State Governments. It is because they are unwilling to relinquish the control they have over the State police. Bureaucrats also raise obstacles to police reform as they too are averse to losing control over the police.

It is not something creditable to the rulers that justice is weighed in favour of the rich and powerful. The Government should remember that where willingness is great, difficulties cannot be greater.