From: KPS1@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: RJB-BM --> The role of courts
Date: 24 Jul 92 15:31:10 GMT
Article-I.D.: psuvm.92206.113110KPS1
Organization: Penn State University

************************************************************************

 I'M POSTING THIS FOR A FRIEND OF MINE WHO DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE
 NET. SO PLEASE DIRECT ALL YOUR COMMENTS TO HIM. HIS E.MAIL ADDRESS IS
 AS FOLLOWS :
                  DEB@SOIL.PRINCETON.EDU

************************************************************************

                  RJB-BM - The role of the Courts

It seems that the RJB-BM crisis has reached a boiling point.
Another bloody confrontation seems just round the corner. I
think the role the judiciary has played in aggravating the crisis
should be seriously examined. While the flaws and fallacies of
our judicial process are widely acknowledged, never in the history
of independent India have judicial ham-handedness and facile posturing
posed such a serious challenge to our national life.

For more than six years the higher courts have sat on the issue. While such
excrutiating delays are a normal feature of the Indian legal scene,
the seriousness of the issue demanded at least a rare exception from
the usual sloth-ridden rule. Repeated appeals have been made to hold
hearings on a day-to-day basis - to no avail. It is a messy issue and
obviously demands a considerable amount of application and concentrated
effort on the part of our judges. They have not been able to
summon up the necessary nerve and resolution once, throughout the entire
period of six long years.

Justice delayed is justice denied. In this case, particularly so. Emotions
have reached a boiling point, people are tired of waiting. A general election
has been fought over the issue, more than 1000 people have died. Nothing
has moved our Lordships.

Now when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has started construction work on the
adjacent site, the justices have suddenly recovered their zeal. What could
have turned out to be a welcome catharsis for pent up emotions and lowered
the emotional temperature, has been converted into an exhibition ground for
a comic display of judicial virtuosity.

For in this particular instance,
the VHP displayed commendable restraint. No attempt was made on the Babri
Masjid. Instead bands of men and women from all walks of life joined to
gether in a a great communal effort to lay the foundations of the temple
on the adjacent site.

But our judges had other ideas. The opportunities for publicity hogging
- simply too tempting. The encomiums from the psuedo-secularist
intelligentsia - bound to be lavish. So why not step in? It was a shameless
act of duplicity and double-speak. But who cares. The cheering has already
started.

As the U.S Supreme Court has noted in its recent abortion ruling, the judiciary
does not exist in a vaccum. The respect and regard which a society gives
to its judges is built on solid foundations of judicial integrity,
consistency and temperance. The judges robes ill fit the publicist. Nor
can judicial immunity from scrutiny guarantee shameless shirking
and tragic inaction.

Thus morally, the Uttar Pradesh Government is not bound to honour the
injunctions of the Court. What if tomorrow the Justices pass an order
that the Government of India immediately transport the refugees from
Kashmir back to their homes and ensure that they go back to leading
their lives as of old? Can the Central Governement implement such an
order? (The chances of the Court passing such an order are remote - the
refugees are after all refugees, and have the misfortune to be Hindu too).
The correct place for the Supreme Court's order is the waste paper
basket, and the sooner it is consigned, the better.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian