Pairokar

 By Parmanand Pandey Very few judges in India have written their autobiographies and this is attributed as one of the reasons for the opacity in the judicial system of the country. Three autobiographies, which readily come to mind - ‘Roses in December’ by Justice MC Chagla, ‘My own Boswell’ by JusticeM Hidayatullah, and ‘Up-Till-Now’ by Justice VR Krishna Aiyer- are very much talked about books. A ‘Justice for the Judge’ by Shri Ranjan Gogoi is bound to be more famous than all three previous books for many reasons but mainly because of the controversies that enveloped him during his tenure of Chief Justiceship and more after his retirement. It is indeed a remarkable book in the sense that it fully exposes the lobby that attempted to malign him for being instrumental in delivering some of the judgements. Nobody is a paragon of virtues, and no one can claim to have a fully unblemished life. The beauty of this book is that Justice Gogoi has accepted, in the hindsight, that where he sh...

  By Parmanand Pandey It is feared that two decades hence after there will be no newspapers or magazines in print. This report was published in the 'Economist' some three years ago much before the havoc of pandemic. The tentative year is given 2043. Covid 19 has practically pushed print journalism in a deep strait and has accelerated the pace of digital journalism. In a way, it is good for the readers because the newspapers have leapt beyond all geographical boundaries. If a person is sitting in one corner of the globe wants to read a newspaper of his /her area, he/ she can read it in a jiffy on the cell phone that one carries. This is a miracle of science. But it is bad for the newspaper owners and the employees working for them. Thus, the print medium is the worst victim of technological transformation. In the time of Covid almost all small and medium newspapers had to wind up their shops rendering thousands of employees out of employment. Even big newspapers took recours...

For the last few weeks almost every day, we find one or the other charge is being traded between Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik and an officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Samir Wankhede. Nawab Malik says that Wankhede’s name also contains the middle name of Dawood, which he has deliberately deleted. Nawab Malik is insistent on saying that Wankhede is a Muslim as his father had converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman. He says that even Sameer Wankhede‘s previous marriage was also with a Muslim woman, which ended in divorce, but later he married, Kranti Redkar, a Hindu woman. The allegation is that Sameer Wankhede has fraudulently obtained a certificate of the Hindu Scheduled Caste, to which his father originally belonged before converting to Islam, to get the job from the reserved quota. Thus, he is said to be guilty of grabbing the job by depriving it to a rightful backward candidate. But can Nawab Malik pass a judgment that Wankhede is a Muslim, while he and his...

It is really an enigma shrouded in surprising mystery that why the prime minister has decided to suddenly withdraw three Farm Laws, that too, at a time when the farmers’ agitation has almost died down. It was practically gasping for breath for the last many months. There was no support coming for it from any corner. Some political parties were, albeit, extending only their lip service to the agitation. Even Supreme Court has come down very harshly on the agitators and has asked them to vacate the roads surrounding Delhi that they have forcibly kept in their control for the last some months. The Prime Minister had said that those supporting the agitations were like ‘Andolanjeevis’. What is even more intriguing is that these Farm Laws were already kept on hold for two years, then why were they withdrawn suddenly? The Expert Committee appointed by theSupreme Court has also unambiguously spoken in favour of the Farm Laws. Moreover, there has been a continuous demand for reforms in the agri...

 One will have to admire the honesty of the Chief Justice of India for his confession of being a non-sophisticated speaker in the English language. In fact, what he has said about himself is truer about most of the lawyers and judges of the country. Only a minuscule minority having had the privilege of getting an education from the top schools can boast of fairly good command over the English language.  Regrettably, those lawyers who possess proficiency in the English language, get undue importance in the Supreme Court even by those judges, who have had their schoolings through their mother tongues. Most of us have started learning English as one of the subjects when we were admitted to the sixth standard. Most of the students in village schools used to bid farewell to the English after somehow passing the eighth standard. In most Law Colleges the medium of instruction is either Hindi or regional languages. There is nothing wrong with it, rather it should be appreciated...

Parmanand Pandey There are some path-breaking books that open the eyes of the readers. The two-volume biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar by Vikram Sampath is certainly one of them. The first volume titled ‘Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past’ covered his life from 1883 to 2023. It was published in 2019 and talks about his daring escape and capture from the ship S. S. Morea at Marseilles (France) and the long and harrowing incarceration in the Cellular Jail of Andaman, more known as Kaala Paani. The second part is the sequel of the first one, which is named’Savarkar: A Contested Legacy’ and covers his life from 1923 till his death in 1966. It deals with his activities of social reforms, political activities from the platform of Hindu Mahasabha, elucidation of the concept of the Hindutva, opposition to the idea of Gandhi’s non-violence and the two-nation theory of MA Jinnah. The book provides a vivid description of the red fort trial of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination case. Savarkar...

Hon’ble Chief Justice of India NV Ramna, the other day, while inaugurating a meet of the women advocates and judges in the Supreme Court gave a very call that they must unite and scream for 50 per cent reservation in the judiciary. Paraphrasing Karl Marx, he said that ‘women of the world unite as they have nothing to lose but their chains. It is nothing but romanticizing of the women’s struggle. It cannot be said to be a reasonable and judicious call by any yardstick. Women cannot be compared with workers of any industrial house, who can be exhorted for class struggle. Women come from a different socio-economic milieu like their men counterparts, they cannot be expected to come on the roads and fight for 50 per cent reservation. The Hon’ble Chief Justice furnished some startling data like out of 17 lakh lawyers across the country, only 15 per cent are women. The number of judges in the subordinate judiciary is about 30 per cent, in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, it is slight...

Demand of Caste Census is Preposterous: Firmly Reject it These days the demand for caste census is being raised particularly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where the politics usually revolves around castes. The irony is that it is being demanded by those, who claim to be the votary of the casteless society. There is ample testimony that the socialists, led by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, have been the real progenitor of caste politics in the country. Instead of making any positive efforts for the establishment of the casteless society, they almost spent their whole energy in perpetuating this social evil. The Congress Party did not lag behind in exploiting caste politics to remain in power for long years. In fact, it not only encouraged casteism but also made all efforts to appease the minorities so as to remain ensconced in power. Some political leaders think that it will provide them with the opportunity to make further demands for reservations in government jobs and educational institut...

    By Parmanand Pandey The gruesome shootout at Rohini court yesterday was shocking, without doubt, but not surprising. It has not happened for the first time, such incidents have taken place many times in many countries, but the moot question is that despite the incredible march of technology, why is it not being used to prevent such incidents from taking place? Why, at all, the dreaded criminals and gangsters are brought to the court rooms causing huge inconvenience to the public? The governments have to incur a lot of expenses in transporting the hardened criminals from jails to courtrooms and back to their cells. Nowadays, it can very easily be done by video conferencing. The increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can reduce the number of cases by at least 70 per cent. A large number of flimsy and frivolous cases are filed every day and they can be filtered by ...

  Hearing of cases in courts in Virtual mode is a blessing, particularly for the senior advocates, because they can manage their cases from the cosy comforts of their houses or offices. However, sometimes, they also get a snub from the courts for not adhering to the dress code or for not following the basic protocols of the courts. Some of the advocates have even been seen sipping tea while arguing their cases, which is unthinkable in the physical mode. This happened today with Senior Counsel KTS Tulsi, who, by the way, is also a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) got a snub by the bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Aniruddha Bose. As far as the dress code is concerned, it is an altogether different issue and Shri Tulsi being a lawmaker and interpreter of the law can definitely take a stand to get it changed. When Shri Tulsi appeared today in Virtual Court number 9 of the SC without wearing a neckband and a black coat, Justice Saran asked him: Are you appearing as an Advo...

   Parmanand Pandey  The judgment of the Supreme Court in the Supertech case of NOIDA will be long remembered and it must be strictly executed. The judgment has sent a highly positive message across the country that ‘high and mighty'  cannot take the law into their own hands. Unfortunately, this perception has gained momentum, particularly after the Union Carbide case that powerful persons have very safe escape routes, and the law cannot touch them. This is the reason that they flout the rules and the laws with gay abandon. The stinging comment of the Supreme Court on the corruption of officials must wake up the higher authorities to take stringent action against those, who allowed the Supertech to go like an untamed and unfettered bull. To mete out exemplary punishment to those reeking with corruption from their noses, eyes, and ears will serve the ends of complete justice.  The justice, as they say, must be reformative and deterrent. In a democratic society li...

In recent known history, two instances of the abject surrender of two big armies come to mind. The first one was the surrender of nearly one lakh Pakistani army personnel in Dhaka in December 1971 before the mighty army of India. But the second one that has happened in Kabul is unprecedented. Here a professionally trained Afghan army of three lakh men has left the field before75, 000 primitive Taliban. It is unheard of in history when the entire government has fled to some other country and the army has absconded from the scene. This clearly shows the Afghan government, and the army consisted not only of cowards but of the supporters and sympathizers of the Taliban. These bigotedTalibani terrorists will very soon convert Afghanistan into another Syria. It is ironic that when Russians had occupied Afghanistan in the late seventies, it was the USA that supplied modern arms and ammunitions to Talibans through Pakistan. The then President of Pakistan, General Zia ul Haque, used and fool...

What should have been done long back is being done now by the Supreme Court of India. Anyway, it is better late than never. Filibustering by the lawyers at the time of the arguments, mostly in high profile and media’s attention-catching cases has become almost a norm. I have been watching many top-notch lawyers arguing their cases for days together, sometimes making the judges sleepy and drowsy. Some of the advocates start reading page after page from books and the decided judgments to buttress their points. Judges also give them the indulgence to hear for hours. They make millions for the presentation of their cases even if it is witless and without any sparks. Many centuries ago, Shakespeare had said ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ but in our courts, that is hardly followed either by advocates or by the judges. The judgments are padded by hundreds of pages to make them unnecessarily bulky. However, a ray of hope was seen yesterday when the Supreme Court directed the lawyers to adopt th...

  It is really painful to see the monumental ignorance of some journalists, who have been orchestrating that the IT raids on the offices and residences of the owners of DB Corps are attacks on the ‘freedom of speech and expression’. It is an open secret that most of the big media houses in India are corrupt to the core and they are the past masters of exploitation of their employees. There is hardly any exception; be it the BennetColeman and Company, HT Media Ltd., Indian Express Newspapers Group, the Hindu, Eenadu, Anand Bazar Patrika, Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar, Deccan Chronicle, Matribhumi, Deccan Herald, Rajasthan Patrika or any other group. Albeit two medium newspapers; The Tribune of Chandigarh and The Assam Tribune of Guwahati can certainly be considered to be exceptions. Dainik Bhaskar is one of the worst exploiters and it has ruined the lives of hundreds of employees, most of them happen to be journalists. I do not say on the basis of any hearsay but on pers...

My good friend Asok Pande, a practising Advocate, mainly at the High Court of Lucknow, has raised a very pertinent point in a PIL before the High Court that the dress code of judges and advocates as prescribed by the Bar Council should be scrapped as it is totally unsuitable to the clime and culture of India. The High Court has issued notice to the BCI after getting prima facie convinced with the petitioner. As a matter of fact, an Advocate actually appears like a buffoon, and a madari after wearing a black coat, a gown and a band (which the petitioner says symbolises a Christian preacher). No Advocate, a Judge or even the Bar council office-bearer would be able to give any justification or convincing reply to this highly irksome and irritating dress code. The Advocate Act was enacted in 1961 and the Bar Council of India (Bharat) also came into existence along with it, but the latter derives its strength from the former. The Advocates Act removed many anomalies and brought about ...