A few court orders in last fortnight or so made news. Some of these are being rejoiced as victories of democracies. But is that so? We may take a closer look !!
"The Court’s own consistent delays in not treating constitutional malevolence as being urgent contribute to this sense of normalisation.
Even if it occasionally produces a good judgment on behalf of democracy, as it did in the electoral bonds case, it has helped create a culture where a good institutional decision is a surprise, not something we routinely expect." -- says Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
A big hype has been created about the court verdicts on Chandigarh mayoral polls or electoral bonds; but what about real tough cases -- somehow a perception has gained ground and there is whispering that in crucial cases such as Art 370, the winner has been the government of the day.
Even with regard to the latest Manipur High Court 'deleting' the portion of earlier order of March 2023 vis-a-vis ST status of Meiteis has come 'late' and has still not done away with the spirit of the quota for the Hindu Meiteis.
A single bench of High Court of Manipur by Justice Golmei Gaiphulshillu had on Wednesday ordered the removal of a paragraph from the March 27, 2023 order passed by the then Acting Chief Justice MV Muralidharan which directed the state government to consider the inclusion of the Meitei community in the scheduled tribe list.
One legal interpretation is that
--- The directive given by Justice Murlidharan on March 27, 2023 in Paragraph 17 (ii) which stated ‘The first respondent is directed to submit the recommendation in reply to the letter dated May 29, 2013 of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India’ ..... -- still stands.
Coming to Pratap Bhanu Mehta again, he also says:
"It is a measure of how low the Court had sunk that two straightforward decisions come as something of a relief. It will be heartening if this trend continues, and if other institutions feel similarly empowered to do their constitutional duties. But there is also a danger of premature celebration. Decisions like these may, at best, be a tactical reprieve. They do not portend a pathway to regeneration just yet." (Indian Express)
Analysts and political opponents of BJP now say, 'courts after courts' in Narendra Modi's 'new India' are backing the Hindu side of the story and litigation.
"The Supreme Court verdict on Abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir was an insult to the history of the judiciary in the country," says Marxist leader M A Baby.
"Without resorting to Fascism directly, PM Modi will get his job done. Even the Supreme Court ensures to pronounce verdicts that do not cause any harm to the PM".
Well, Baby's contention is not in isolation.
Today, in India the 'sense' of reasoning based on the grounding of facts is a fast vanishing commodity.
Faith is more vital.
In fact, analysts are arguing "how much importance" ought to be given to the element of Faith especially when it comes to conflict between majority Hindus and other religious minorities especially Muslims.
Whether a Faith is justified or not -- in effect lies beyond the ken -- that is one's range of knowledge - of any judicial probe.
Faith is a matter for the individual believer. This cannot be synonymous even among blood brothers.
The Ayodhya Ram temple verdict of 2019 was based on Faith -- essentially. Now such a thing has started surfacing even for what was once a Shiva temple in Varanasi.
There are other temples such as a former Lord Krishna temple in Mathura -- also in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh -- which is notorious for religious polarisation.
"...any half-correct decision provides a sliver of hope to hang on to. But one swallow does not a summer make.
Perhaps this point of view is too cynical or graceless. For the sake of Indian democracy, I hope this point of view is wrong. But in the current context, we should not fall prey to the comfort of easy victories. The public reception of the judgments must send this signal.
While they are welcome, they ought not to merely be an episodic legitimisation of the façade of constitutionalism. They need to be part of a pattern that challenges the consolidation of authoritarianism and communalism wherever it matters," says the 'Indian Express' article by Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
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