High Time to shift gears!

Change is the inevitable cyclic order whether one likes it or not. In other words, nothing is static. Today what is considered as good, tomorrow the same thing would become irrelevant and perhaps day after people would call it as redundant. The change is all way more important for the development and prosperity of society.

The change compels one to look for appropriate tools to harness its benefits. Luckily our judiciary is quite responsive to the demands of the changes.

This positive attitude of the apex court towards changing times could be seen in some of the recent judgements of the Supreme Court. It augurs well that the outlook of the court, government and the legislature has been modern and in sync with each other.

The judiciary like other arms of our democracy, too, has before it several challenges such as, the huge pendency of cases, nepotism in appointment of judges at all levels, procedural jungle, corruption etc. Most of these challenges have assumed a frightening proportion.

Added to these worrying phenomena there are other stumbling blocks such as total absence of time frame for the disposal of a case, tendency among judges to write unduly lengthy judgements which results in the wastage of their precious time, blind adherence to the Westminster model of hearing and deciding cases, even at the cost of national security and following such dogmas religiously irrespective of their utility in the present day.

For example, the concept of fair trial assumes a person innocent till punished by the court. It sounds good and dignified provided the trial concludes in a shortest possible time.

As on today, the trial in a typical scenario usually goes on for several decades and adding the time taken in appeal, it may be another five to six years. The benefit of such inordinate delay clearly goes to the ' deemed innocent ' person. Consequently, the fear of law evaporates! The criminals are happily able to hoodwink the law.

Another such misplaced notion is: Let hundred guilty persons go scot free but let one innocent person not be punished. In practice it is often seen that due to a plethora of rules, sub rules, ifs and buts, the investigation process becomes endless. With the passage of long time since the occurrence of a cause of action and completion of investigation, some vital links go missing.

This vitiates the whole exercise of investigation resulting into acquittal of the accused or due to the error of judgement even punishing an innocent. Likewise, the slogans such as, bail is the rule, jail an exception, death sentence in the rarest of rare cases and treating a minor rapist as minor just because he has not attained majority age need to be discarded since they do more harm to the society than anything good.

Finally, considering the frighteningly changing law and order situation in the country, it is in the wider interests of the nation to switch over to the positive approach to the situation. Let us not forget that the justice delayed is justice denied. Therefore, let there be a fixed time frame for completing the investigation and disposal of cases, let an accused be presumed guilty until proved otherwise by a court, let the criminals be tried as criminals irrespective of their age because if a minor can commit a heinous crime, then certainly he is not a minor.

SC ON COOLING OFF PERIOD IN DIVORCE CASES

In a big relief to the divorce seeking couples the Supreme Court recently waived the mandatory waiting period of six months in cases where there is an irretrievable breakdown of marital relationship to do the complete justice. The court while exercising its power under Article 142 (1) of the Constitution of India also laid down guidelines to determine the irretrievable breakdown.

The Constitution Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Abhay S Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice JK Maheshwari in a case titled, Shilpa Sailesh Vs Varun Srinivasan also held that the parties cannot approach the court for the waiver of waiting period as of right, but it is a matter of discretion of the court . The apex court also clarified that no writ petition can be filed by a party under Article 32 of the Constitution in the Supreme Court with a prayer for the exercise of such power.

TS-HC JUDGE TRANSFERRED

Justice A Abhishek Reddy of the Telangana High Court has been transferred as a judge of the Patna High Court.

A notification to this effect issued by the office of the President of India announced the transfer.

93 YEARS OLD GETS JUSTICE AFTER 80 YEARS WAITING!

Two flats in South Mumbai were requisitioned by the government under the Defence of India Rules way back in 1942 and a government servant was inducted as a tenant therein. Subsequently, the property was de- requisitioned and ordered to handover the same to its owner. But this was not done, following which the present litigation was launched.

Now, after a long period of 80 years a division bench of the Bombay High Court while dismissing the Writ Petition titled, Alice D'Souza Vs. State of Maharashtra has directed the state government to hand over vacant and peaceful possession to the original owner who is the legal heir and now in her 93rd year.

NCSC HAS NO POWER TO GRANT INJUNCTIONS: MADRAS HC

A division bench of the Madras High Court comprising the Acting Chief Justice TRaja and Justice DBharatha Chakravarthy has recently held that the National Commission for Schedule Castes ( NCSC) has powers to investigate any complaint it receives, but it cannot grant injunctions, interim or permanent.

The bench allowing the petition filed by the petitioner in Jayaraman TM Vs The National Commission for Schedule Castes and others relied on the Supreme Court's judgement in All India Indian Overseas Bank SC and ST Employees Welfare Association VsUnion of India and observed that the NCSC does not fall within the purview of Article 338 (8) of the Constitution of India.