NEW DELHI, Dec 6:
Wading into the raging row on intolerance, Chief Justice of India T S Thakur today said it is a “political issue” and that there is no need to fear till the judiciary is “independent” and the rule of law prevails.
“Yeh siyasi pahlu hain (this is a political issue). We have a rule of law. So long as rule of law is there, so long as there is an independent judiciary and so long as courts are upholding the rights and obligations, I do not think anyone has to fear for anything,” the CJI said in an informal interaction with journalists here.
“I am heading the institution which upholds the rule of law and the rights of every citizens will be protected… I think, we are capable of protecting the rights of all sections of people. My institution is capable of upholding the rights of citizens,” Justice Thakur said.
The CJI said the issue of intolerance is a matter of “perception” and “Siyasi log iska kaise upyog karten hain, main kuch nahi kehna chahunga (I do not want to comment anything as to how politicians use this).
He said, “India is a big country, we should not be afraid of anything. These are all matters of perception. There is nothing to fear till the judiciary is independent.”
“But, we are committed to uphold the rule of law and protect right of all citizens of the society and people from all creeds and religions. There is no fear to any section of society,” Justice Thakur said.
Observing that certain rights are available even to non- citizens, including terrorists, he said they are the beneficiaries of the rule of law and can be tried only in conformity of law and “cannot be hanged” without due process.
“In so far as we are concerned, we have no such impediments. We have no such bias and we have no such reluctance. We can protect the rights of all citizens,” he said while specifically answering questions on the recent trends and the issue of intolerance.
Making it clear that he was not referring to any particular incident, the CJI said this country has been home to all religions and even those who were persecuted in other countries have “thrived” here.
The Chief Justice said “people persecuted in other societies, have come here and thrived. We have Parsis and their contributions are immense. We have legal luminaries and industrialists. We have people upholding rule of law like F S Nariman, Nani Palkhivala and you know their contributions.”
In response to a question as to why the Supreme Court or the High Courts did not take suo moto cognizance of recent murders of some writers, he said, “an order of the Supreme Court or the High Court cannot stop the crime. Crime has been part of human life. Till the time there are humans, there will be confrontation. That keeps going on.”
“Some frailty and animal instincts are there in human minds, but there should be spirit of tolerance in an inclusive society and mutual respect and faith in each other’s religions. That should be promoted and we can progress only then,” Thakur said.
He also referred a Muslim scholar who had translated the ‘Bhagwad Gita’ and referred to a couplet from his Urdu translation of the holy book to drive home the point of Lord Krishna that all religions despite having different paths led to one Almighty.
“So Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism, all lead to the same God,” he said.
Deviant behaviour and corruption by judges would not be tolerated, Thakur said while making it clear that benefit of doubt will be given to the institution and not to individuals.
Maintaining that among the top-most challenges for him as the CJI was to maintain the “credibility” of the judiciary, Justice Thakur said “there are some misgivings whether the system is tolerant towards few judges’ conduct and deviant behaviour” and this has to be dispelled with.
“Deviant behaviour, bribery and corruption by judges are some of the issues. We will be very intolerant towards deviant behaviour, bribery and corruption,” he said.
Listing out the challenges facing the judiciary, the CJI said “it is not so easy to cleanse the system” but “you can really bring the guilt to home” and “benefit of doubt will be given to institution and not to the individuals.”
He said people who are suspect can offer reasoning in their favour.
Asked about the alleged deviant behaviour of Justice C S Karnan of the Madras High Court, Justice Thakur, without naming anybody, said “we will take note of it and take corrective measure. Whoever, he may be. Be it a person from Kashmir or Kanyakumari.”
He said in-house procedures were “fairly accurate” but more important was their implementation for dealing with the allegedly errant judges.
On the ongoing controversial issue of collegium system, the CJI was seemingly sceptical about the apex court’s Constitution Bench’s nod that the collegium can go ahead with appointment of judges in higher judiciary till it delivered its order on the issue of improving the existing mechanism.
“They (Bench) said that the collegium can proceed. They did not say that collegium should proceed. Personally, I would like to wait for the judgement,” he said when asked about the high-voltage proceedings on the issue of collegium system and pendency of vacancies.
He also said he would like to know the views of the presiding judges of the bench as to how “I am expected to work on the issue.”
Further, Justice Thakur said that arrears of cases was a problem and there was a need to fix a time-frame for disposal of civil and criminal matters.
He also spoke on the misuse of Public Interest Litigation (PIL), saying judges dealing with PILs have to be extremely careful in seeing that writs are not for personal grievances and scrutinise who is acting as a front for whom to sabotage the “effective weapon” of PIL which is meant for addressing the general grievances.
“PIL is an effective weapon like if you give a knife to a surgeon, he will use it to save several lives. But if the knife is given to a butcher …,” he said, while elaborating the benefit as well as drawbacks of the PILs which in recent times, he felt, have been financed by proxies. (PTI)
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