'Honeymoon' That Makes Serious Reading

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sometimes the cover of a book can be deceptive. Normally the title of a book is made catchy to attract the attention of the readers. But what can you say about a serious book having a cumbersome rather embarrassing title like ‘Honeymoon’ by Sushil Chand Shrivastav, an officer in the secretariat of Uttar Pradesh? I hesitated to read this book for more than two years because of its cover title but during this summer vacation, I started reading the book and found it to be amazingly good, highly informative and replete with shlokas, chaupais and folk idioms. The story of the novelette begins with a daughter of an air force officer, who laid down his life in the service of Mother India in the 1971 war and an idealist Sooraj, a son of the retired Vice-Principal of a College.

One marvel at the description of the scenario that was built around and after the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. It is like a refreshing memory for those who have witnessed the blackouts and horrors of the war like the huge influx of refugees from the then East Pakistan. For youngsters, the book gives a graphic description of conditions which prevailed in India in the early seventies. It swells the heart of every Indian with pride over the sacrifices and valour of the army, navy and air force of the country.

 Through Sooraj, the book takes the readers on a spiritual journey as he once finds himself engrossed in religiosity and then after some time gets disenchanted with the hypocrisy and superstitious behaviour of the so-called saints.  

The book also portrays the sordid and sad saga of the hopeless judicial system, which to say the least, is very realistic. The way some clever people frustrate the purpose of justice by dragging the cases in courts for years and decades has been very beautifully narrated by the writer. Justice is not only denied by adopting the tactics of delay, but it also brings enormous misery, pain, suffering and despondency among the litigants. In fact, sensitivity finds no place in the justice delivery system. It is seen that over the years judges and advocates become part of the grinding judicial system instead of providing any succour to the sufferers.

In between the book contains some thrilling events in the tourist places like Goa but it can be safely said that the book does not contain any ingredients of the cheap and pulp fiction. It does not titillate but compels us to think and ponder over the problems. The writer will do well to change the cover title of the book, which may truly reflect its contents, although it is his prerogative and yet the reader certainly has the right to make suggestions.

 

 

 

Remove the Rot from the Allahabad High Court

 Justice Markandeya Katju once remarked about the Allahabad High Court, quoting the Hamlet of Shakespeare, that there was something rotten in the state of Denmark (paraphrase it with Allahabad High Court). There are three recent incidents related to the Allahabad High Court which further reinforce the comments of Justice Katju. Although he has not been considered a tongue-tied judge, yet it isn't easy to disagree with his views on Allahabad High Court.                                                                 

 Just think over it. Is it not ridiculous to request the astrology department of Lucknow University to determine whether a woman, who is an alleged rape victim is a ‘ Manglik ‘ or not? In this case, a person, who has been sexually exploiting a woman on the pretext of marrying her refused to marry on the most bizarre ground of her being ‘ Manglik’ ( a horoscope condition being born under the influence of mars(mangal). This was a case of cheating, fraud and rape by the man, but the High Court lent credence to his most stupid logic of woman. When he was repeatedly raping the woman by holding out the assurance of marrying her, he should have been tried and punished, if found guilty, under those provisions instead of verifying the horoscope computability of the man and woman.

The way, the High Court passed the order to find out whether she was ‘Manglik’ or not is atrocious, illogical and shameful. The country must be thankful to the Supreme Court of India that it took Suo moto cognisance of the appalling order of the High Court. The Supreme Court bench sat on Saturday and stayed the High Court order. Since the order is in the public domain, so every citizen has got the right to comment on such unheard-of order.

 Justice cannot be bereft of humanitarian consideration. It cannot afford to be asinine.  In the Supreme Court, it is commonly seen that if anybody has undergone long imprisonment or is too old, infirm or suffering from incurable diseases or may die soon due to those reasons, the prisoner is released to be at peace with his family.  But a 90-year-old man has been convicted in a 42-year-old case of mixing water in milk by the Allahabad High Court under the Food Adulteration Act. The convict has been sentenced to six months imprisonment and a penalty of Rs two thousand.   The person has been arrested a decade after the High Court order. This is a sad reflection on the functioning of the judicial system that a nonagenarian, who is seriously ill has been arrested on the orders of the High Court.

In the third instance, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court Sudhir Agrawal said that there was a lot of pressure on him to buy time and not pronounce the judgment on the Ayodhya tangle. It is said that judges speak through their judgments, and they do not offer any explanation but here is boasting about his imaginary courage It may be noted that a three-judge bench of Allahabad High Court consisting of Justices S U Khan, Sudhir Agrawal and Daram Veer Sharma had delivered a 2:1 verdict on 30^th September 2010. Justice Agrawal now says that there was tremendous pressure on him from family members as well as from outside, not to have pronounced the judgement on the Ayodhya issue. He claims that if he had not given a verdict then, the issue could not have been resolved for two hundred years. One wonders how a retired High Court judge can make such infantile claims. It is only the minority judgment of Justice Dharam Veer Sharma that would be considered a landmark and that was what has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Otherwise, the majority judgement of Justices Khan and Agrawal was a specimen of a bad ambiguous and unimplementable verdict. Justice Khan and Agrawal’s names will go down in judicial history as judges without any clarity.

However, what is all the more condemnable is that Agrawal is not coming out with the names of external pressures that were brought upon him. Such judges try to take the credit for which they do not have any right to boast. Justice Agrawal has, in fact, made himself a butt of jokes by such an absurd claim and thereby he has brought a bad name to the judiciary, particularly to his parent High Court of Allahabad.  Such judges should be openly taken to task so as to maintain public confidence in the judiciary.

 

Female Wrestlers are Doing Injustice to the System and Eroding their Trust.

 

  Justice has to be dispassionate. It cannot be allowed to succumb to the demands of a mob or yield to agitations. The sit-in dharna of some wrestlers against the WFI chairman Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for more than a month demanding his arrest and removal from his present post cannot, in all fairness, be acceded to. The complaint against Singh is that he outraged the modesty of a minor girl and sexually exploited many of the female wrestlers. It may or may not be true, but sexual exploitation of girls and that too, of any minor girl is certainly a serious matter. It is a cognisable and non-bailable offence. Nevertheless, the Police have no power to arrest the person unless something tangible is found against him in the preliminary enquiry. More so, when the allegations have been made many months after the commitment of the said crime or offence.

 The Supreme Court has accepted the petition of the wrestlers that an FIR against Brij Bhushan Singh should be lodged which must be enquired. If any truth is found in the allegations, then and then alone Singh can be arrested. But in the meantime, the demand for female wrestlers has acquired political overtones. Many busybodies have also swung into action. These agitators must understand that justice cannot be held ransom by pressure tactics. Justice has not only to be done but must also appear to have been done.

 Nobody knows -who ill-advised these wrestlers to move their agitation from Jantar Mantar to the place of the New Parliament, which was to be dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister on the 28^th of May. It was not only a national but an international event, which was seen on TV Channels by the whole world. Could Delhi Police have permitted such a spectacle to happen in the full glare of the media? Certainly not. If the Police had allowed it, then it would have placed itself in an extremely bad light. No civilised law enforcement agency could have taken that shameful risk. Thus, Delhi Police did what it ought to have done. However, the most surprising is why the wrestlers who have brought glory to the country thought of shifting the place of agitation to the new parliament building.

 The wrestlers and their advisers must now ask the police to file the chargesheet. If anything, grave is found against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the law will certainly take its own course because then it would be difficult for him to escape the dragnet. Even otherwise he is openly saying that if he is found guilty, he would himself get hanged. Although the punishment of hanging himself is not permissible, the least that can be expected from him is that he will cooperate in the investigation and not flee from the punishment.

 Therefore, the wrestlers must allow the law to take its own course and they must keep themselves away from the politicians and Khaps. It will reinforce the confidence of the countrymen among them. Their antics of throwing the medals in the Ganges have been all the more unfortunate. They must also understand that the prestige of the country is also attached to their medals, and they cannot rub the honour of the country the wrong way.  No legal system worth its name can dispense justice under the pressure of Khaps and politicians because that will seriously damage and erode the faith of the judicial system.