Thank You Madam PM @Vidyut for giving me the honour of serving this great nation as a Union Minister for Law.
As a practising Advocate, I'm well aware of the challenges before the justice delivery system. Being an insider, someone who deals with it, someone who worships it 1/4
Someone who takes a great pride in it, someone who rues the inadequacies of it, someone who's shocked by the pendency, intrigued by the casual approach of the stakeholders, appalled by the ignorance of founding principles of the Constitution amongst judiciary -
I'm determined do my bit for restoration of the majesty of the justice delivery system. I am determined to do my bit for making Courts / Tribunals the temples of justice as against - as some lawyers jokingly say - cooling chambers.
I am conscious of the limitations - of resources, qualified manpower and societal compulsions. But I assure You Madam PM, that I will leave no stone unturned to achieve your goal - Justice for all - without fear / favour or delays.
So, there was a training session for Maharashtra's Judges (JMFC & MM) at judicial academy on the 3 new criminal laws that are set to screw your freedom & dignity.
About 187 Judges were called for it.
A retired Madras HC judge
And, a Retired UP Sessions Judge was called in as speakers.
A training of barely 1 & half day is actually no training at all.
It was reflected in the responses of those who attended.
1. Why ? If you merely wanted to change the nomenclature - why not through an amendment?
2. Why ?? Why change the sequence of sections and numbering - when there's no substance.
3. There's no opportunity to unlearn the old laws as they're going to remain for at least 30-40 years.
4. What happens to the prevailing jurisprudence qua the sections that r in conflict?
Dindori, LS constituency in Maharashtra is an amazing story of @ECISVEEP & @rajivkumarec's questionable conduct AND @PawarSpeaks's remarkable political smarts.
Mr. Pawar had fielded, an ordinary party Karyakarta, a teacher, Mr. Bhagare (also known as 'guruji' being a teacher)
He was facing a sitting Minister of State in Modi's Cabinet & political heavyweight, Bharti Pawar.
BJP also fielded one Babu Sadu Bhagre. A commoner with the same surname as that of NCP (SP) candidate.
ECI gave him 🎺 trumpet as a symbol which resembled NCP(SP)'s symbol.
ECI also put (SIR) at the end of this Candidate's name. (Incidentally, a 5th pass man)
To mislead the voters & cause prejudice to Pawar's candidate who is known as Bhagare Sir (he's a teacher, you see)
Here's a small incident to show how privilege works in India :
The son hasn't enrolled in #Aadhaar .
His College's Administration staff (one of the most prominent in Mumbai) told him :- either you'll have to enroll or forget about sitting for the Std XII Boards exam.
The 17 was made to stand outside the Admin block when he was trying to reason with the In-charge that Aadhaar is not mandatory for attempting Std XII exams.
Mr. Dubey, the all knowing God of Admin was pretty harsh to him.
Dubey: "Kya tum Indian citizen nahi ho"?
"Thumne ab tak #Aadhaar kyun nahi banaya"?
"Kya tum Pakistani ho"?
The 17 kept his cool. (He could have smashed Dubey ji to a pulp w/o consequences).
He : Sir, I don't have #Aadhaar & I'm not planning to get one. If you have any Circular from the Board, please share.
Have I understood it correctly?
On #PMLA SC has said : declaration by Parliament, ipso facto, satisfies the 'test' of compelling State interest.
Does that leave room for judicial scrutiny of a Law as all of them are passed / declared by the Parliament. Often, w/o debate.
More shocking is pulling up directive principles in support of upholding sections that are inversion of justice and due process.
Mind boggling is citation of State's obligation to prevent concentration of wealth in a few hands to justify draconian powers of arrest & detention.
SC completely missed the fact that ED's powers have actually been used by the State to concentrate wealth in a few hands - case in point - Mumbai Airport came to Adani only after ED booked GVK Group under PMLA.
That GVK owners weren't arrested can be attributed to sale to Adani
The least that's expected of a ruling dispensation is that it will not mislead the Parliament.
Mumbai has 5 Benches of NCLT.
Bench 1 & 2 are presided by the same members. Bench 1 in the morning session - from 11 AM to 2 PM & Bench 2 in post lunch - 3 PM to 4.30 PM
First up : fresh matters are taken up as Supplimentary board. Here, at the most, notices are issued. Zero adjudication.
Then, 1 or 2 heavy duty cases are heard where Sr. Counsels make never-ending arguments to end the session on being adjourned to some other day.
Other lawyers are given fresh dates and are expected to be glued to their screens on such adjourned dates for 2-3 hours - only to be given further fresh dates.
The funny (sic) part is - it's been happening for over a year now.