As the adage goes, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Fact is, Indian courts are notorious for delayed dispensation of ‘justice’ and this effectively means a denial of justice. The latest to cite is the life imprisonment awarded by a Delhi court to former Congress MP, Sajjan Kumar, in a murder case linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The mass murders were in retaliation to the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Some 40 years have passed after the incidents that saw the cold-blooded murder of over 2000 Sikhs. After 34 years, Sajjan Kumar was jailed in Tihar in respect of one such murder, while the present conviction is linked to two other murders. To his luck or ill-luck, he is still alive, but many other accused in the cases are already dead and gone without facing punishment from the court. Among them was another Congress veteran, HKL Bhagat, a warlord in the capital’s old Delhi region, who passed away in 2005. A media frenzy is now likely, highlighting a view that “justice has been meted out to a victim’s family,” through this conviction. In reality, the obverse has happened. The case might not end even here and Sajjan Kumar will have more opportunities to go in appeal and up to the Supreme Court.
Over 10 years ago, the then Supreme Court chief justice did a chest-beating through a statement that some four crore cases were pending in Indian courts for unending periods. The number could obviously be much more now, as the Narendra Modi dispensations never took such things seriously. The overall scenario versus India’s justice dispensation system has only gone from bad to worse under Modi’s watch. Reform was the way forward. Manmohan Singh had passed a bill in parliament to introduce a national judicial appointments commission in 2014 to oversee the recruitment, appointment and transfer of judicial officers (judges) – by way of a replacement to the largely controversial collegium system where judges themselves appointed judges. Modi bravely put this legislation in cold storage. The judicial system thus is not only ailing but is riddled with corrupt practices even as there are several judges across the board who are incorruptible.
It must also be noted in the present context that the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case has dragged on for over 20 years, even as the arrested accused were Sri Lankans. This is the scenario of justice dispensation even in a situation of assassination of the nation’s prime minister by foreign hands. It would appear that vested interests have the leeway to play with the systems and have the last laugh. Notably, when influential persons are put in jail, they get VIP treatment there, and they will also have the option of checking into a hospital suite to spend the rest of their life there with full comforts. Occasional bails would suffice for them to move around as well.
