Revision as of 11:16, 29 April 2018

Audio-video recordings

2016: govt reminds CJI

The Times of India, Jan 30 2016

Pradeep Thakur

Start audio-video recordings, govt reminds CJI

For the second time in less than a year, the government has reminded the Chief Justice of India about starting audio-video recording of court proceedings which is meant to bring transparency in the justice delivery system and accountability in conduct of judges who allow too many adjournments. In his letter to CJI T S Thakur, law minister Sadananda Gowda requested him to allow the government to begin audio-video recording on a pilot basis in a few district courts -indicating that the Supreme Court and high courts could remain out of the ambit of such transpa rency measures for now.

In July 2015, the law mini ster too had made the demand for audio-video recordings to the then CJI on the basis of a strong recommen dation by the then law commission chairman Justice A P Shah who did not see any reason in opposing such a proposal as it would only help in “bringing more accountability to the judiciary“.

The apex court since 2014 has always opposed the need to introduce audio-video recordings, with a judgment in January 2015 rejecting the idea. In view of SC's reluctance, the government even considered bringing in amendments to introduce audio-video recordings.

The SC secretary general, in the advisory council meeting, had mentioned the SC's dismissal of petitions seeking approval for audiovideo recording of judicial proceedings. “The view was that our court system has not reached the level where video recording of court proceedings can be permitted,“ he had said.

The minister's recent letter to the CJI comes ahead of the next advisory council meeting on February 16. The plan for audio-video recording was included in PhaseII of the e-court project where the government has allocated Rs 1,670 crore for its implementation.

Fees, court-

Delhi HC annuls Court Fees Amendment

PTI, HC verdict finds place in Yale journal Sep 19 2016

A landmark judgement of the Delhi high court, which had struck down an 1870 law on court fees, has found place, along with four others from around the world, in a prestigious international journal published by the Yale Law School.

The judgement penned in 2013 by Justice Gita Mittal had struck down The Court Fees (Delhi Amendment) Act 2012 after declaring it “invalid and ultra vires the Constitution.“

The judge, who was heading the bench along with Justice J R Midha, had held that Delhi Legislative Assembly did not have the legislative competence to amend the Court Fees Act, 1870 and directed government to refund the higher amount collected from litigants as the amendment came in 2012.

In its publication `Global Constitutionalism 2015', which is part of the Gruber Program for global justice and human rights, the law school has incorporated the landmark judgement along with two from the European Court of Human Rights, one each from the Supreme Courts of the United States and Canada.

Protests against court orders

2016: SC cites 2009 judgment

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Cannot protest or call bandhs against court orders: SC, Sep 16 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`Duty Of K'Taka, TN To Quell Cauvery Stir'

The Supreme Court said in Sepy 2016 that no one could agitate on the streets or call bandhs to protest against a court order and once again rebuked the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments for failing to curb mob violence over the Cauvery water dispute.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit said, “The people cannot become a law unto themselves and, therefore, it is obligatory on the part of the authorities of both states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to prevent such actions. We are compelled and constrained to say that it is the duty of the states to see that no agitation, damage or destruction takes place.“ The bench's September 12 order reducing the daily release of Cauvery water by Karnataka from 15,000 cusecs to 12,000 cusecs did not quell violent protests in both states, despite the court warning the governments and the protesters of dire consequences.

On a PIL by social activist P Sivakumar from Kanyakumari seeking a direction to the authorities in both states to take preventive measures to quell violent protests, the bench said, “The fundamental purpose is that there can not be any agitation when it relates to an order passed by the court. It (a court order) is to be complied with and, in any case, if there is difficulty, the concerned parties can approach the court.“

After asking both state counsels to be prepared to answer questions on their failure to maintain law and order, the bench said, “We sincerely hope that wisdom shall prevail over the competent authorities of both states to maintain peace.“ Shivakumar's counsel Adish Agrawala said inhabitants of both states were resorting to competitive protests against the SC order directing Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu. “If one party resorts to `rail roko' (stopping train services) on one day , the other party emulates it the next day ,“ he said.

The court said it felt the situation was returning to normal. However, Agrawala said there were fresh inci dents of violence and the `rail roko' agitation was on in Karnataka on Thursday , while Tamil Nadu protesters have decided to do the same on Friday .

The bench extracted guidelines laid down by the apex court in its 2009 judgment for the police in handling violent protests. “The state government shall prepare a report on the police reports and other information that may be available to it and shall file a petition including its report in the high court or the Supreme Court as the case may be for the court in question to take suo motu action,“ the SC had said in 2009.

Can SC shut right to protest its orders?

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Can SC shut citizens' right to protest against its order?, Sep 19 2016 : The Times of India

Right to freedom of speech and expression guarantees individuals the liberty to express themselves, criticise others and comment on issues. All these must necessarily be peaceful. But can any court shut an individual's right to protest against judgments and orders?

The Supreme Court did just that in the contentious Cauvery water issue. Escalating protests coupled with violence in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu made the SC say , “There cannot be any agitation when it relates to an order passed by the court.“

The SC was right in asking the authorities to clamp down on violence. But the anxiety to see return of normalcy cannot be a ground to convey that even peaceful protests and agitations against SC orders would not be tolerated.

We are witness to public protests against orders of the highest courts world over, including India.On June 2015, the US Supreme Court by a slender five to four majority declared gay marriages con stitutionally valid, mandating all 50 states of the federal republic to recognise same sex unions (Obergefell vs Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health).

The LGBT community celebrated. But the church erupted in protest. Billy Graham Evangelist Association, Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and US Bishops Conference virtually rebelled against the judgment. Some of the churches said they would not conduct same-sex marriages.

In India, too, we witnessed this.An SC judgment closed a small window opened for the LGBT community by the Delhi High Court, which decriminalised Section 377 to exempt consensual relations between adults of the same sex in private from penal consequences.

The rainbow community protested, albeit peacefully, against the SC judgment.

The SC's decision to limit the height of `dahi handi' and bar participation of minors in Janmashtami celebrations in Maharashtra saw 500 `dahi handi mandals' congregate at Shiva ji Park on August 22 to protest against the court or der. In May , several hundred Kosovo Albanians protested against a ruling of the Kosovo Constitutional Court for confirming the rights of Serbian Orthodox Visoki Decani monastery to 24 hectares of land.“The constitutional court trespassed on justice,“ read the banners with protesters.

A person may militate against a perfectly valid and legitimate court order because in his perception it was an unjust judgment. Can we deny him the right to protest against the court order? Are court orders infallible?

Even the SC cannot claim infallibility. More than 70 years ago, US SC judge Robert H Jackson had said judges, despite being addressed as Lords, shared the human susceptibility to err.

In Brown vs Allen, (1944 US 443 at 540), he had said, “Reversal by a higher court is no proof that justice is thereby better done. There is no doubt that if there were a super-Supreme Court, a substantial proportion of our reversals of state courts would also be reversed. We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.“

True, Indian Constitution under Article 144 mandates “all authorities, civil and judicial, in the territory of India to act in aid of the Supreme Court“. But it does not even remotely suggest that while implementing an SC order, one must wholeheartedly subscribe to it. A five-judge bench of the SC in Bihar Legal Support Society vs Chief Justice of India (1986 SCC (4) 767) had in a short and crisp judgment told judges that they were neither infallible nor their words the last. Legally may be, but not in the perception of a common man.

The society's petition had protested against a midnight sitting of the SC to grant bail to two industrialists -Lalit Mohan Thapar and Shyam Sundar Lal -and asked the CJI why similar expeditious hearing was not accorded to bail petitions of poor men languishing in jails? This question is ironic and bound to inspire a feeling of deja vu in those who have been following the SC for some time.

The SC had conceded that it would not be possible for it to right all wrongs because it was not immune from making mistakes. To make judges realise that they did not possess the panacea for all ills, it had said, “The apex court must interfere only in limited class of cases where there is a substantial question of law involved which needs to be finally laid at rest by the apex court for the entire country or where there is grave, blatant and atrocious miscarriage of justice.

“Sometimes, we judges feel that when a case comes before us and we find that injustice has been done, how can we shut our eyes to it. But the answer to this anguished query is that the judges of the apex court may not shut their eyes to injustice but they must equally not keep their eyes too wide open, otherwise the apex court would not be able to perform the high and noble role which it was intended to perform according to the faith of the Constitution makers.“

The 30-year-old judgment needs to be put up in bold big font in the inner chambers of the SC, which has forayed into unimaginably diverse fields from constitutionality of jokes on Sikh community to mushrooming of NGOs.

Use of particular expressions

'Separatist': can't use that term in court

[Dhananjay Mahapatra & Shailaja Neelakantan | SC rejects plea to stop central funds for Kashmiri 'separatists'Sep 14, 2016, The Times of India]

The Supreme Court not only dismissed a PIL that sought to stop Central funds and security being given to 'separatists' in Kashmir, it also slammed a lawyer for calling Hurriyat leaders 'separatists' and refused to use that term in its order.

"It's a matter of perception. Has the government declared them separatists? The conduct of a man may not be to the liking of others and (so) they call him separatist, but you can't use that term in court," a Supreme Court bench of Justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit said.

’Judiciary cannot examine what funds are given to whom’

The PIL filed on September 8 said that more than Rs 100 crore is spent - for foreign travel, security and other expenses - on separatists by the government. On top of that, the PIL said, the separatists then misuse the money for anti-India activities+ .

To that, the apex court today said the judiciary cannot examine what funds are given to whom+ , when it comes to managing the situation in a sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir. It added that any security cover given by a government to a citizen who faces threats, is completely within the domain of the executive.

"Security issues cannot be handled through judicial proceedings and courts must desist (from) entertaining such issues," the bench chastised ML Sharma, a lawyer who filed the plea in his personal capacity.

The court's comments seem like an about-turn from the ones it made on September 8 2016 when it decided on which date to hear the PIL. At the time, the court said it felt the same as the petitioner who filed the PIL to stop funding the so-called separatists+ .

"We also share the same feeling. Everybody sitting here feels the same" the country's top court said, according to ANI, to the petitioner ML Sharma.