The Hindu : A flawed system

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 11, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

A flawed system

Sir, — By any rational standard, the performance of the Indian judicial system is flawed. The bench, the bar and the law-makers too have not enforced the rule of law. For that reason, the media has the public on its side when it criticises the way the Supreme Court has treated Arundhati Roy.

The media has taken the high moral stand on the primacy of freedom of speech. Will it be happy to accord the same privilege to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad? Will the media support the VHP if it were to defy the Supreme Court judgment in the manner Ms. Roy did?

She organised a dharna in front of the court. Will it be acceptable if any of our politicians under trial were to follow her example and get a mob to intimidate the judges?

Gandhiji was the architect of civil disobedience. He defied the law again and again but never a judge.

On the contrary, when he himself was arraigned, he asked the judge to do his duty and impose the maximum sentence in law. Instead of criticising the judge who condemned Bhagat Singh to death, he asked Bhagat Singh to accept the punishment. Gandhiji was aware that no society can flourish unless the judiciary is respected and obeyed.

Through personal example, he saw to it that the struggle for independence did not harm the judicial system in any way.

What Ms. Roy has done, and what the media is advocating, is liable to end in anarchy. The judges may be flawed; Ms. Roy may be great.

Yet, our nation is safer with a judiciary that goes by the rules than with a writer who accepts no rules.

P. V. Indiresan,
New Delhi

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