A Recently Appointed Supreme Court Judge Has Not Written a Single Good judgement: Dushyant Dave

[Music] good morning everybody I must say at the outset that I share the satisfactory optimism of chief justice lalit but I also associate myself with the anguish that my good friends only has expressed and I must tell you why you know it's very interesting prime minister Netanyahu of Israel today with a extremely right-wing you know coalition government is wanting to pass in his Parliament law to say that the parliament will have the last word and Parliament will have a right to override any Judgment of the Supreme Court and that the government alone should have power to select the judges across Israel millions and millions of people are standing up against it industry the tech industry in Israel is very very powerful and very well entrenched the entire tech industry is up in arms some of the best tech companies have threatened that we will leave Israel and go to other countries Civil Society members judges lawyers politicians workers everybody's up in arms in Jerusalem or almost more than 150 000 people you know joined in demonstration about 10 days ago then 10 cities of Israel have seen very large scale demonstrations and to cap it all the president of Israel told his cabinet and is the prime minister that you are heading for a constitutional and a social disaster now that's a kind of a nation that we have I still remember and I you know stand you know Sunday is right about you know the inertia on the part of the bar and I must take a responsibility because I have been a leader of the bar we are not really interested in Independence of Judiciary we don't care a damn what happens so long as you know we are able to get the briefs and just go about our business Pakistan under the dictatorship of mushraf when mushraf removed chief justice safety car Chaudhary the entire bar and the Judiciary across Pakistan stood up fought and forced the dictator to bring back the Chief Justice now it is well impossible in this country that anything of this kind can happen judicial executive interference in judiciary large scale today large scale I mean with greatest respects to chief justice justice is a local Justice Gupta whom I regard as some of the finest judges that I have seen in my career of 44 years but they are exceptions they are a dying Spacey we have large number of Judges who are Highly Questionable they either lack the expertise the knowledge most of all the commitment and you see today what's happening in the country that every activist is unable to get bail even in simplest of the cases even stand-up comedians are unable to get the build when he's produced before a judge for making some you know funny comment about the prime minister or somebody else so you know the look at the kind of situation which we are facing today of the people who are charged with offenses in Delhi Riot cases across the country it's my experience now which I have been observing very carefully that opposition leaders are being arrested you know sometimes on flimsy grounds sometimes on Purely available offenses but are not getting bailed from our lower courts and high courts and many a times from the Supreme Court this is really very very alarming and this shows that there is large-scale interference by the government in the appointment yes there is a collision system yes the collisions comprise and do deliberate very seriously but I must say I started in 1978 in Gujarat and there were 14 judges in Gujarat High Court there and I can dare say each one was better than the other in terms of competence in terms of intellectual level in terms of Integrity in terms of courtesy in terms of hard-working nature I mean all 14 of them were par Excellence I have seen a judge Like Chief Justice PD Desai who was Chief Justice of Himachal from Gujarat originally Himachal chief justice Calcutta chief justice Bombay chief justice and refused to come to Supreme Court because his Junior was brought to Supreme Court I mean these are the kind of Judges I have seen who were exceptional today it has it happened during Mrs Indira Gandhi's time that Judiciary is becoming weak and weak the collegium system is in place the judgments of the Supreme Court are law of the land and yet there are Judges like akhil Qureshi Justice Jain Patel Justice murlidan and many such examples including Sundays who are suffering Beyond repair and who is the loser the nation the public interest the Supreme Court has power to ensure that our laws are implemented power of contempt but not once the Supreme Court has exercised the power of contempt since 1993. it shows that Supreme Court is afraid of taking the executive head-on and unless Supreme Court takes the executive head-on this interference will continue to my mind chief justice moodley the place is only in the Supreme Court he is one of the most outstanding judges in every sense of how a judge should be is a classic example of you know a good judge but poor fellow he is not even able to get a good high court recommended him to be transferred to Chennai Madras the government is not implementing and collegium is sitting twiddling its thumb now I I am I'm a very serious reservation about what is happening there are exceptional judges in collegium but if you look at the Judgment of 1993 the judges appointment case I always you know Wonder there is only one thing which strikes me in that judgment the judges said we must speak the best from those amongst available have they done that in my respectful view not at all I have seen some of my colleagues at the bar in Supreme Court being appointed in last 10 15 years especially in La last seven eight years who should not have ever been considered for judgeship across the board and it's really I mean I'm not taking any particular name but the kind of performance that they have today the kind of judgments that they pass the kind of comments that they make in the court makes us really feel one you know how how is it that the Collision system is failing in not considering this chief justice may be right in saying that in some cases they've seen you know judgments of a particular judge being considered but I can dare say that a recently appointed judge to the Supreme Court has not written a single good judgment in his career as a judge now what do you do about it who nobody wants to speak the bar is silent absolutely and the Collision just goes about its work as if you know everything is hunky-dory so my own feeling is that this is not how really we should there is no doubt that today like Mrs Gandhi Prime Minister Modi is an extremely powerful uh you know leader and naturally every powerful leader would want to perpetuate his power and he doesn't want Judiciary asking him questions about how his policies are how his government's actions are he doesn't want that actually but the judiciary's role as chief justice lady said and has sodhi very beautifully put it judiciary's role is to question them and unless we have a Judiciary which is willing to question them day in and day out you know it's really now look at you know the kind of comments that law Minister the vice president the Lok Sabha speaker have all been making about the Collision there is complete silence on the part of the political class why is it that the political opposition parties are not raising that as a very serious issue while they are wasting their time on law Affair adani of course they should raise about adani but that's a secondary issue the far more serious issue is the attack that the executive is launching every day on the Judiciary so I have I mean I feel sorry to say that this country has gone into some kind of inertia some kind of a coma where we are not interested in a strong and independent Judiciary we do talk look at the kind of I mean effort that has been made in organizing uh this beautiful seminar and some of the finest minds of this country are here but the kind of response that we receive that shows that nobody in this country even in the bar anybody cares the Supreme Court Bar Association has failed to pass any resolution so condemning what the law Minister has been saying which is highly improper highly improper and for law minister to speak about matters being filed in Supreme Court and caution the Supreme Court not to take up it's clearly obstruction of justice to my mind a West Bengal chief minister was found guilty of contempt when he did so many years ago so it's this is a situation which I don't know how yes I agree with Chief Justice lalit that collegium system is perhaps the only solution today although I was against it when I argued in JSC case as president of the Supreme Court bar I did attack the Collision system Justice local was on that bench and I was very Frank about it because I have seen what is happening there are many things which we can't discuss but let us not judge Judiciary and its position or its strengths or weaknesses by looking at some finest examples which are far and few we can't just say that because Justice lalit is so good or Justice is so good or Justice Gupta it's so good Judiciary is in good condition no go down to the high courts complete inertia the kind of you know kind of and kind of approach that judges have the kind of treatment that is give to the bar the kind of I mean lack of Integrity land lack of commitment letter lack of intellectualism all that is you know very very present in large number across the country there are outstanding judges but they are far and few and they are the only ones as a result of which people still have faith in this system in judiciary Judiciary after the Armed Forces according to me is the most loved institution in this country but his Judiciary standing up so you know it's I think if government is interfering there is every responsibility and Duty on the part of the Judiciary to strike back at the government does the Judiciary have that will to strike back in my view no unless Judiciary Strikes Back In few cases you know all these cases if they start issuing contempt notice and you know call upon the secretary Justice to the government of India to appear before it things will start moving but that's not happening and it won't happen because because there is really no will to really take the government head-on so this interference is causing a very serious I I would say effect on rule of law in this country rule of law is seriously getting you know affected look at the challenges that Minority Community is facing today we have over 160 million members from the Muslim Community the kind of treatment which is being faced by them you have seen here yesterday two boys in from Rajasthan were picked up by some bajrang Dal activists allegedly in haryana and burnt alive in their vehicle now all kinds of instances are happening against the minority communities the alleged you know in the name of LH Force conversions large number of Christians and you know Muslims are being arrested across the country judges are unable to stop it judges are unable to stop it they don't get bail for months and years on so on the first day when it is produced I I give a classic example of this young boy Shahrukh Khan's son who has picked up the fir I have seen the fir actually says that he was not having any drug on him at all And yet when he is produced before the magistrate magistrate sends him to demand what and the high court Justified it initially so what can the poor boy ended up spending almost one and a half months in jail or two months in jail now you are destroying that young man for all times to come now nobody is taking action against that Magistrate the Judy hire Judiciary as a duty to suspend that magistrate straight away but it's not being done so these there are millions such examples which we see in newspapers today which we come across today across the country and unless we become strong as a as Citizens you know unless we I mean it's not enough to say that we love Judiciary we must be willing to stand up for our Judiciary we must respect our judges who are so outstanding and courageous and independent at the same time we must discuss also about Judges who are failing Us in more than one way now unless we do that I think this interference by the executive will always continue because you know the executive always has these arrogance that we are perhaps elected by the people and therefore we have a greater right to you know run the Affairs of this country they have never read the Constitution they have never read the constituent assembly debates member after member in the constituent assembly debates and those were outstanding men and women that India has ever seen they spoke about independence of Judiciary they told executive that stop you are not the final word the executive is going to be the final word and they beautifully discuss the role of Judiciary Visa was the executive and the Parliament all that is now singularly forgotten I don't think any uh you know many people really read about these constituent assembly debates many people understand what the Constitution's nuances are look at it I mean we are saying Government after government elected governments are being brought down by winning away and we all know what is the method of winning away 10 20 30 mlas from that popular government and what does the Supreme Court do the flaw test now there is nothing worse than this hypocrisy you know that floor test is going to fail because they have already hijacked those members to Assam in a chartered plane made them sit in seven star hotels and they are going to come and vote for the party whom they have defected from so what is the value of this flow test why can't the Supreme Court be Innovative and say that no in such a situation we can recommend that those who have gone away like this should not be allowed to vote they must first get themselves re-elected then the voting must take place till such time the existing government will continue then only we can stop this kind of political immorality otherwise it's become laughing Affair that seven head governments have been pulled down by bhartiya janta party in various states with this kind of methods and Congress also did it when Congress was in power Governors you know governorism imposed on the state governments by dismissing state governments Congress did it thanks to Judiciary then remaining silent it's happening today so I feel that there are many ways ultimately you know with Judiciary a must uh stand up Judiciary can't say that there is an executive interference and therefore we are unable to do it that will has to come from within and bar is a I would say has a great role to play sadly Barr doesn't have many Prashant bhushan's unfortunately and that's the reason why bar is unable to stand up you know and support the Judiciary or create a public awareness across the country what you need is a movement and a moment where you know people across the country would understand why Judiciary is so important because if you see your neighbor being arrested without any justification and yet you are not able to do anything it's and just remain you know silent about it it's the worst thing to do it's the worst thing to do and that's what is happening someday then it will come to you but we are we are just going along so my my own request to all of us here and particularly to you know the distinguished panelists who are here is that we really need to have a different approach to this challenge it is a very very serious challenge to my mind we have lost the plot I am a pessimist and I don't think that we can really overcome this situation especially with the kind of appointments that have made made in last seven eight years across the high courts and the kind of ideological ideology that has set in to judges in high courts is extremely dangerous extremely dangerous we need only one ideology in our Judiciary constitution of India nothing else and that in my respectful view is singularly absent amongst the Judiciary so unless Judiciary buckles up unless Judiciary you know really tells the government that we are the final word we are the final Arbiter of the Constitution you have no role to play and you have certainly no role to play an appointment of judges because you will make appointments of Judges like you are appointing Governors today I mean look at the behavior of Governor after governor now look at any institution look at Election Commission look at CAG look at any institution where government is making appointments constitutional institutions the worst appointments are being made today now if Government were to be left to appoint them then naturally they will also fill up Judiciary with not even those few people who are coming good people will get appointed so I I feel that I would request Judiciary uh that it must rise to the occasion and perhaps tell the government ultimately that we are the final Arbiter thank you so much

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Id: 8frLkhnWic4

Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 21 2023