Supreme Court Justice Deepak Gupta retired on 6th May. On his last working day, he was given a virtual farewell.
Speaking on the occasion, he said;
- Laws and legal systems are totally geared for the rich and powerful.
- That Judges should stop living in ivory towers and be aware of what is happening in the world around them.
- It is possible for the rich and powerful to get a hearing and get their case expedited. This often happens at the cost of other cases, where the litigants are poor and are thus can’t approach a higher court.
- If a rich person is on bail or wants to delay a civil litigation, he can afford to approach the superior courts time and again to delay the trial or the proceedings till the other side gets virtually frustrated.
- The Bar have a duty towards poor litigants “to ensure that their cases are not put on the back burner”.
- If real justice has to be done, then the scales of justice have to be weighted in favor of the underprivileged.
- The most important attributes of the judiciary and judges are independence, fearlessness and impeccable integrity.
- In a country which professes to follow the rule of law and the principle of separation of powers, there is no alternative to a totally independent judiciary.
- “In times of a crisis such as the ones we are living in, the courts must protect the poor and the underprivileged, because it is they who are hit the hardest in trying times. When the court does its duty and acts in favor of the citizens, sometimes there will be friction, but a little friction in my view is a healthy sign that the courts are functioning properly.
- For any judge, when he sits in court, his only Gita, his only Bible, his only Quran, his only Guru Granth Sahib, his only Zend Avesta is the Constitution of India.
- This is not such a difficult job if one goes by the Constitution and the laws” and said “the Constitution has been my polestar”.
Now does any of this is anything other than the obvious that a Judge should do?
Problem is that Judges and Justices have to be reminded of the obvious.
If all of judiciary collectively feels this, would there be this situation? We have to read, listen and wonder what stops them from walking the talk.
We hear occasionally some judge talking sense but it is when they retire! In reality they do work for the rich and powerful.
Such judges don’t get cases assigned to them. The system bypasses such judges. They don’t rise in the system too for obvious reasons.