Page 34 - EW September 2022

Expert Comment

Outrageous perversion of

justice

SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED’ IS AN Consider this: if the gang rapists and
aphorism most of us learnt in our school days. “Tarikh
pe tarikh” (‘date after date’) is a synonymous but more murderers were Muslim and the hap-
‘colloquial axiom familiar to all harassed and frustrated less victim was a Hindu woman, would
citizens seeking justice in India’s courts, which postpone
case hearings habitually and almost interminably. the BJP government of Gujarat have
The judicial system of our country is globally notorious released the convicts by remitting their
for delay in justice delivery. According to official data life sentences?
(March 2022), 47 million cases are pending in the
country’s courts — 70,154 in the Supreme Court, 5.89
million cases in 25 high courts, and the remaining in this bizarre decision has drawn strong condemnation
lower courts. Of them, 10 million cases are pending for across India and globally. Writ petitions have been filed
over five years, and 76 percent of the country’s prisoners challenging this decision, and the Supreme Court has
are unconvicted undertrials awaiting adjudication of asked the state government to show cause. Predictably,
their cases. In April, a court in Bihar acquitted a murder the state government has justified its action on technical
case accused after he had spent 28 years in jail. In grounds. The apex court, however, must view this matter
May, another citizen was acquitted in a murder case from the perspective of both legality and constitutional
by a Madhya Pradesh court after suffering wrongful morality.
incarceration for 13 years. These facts and figures make Moreover, the matter does not concern only the
a mockery of our criminal justice system. It would be Supreme Court. What about the prime minister? In his
neither inaccurate nor inappropriate to call it a justice Independence Day address to the nation, he said: “I have
system that is criminal. one request for every Indian. Can we change the mentality
But the recent outcome of Bilkis Bano’s case in Gujarat towards our women? Nari shakti will play a vital role in
is an altogether more hideous injustice. It is perversion of fulfilling the dreams of India. Respect for women is an
justice in a case involving two heinous crimes committed important pillar for India’s growth. We need to support
simultaneously — gang-rape and multiple murders. our nari shakti.” What he said next has a direct bearing
Bilkis was a victim of gang-rape in an assault by a on the Bilkis Bano matter. “A vikruti (distortion) has
Hindu mob that also murdered 14 members of her family crept in our conduct and we at times insult women. Can
including her three-year-old daughter, during the 2002 we take a pledge to get rid of this in our behaviour that
anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. She was then 19 years of age humiliates women in everyday life?”
and pregnant with her second child. The culprits were he prime minister’s exhortation is unimpeachable.
arrested two years later in 2004, and only because a set TIndian society and men in particular, must respect the
of brave and determined human rights activists doggedly dignity and security of women, irrespective of their class,
prosecuted her case. The Supreme Court agreed with caste or creed. Article 15 of the Constitution prohibits
them that communally biased courts in Gujarat would discrimination based on sex, caste, religion, and place
not deliver justice to her and transferred the hearing to of birth. But when we view the Gujarat government’s
Mumbai. decision through the prism of Modi’s moralising and
After a prolonged and life-threatening fight for justice the Constitution’s mandate, the contrast is damning.
during which Bilkis received numerous death threats, 11 Consider this: If the gang-rapists and murderers were
of the assailants were convicted in 2008 and sentenced Muslim, and the hapless victim was a Hindu woman,
to life imprisonment. However, in a bizarre and perhaps would the BJP government of Gujarat have released these
premeditated coincidence, the Gujarat government convicts by remitting their life sentences?
granted them pardon on August 15, just as prime minister It is perhaps too much to expect that Modi, who
Narendra Modi in an address to the nation from the was chief minister of Gujarat at the time of the horrific
ramparts of Red Fort, Delhi on India’s 75th Independence communal violence of 2002, will ask his own party’s
Day, exhorted the citizenry to “respect women”. On that government in the state to review its decision. But the
very day these convicts walked free from Godhra jail. justice-loving people of India, irrespective of political
Subsequently, they were felicitated with garlands by and religious backgrounds, have high expectations from
sympathisers. the Supreme Court. It must heed the call of the nation’s
The Gujarat government granted remission of life outraged collective conscience.
sentence to them on the ground that the convicts had (Sudheendra Kulkarni was an aide of former prime minister Atal Bihari
completed 14 years and five months of their sentence and Vajpayee (1999-2004) and is currently the Mumbai-based founder of
had shown “good behaviour” in prison. Unsurprisingly, Forum for South Asia)

34 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2022