LAW, JUSTICE, SOCIETY AND LUCK?

Health , education, law & order are some of the defining features of the status of a society. But existence of a dynamic, realistic, truly responsive  justice delivery system is the hallmark of any civilised society that distinguishes it from other conglomerates of human groups. A great emphasis is therefore laid in every civilised society to inculcate good values in its people and a modest beginning is made with initiation of a well-known adage ‘As you sow, so you reap’. No wonder then cliches like ‘Always respect the law’, ‘Don’t take law in your own hands’, ‘Law will take its own course’  etc. abound in common parlance in our society as the paradigm  of our civility.

In fact, every civilised society is indoctrinated on the concept that respecting law and abiding law would ensure a safe & secured life for the people. People take this to be a gospel truth and this fancy notion breeds a kind of subliminal confidence & assurance in their minds that the ‘STATE’ shall endeavour to tailor laws to meet all their legitimate needs, aspirations and requirements to make their life safe & secured so it is incumbent upon them to follow law or else any breach or delinquency on their part would visit them harm and invite punishment in accordance with law. This sense of complaisance & respect for law often leads to develop a sort of uncanny complacency in the minds of the people that the more they obey the law and don’t breach it , the more they would be crowned with respectability and endowed with security in the society to enable them to enjoy a wholesome, happy life.

But have we ever wondered how true is this TRUISM in actual practice? Instances are not rare when we come across people known to be law abiding citizens suffering the pangs of miseries for no fault of theirs and the delinquents who were responsible for their such ignominy and distress roaming about freely in society. Is it not emblematic of failure of law to honour its stated mandate & objective to safeguard the interests / rights of its patrons for one reason or the other? When the culprits are not brought to book for unreasonably long excruciating period or the culprits go scot free it adds insult to the injury and shakes the faith of the people in the efficacy of justice delivery system itself. Surely this malaise of judicial stasis needs to be remedied sooner than later.

This makes it clear that though ‘law’ is necessary ,it is simply not sufficient to help us on its own. After all it needs crutches of evidence to make it move to come to our aid & rescue in the hour of need. The stronger the crutches we provide to it in our favour, the faster & surer it reaches us to provide requisite relief or else dumps us to our fate. But cases often come across where despite a catena of evidence having been adduced in the case the justice eludes the victims and provides a long rope to those on the wrong side of law to enjoy their life to the chagrin of the victims. The hapless beleaguered persons then have no option but to resign to their fate cursing their stars for this plight. This signifies the dominant role LUCK plays in the algorithm of our daily life regardless of our efforts we put in any enterprise we choose to undertake.

To illustrate & elucidate this pristine rule of life we may refer to the case of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy which had taken a huge toll of some 15,134 precious innocent lives and crippled 6 lakh persons . Not only the victims and their kins had to suffer the pangs of an inordinately long-drawn-out agonising trial, the verdict was a classic example of travesty of justice where neither the victims were provided any adequate compensation nor the real culprits ever brought to book.

Another category of cases where the victims suffer the vagaries of their luck for no fault of theirs is that where the judge ceases to be objective in his approach and abandoning the comprehensive text book canons of law of delivering justice, applies a mechanical & robotic approach by giving short shrift to the human sentiments and emotions altogether. This way he adds insult to the injury to the hapless victims. This is indicative of concerned judge’s myopic understanding of evolving social milieu and crafty shenanigans adopted by unscrupulous persons to do their nefarious activities. For this lack of judge’s understanding of social dynamics, the gullible victims feel themselves cheated at the altar of justice for no fault of theirs.

An example of such a shockingly egregious judgment is the Bombay High Court’s recent judgment  where it quashed a 2019 judgment of the sessions court in a Protection of Children from Sexual offences Act (POCSO). The Mumbai sessions court judge  after having thoroughly perused and appraised the whole corpus of evidence,  especially the evidence of a four-year-old survivor of the crime girl had found the evidence worthy of carrying his conviction and relying upon that had deigned it proper to   convict the accused and award him 5 years of rigorous punishment. What is intriguing is that the learned single judge of the high court  while admitting that the four-year-old victim girl ‘was not trying to conceal the truth’ , yet opined that the tenor of her answers during trial indicated that she lacked the intellectual capacity and maturity to understand the nature of questions and to give rational answers. How preposterous is this conclusion?  First and foremost, question that crops up in mind is how could he conjure up the traction of trial court’s proceedings in such vivid details as if the trial and statements of witnesses were recorded in his view & presence and he was in a position to notice the demeanor of the witnesses as alleged. This is a classic case of superior court arbitrarily imposing its own views (neigh whims& fancies) over and above those of the trial court which was in a better position to watch the conduct of both the parties thereby denying justice to the innocent victim. The High Court’s single judge judgment suffers from a dichotomy of sorts. On the one hand it certifies the innocence , purity and incorruptibility of the victim’s mind, on the other hand the judge holds her lacking the agency and maturity to understand the nature of questions put to her to give rational answers. Did he expect her to be clever & smart enough to manipulate the answers? What did he expect of a 4-year-old child? The learned judge failed to discharge his duty in casting onus on to the accused as to why has he been arraigned in the case and what is his defence to rebut the charges against him in the matter?

There is no dearth of such cases where the fruits of justice were denied to the complainant victims for no fault of theirs but due to sheer erroneous approach and intrinsic mentation of the concerned judges. There is a need to rid judiciary off this insulated and ivory tower approach and bring it to terms with the prevailing realities in the society to make the justice delivery system more compatible with  and conforming to the peoples’ hopes & aspirations.