'Note' This: Justice Should Be Above Suspicion, Mylord!

The accused official -whether he is a judge, an IAS or IPS officer- must be sent on forced long leave or suspended, depending on the seriousness of the allegation, during the pendency of the inquiry. The probe must be completed with rocket speed. Speed matters in delivery of justice. Isn't it a tragedy that we have to keep stressing this for the benefit of the judiciary?

One of Nature’s laws is that water finds its own course and probably based on that we have devised a practice of allowing the law to take its own course. There is not only science in the way water flows, but there are lessons, as Coach, thought leader, author, and trusted advisor, Dr. Kathy Allen says. Water doesn’t stop to figure out if it is going to drop down a cliff and form a waterfall. It just finds the most efficient and effective way to move towards its purpose – gravity and sea level. Nature would never hold endless leadership meetings to analyse the “right” course of action and neither should we, Dr Allen says.

The problem in law taking its own course and in a just way does not happen with the speed of water. We do not have to discuss the judicial system and the taareeq-pe-taareeq syndrome that just proves again and again the adage that justice delayed is justice denied. Delays in delivering justice make people lose their faith in the judicial system, irrespective of the fact that every chief justice of India is committing to work for speedy delivery of the system.

Apart from delays, there are many issues that erode the people’s faith in judiciary, the last hope among the four pillars of democracy. Trust in the other pillars of democracy - executive (partisan), legislature (dominated by brute majority) and the press - have already been on the wane. This is exactly why any controversy over the judiciary or any judge’s action shakes our faith in democracy.

The latest in the series of developments that raise questions over judges as the guardians of freedom and the law is the news that sacks of currency notes surfaced during the firefighting operation at Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma’s official residence. The proverb that there is no smoke without fire vanishes into oblivion as we realise that behind this fire, there is a lot of money. The fire took place during the Holi festival day and it has taken one full week for the news to be out. One may exclaim, Holy Spirit. Puns apart, the way the issue was handled raises may questions. In the first reaction that we heard after a full one week, the fire was a proposal for transferring justice Varma to his parent court at Allahabad. The SC administration initially denied that the collegium’s decision to transfer Justice Varma back to Allahabad had nothing to do with the fire and the currency. But on Monday, the SC collegium recommended to the government to transfer Justice Varma and divested him of any judicial assignment. Transfer as a punishment? That sounded like the Maharashtra government transferring tainted police officials to Naxal-hit Gadchiroli!

The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has protested against Justice Varma’s transfer saying that the High Court is not a dumping ground for corrupt and tainted judges.

I strongly feel that this system of ‘punishment’ transfer must be scrapped. The official -judicial or government – continues to perform his functions when he is transferred. He is still not free of the allegations or charges against him and the inquiry is still on. In such a situation, how can the people dealing with him be expected to have full confidence in him?

The accused official -whether he is a judge, an IAS or IPS officer - must be sent on forced long leave or suspended, depending on the seriousness of the allegation, during the pendency of the inquiry. The probe must be completed with rocket speed. Speed matters in delivery of justice. Isn't it a tragedy that we have to keep stressing this for the benefit of the judiciary?

Justice Varma may not be given any cases to preside over, but he may visit the court and derive all official benefits. His very presence in any office premises is good enough to vitiate the atmosphere.

Let us pause here on the fire-behind-currency episode to remind ourselves of the fact that despite the successive CJIs promises to focus on clearing the backlog, cases keep piling up sadly procrastination rules over justice either due to the lawyers seeking frequent adjournments or the hard-pressed courts not being able to devote enough time. Even at dedicated judicial platforms such as the National Green Tribunal one gets a date in July 2025 after hearing in March! In an environment violation related case, the issue does not come up for arguments for five years despite the court stressing that there would be no more adjournments and that the hearing should be regular. The bail issue of Umar Khalid, arrested under UAPA in Delhi riots case, is another story as his application could not even be heard at the Supreme Court. The Delhi High Court has even remarked in Khalid case "This has to end. This can't go on like this.” “This needs to end now. We can't give you endless time," the court told the police. All said and done, Khalid is yet to get bail. We keep hearing from the Supreme Court that bail is the rule and jail is an exception, but we do not get to see this in action. The issue of pending cases can certainly be a subject for an OTT series. Have I digressed too much?

Getting back to Justice Varma’s case, it must be noted that Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar has made some serious remarks on the delay in making the fire-behind-currency case public. “If it happens with a politician, he becomes a target; a bureaucrat, an industrialist immediately, and, therefore, a systemic response which is transparent, accountable, effective, I am sure, will be on the way,” Dhankar said as per a report by The Indian Express. On Monday, Dhankar had a closed-door meeting with the leader of the house JP Nadda and leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on the issue and said he would plan a structured discussion soon in the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, the probe will have to look at many questions such as: How did the currency bags land in Justice Varma’s outhouse? Why was the delay in making the news public? What about the gaps in the statement of Justice Varma and the fire brigade (the judge said no currency was found when he visited the outhouse after the fire!). What happened to the sacks of currency notes and who cleared them? What was the amount that was found in the sacks? And above all, what kind of security surveillance is in force at judge’s residences? How can anyone just enter the area, dump anything that they like? Does this not cause security concerns?

Amid this smoke and fire, will the political class revive the idea of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in one form or the other? Vice President Dhankar made a passing reference to the NJAC that was struck down by the Supreme Court in December 2021 declaring that the judiciary cannot risk being caught in a “web of indebtedness” towards the government, as The Hindu had reported.

Will the politicians seek back powers to pick and choose judges? Will it impede the judicial functioning? We need to discuss this threadbare.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)