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Bulwark breached

Only in the make-believe world of fairy-tales and drama does the maxim that “all’s well that ends well” find resonation.…

Bulwark breached

Supreme Court (Photo: AFP)

Only in the make-believe world of fairy-tales and drama does the maxim that “all’s well that ends well” find resonation. In practical, human, life transgressions may be forgiven ~ but never forgotten. Given the ugliness through which the apex court has passed in the past week or so, it would be unrealistically optimistic to entertain positive hopes for the call from a three-judge Bench to “let good sense prevail over the legal fraternity, and amends be made as a lot of uncalled-for damage has been made to this great institution”. It is true that the Supreme Court has passed through some difficult times ~ Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency” not the least among them ~ but while most of the turmoil has been the result of differences between the judiciary and the executive, this time around the poison has been spread from within: such wounds equate with internal bleeding, hence are difficult to staunch.

In asserting who is the “master of the roster” the whip has been cracked on in-house over-reach, and the severe admonition of two senior counsel has been virtually unprecedented: “We deprecate the conduct of forum hunting, that too involving senior lawyer of this court. Such conduct is tantamount to (being) wholly unethical, unwarranted…” thundered their Lordships RK Agrawal, Arun Mishra and AM Khanwilkar. That the court did not impose a media black-out on the unseemly scenes (including a walk-out by a counsel in “parliamentary” fashion), and refrained from initiating contempt proceedings against the counsel it flayed confirms its grace and maturity. Alas, such dignity was not matched in a tweet by one of the offending counsel.

Eminent legal luminaries such as Fali Nariman and Soli Sorabjee have expressed their concerns over developments, so there is little need for further comment on the petitions that ignited the fire. “Scurrilous” is a term used to describe the goings-on, and queries have been raised about a couple of aspects of judicial propriety. To speculate on “motivation” would be to indulge in eminently avoidable bazaar gossip, and reduce the affairs of the nation’s most exalted judicial entity to what is discussed at street corners.

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Is that acceptable to thinking people? Has it become fashionable for some members of the Bar to adopt strident, possibly outrageous postures to ensure inexpensive publicity? The Indian people have long been let down by the political class, the steel-frame of the civil service has been corroded, the police forces have bent over backwards to remain in politicians’ good books. A few supersessions and a sacking have ensured the defence forces build railway over-bridges and clean-up trekkers’ trash. Only the judiciary in general, and the Supreme Court in particular were seen as a refuge of rectitude, a bulwark against the influences that destroy and decay. Now that bulwark has been breached ~ nay sabotaged.

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