Tamil
Nadu chief minister and AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam) leader Jayalalithaa was finally convicted in a disproportionate
asset case. It was an 18-year-long battle. The FIR was filed in 1996 for the
financial irregularities she and her aids committed during her first stint
as CM of Tamilnadu (1991-96). For the last few decades, misuse of public money has become a norm in the Indian political class. Corruption is
very rampant at all levels in every state and at the center, no matter which
government is in power. Therefore, these recent judgments especially this one
and the one about the former Bihar CM Laloo Prasad Yadav can be considered landmark judgments
in the political history of India, if this trend continues. I
am sure that no one can deny the importance and need of strict vigilance
and robust mechanisms to catch and punish corrupt politicians and other administrators. This can help
to tame the rampant corruption which has become a norm in India.
The
judgment which was delivered a few days back took almost 18 years to come, and
this is a session court, now the convict can appeal to the High Court and then to the Supreme Court. It took 18 years for one court to deliver the judgment so
imagine how much time it will take for this case to go through all three
courts. Such a long
delay in delivering judgments is a serious problem
of the Indian judiciary system. Jayalalithaa was doing
a very good job as a Tamil Nadu CM when this judgment came.
If one takes a look at central government data her state is a
leading state based on many indicators that measure the progress of Indian states. The hysterical reaction of her supporters after her arrest was also a
real shocker for me, some of them even took the extreme step of
taking their own life as they could not tolerate the news of their beloved
leader's arrest. Such delayed delivery of justice does create unique
situations like this and at the same time raises some serious questions. What
is the real purpose of punishing any convict? Is it just
to hurt them? Is it to make them realize their mistake and then give them an
opportunity to reform themselves by correcting those mistakes? Is it to set an
example for others so that they don't dare to commit the same mistake? Is it to
eliminate them from society (in the case of capital punishment)?
It all
comes down to what is the purpose of punishment and does such
delayed delivery of justice serve that purpose? Are
we punishing the same corrupt Jayalalithaa who committed this crime? Was
she already a reformed person when she finally got punished? If she has
already realized her mistake and is a reformed person then what purpose does
this delayed punishment will serve? Due to the nature of the legal structure in
India, she will now apply to a higher court and then come out of jail on bail so there is a doubt if this example will act as a deterrent to other politicians? She was relatively
new to politics when she made this mistake and that's why it might have been easy to convict her. Otherwise, these politicians and
corrupt bureaucrats are so clever that they rarely leave any evidence of their
corruption, which is why it is difficult to convict them in any criminal case
as there is no direct evidence to prove their crime. There is no doubt that it
is good to see that such judgments are finally coming, but the judiciary has to
make these decisions fast. Justice delivered in time can have the desired impact on
the perpetrator and victims. If it is not timely, then one wonders if delayed justice is justice at all. I have no sympathy for Jayalalithaa for
the crimes she did but I feel bad for the people of Tamil Nadu who were getting
good governance and now feel cheated by this judgment as they feel that the system
unfairly targeted only their leader. The judiciary needs to remove this doubt from
people's minds by delivering verdicts promptly. Also, targeting politicians only from certain political parties is a political prosecution as you are at risk only when you are not with the ruling party, either in the state or in the center. There are thousands of
people waiting in jails for their trials and this is a very serious
problem. Government and judiciary should work together to resolve this
problem.
So in this case, it is not clear whether justice is delayed, denied, or
misplaced (delivered at the wrong time). I don't think it is denied as she got
punished for her crimes but the other two scenarios are also equally disturbing. I
ask this question because I am really concerned about the delay in delivering justice. I think that it defeats the whole purpose behind it. These types of
incidents remind me of a poem in Marathi, I can’t recall the exact poem as it is,
don't remember its poet but I think it was something like this,
A lawyer
meets a 65-year-old lady outside the court after the judgment was delivered in her
favor punishing all 10 people involved in a gang rape against her. He
congratulates her and says that she must be happy that finally justice is delivered,
she won the case, and all culprits are finally punished. She says, "Son, I
am happy if you say so. But really I don’t know whether to be happy or sad,
this gang rape was done on a 16-year-old girl, 5 of the guilty lived a normal life
and are already dead, 3 of them are so old that they can’t do anything on their
own, this punishment doesn't mean anything to them, remaining two are doting
grandfathers for their grandkids, now I am feeling bad that they will go to
jail and those kids will miss them, and as far as that girl is concerned she
already suffered enough because of this crime, lived her adolescent life in
guilt, shame, and trauma, she waited for this justice too long but she is now a
grown-up woman who learned to live her life with this scar, but if you say so
I am happy as I won this case and finally justice is delivered"
Justice delayed is justice denied. Only time will tell if this is a new beginning to end corruption or just an arbitrary incident that will be only used as a tool to intimidate political opponents.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Only time will tell if this is a new beginning to end corruption or just an arbitrary incident that will be only used as a tool to intimidate political opponents.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
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Oh great! What an article!
ReplyDeleteIn Jayalitha's case justice has been delayed. And this delay is not serve its purpose. Given at the wrong time, may be. But sure this 18 years time is too much. In this time it may be that Jaylilitha has undergone a change herself. She may have repented long time back. And may be she is a changed person now. Courth should look into all this mater together.
I also feel that apart from lawyers we need also well trained psycologists. Courts sometimes look at matters only from pure objective way as if 1+1=2. We need combined work of psycologists and judges to look into matters. I look at it this way. It is only suggestion.
When an offence is committed there are two things happening: 1. Offence itself and 2. Mentality of the offender.
Plus I would add 3. Past of offender.
Court should look at the ofence. Psycologists should study the mentality and also try to collect information about offender's past just before crime is committed. This will help us understand the motive behind crime.
Balance should be achieved between these 3 factors. Plus I would suggest we shoudl set deadlines for certain crimes at least. Like in the poem on rape if justice comes at 65 when the crime was committed at 16, the judge should have committed suicide before he gives such judgment. Crimes like rape should be solved at esrliest so that victim feels worth of justice.
Only one thing I differ in your article. It is:
[[The hysterical reaction of her supporters after her arrest is also a real shocker for me, some of them even took the extreme step of taking their own life as they can not tolerate the news of their beloved leader's arrest.]]
These people are so attached to Jayallitha because she was actress earlier. People there are crazy for actors. Even they build temple for actress Khushbu temple. So we can understand mentality of people there.
The poem was nice. Can you find out the poet or where I can find it??
- K. Sreenivasa
Thanks a lot K. Sreenivasa for sharing your thoughts on this topic. You have raised some very important points here. I think they do the psycho analysis if the offender is juvenile (below the age of 18) on regular basis but it is not a routine procedure if the offender is an adult person. The judicial process is so slow without any such analysis so imagine if we add these things how slow it will become. We really need to speed up judicial process in India. Many important cases drag for years without any conclusion. People misuse loopholes in legal system to their advantage, many poor suffer because they don't have resources with them to fight their legal battles but many rich and powerful use all their resources to escape the law. I hope concerned authorities will look into this matter seriously and sincerely and take some concrete steps to improve the delivery mechanism of the system.
DeleteThanks a lot for clarifying the possible reason behind hysterical reaction of some of Jayalalithaa's supporters. I was little surprised that some of them were willing to take their own lives to protest against her arrest.
I tried really hard to search for that poem on internet but I couldn't find it anywhere. Neither I remember exact wording of it nor I remember the name of poet but the central theme was delay in justice doesn't serve its purpose. Many be in some cases it gets delayed for some valid reasons but definitely there is a problem when every case takes decades to come to final conclusion. May be that is the reason that in spite of having so many laws we don't see any reduction in crime.
Thanks again for sharing your views on this topic, your input is very valuable in this discussion. Keep on sharing your thoughts like this. With discussion and debates only we can improve things around us.