Outrage over order in Neeraj Grover case is obvious but not understandable. Judgment’s assessment should not convert into hysterical criticism nor should it mean at malaise towards the judge or the court. Not, certainly, by those who do not know the law or the criminal procedure of the code. No one should take liberty of judging the judges. Not the no knowledge of law journalists at least.
Let’s presume both the situations. One- that the judge in question found Maria to be the killer and still spared her. And two- that he did not find Maria to have planned and executed the crime and still he should have ordered minimum life imprisonment for her. Public perception, courtesy a section of media, is that Maria deserved to given life term if not death. Hence it makes journos raise finger raised on not the wisdom but the integrity of the judge. It’s a condemnation. This by all practical purposes amounts to the contempt of the court. Courts are not taking cognizance of it is entirely a different matter. Their not clarifying the position thru media should not be taken as their weakness.
On kind of evidence produced in the court and the arguments, Judge might have found it to be a case of culpable homicide and not the pre planned murder. What else option he must have had if the prosecution could make it out only an offence of a death arising out some sudden outrage? Can it not be the failure on the part of the prosecution and not the judge, even if it is fit case of brutal murder?
How many of us know that each and every court including the high courts are supervised and inspected by a judge of the superior court. And inspecting judges keep changing every year. Then there is a higher court of appeal even for the high court. Every judge for that matter is accountable to some senior court. Some time appellant court comprising two senior judges. No junior judge, therefore, can escape from the judicial scrutiny of his order. And mind you, these scrutinies are not done on the basis of fear or favor. Nor on the whims or discretion either. No inspecting judge or the appellant court can spare a junior judge, if found wrong with the procedure or the settled law. Just think what would have been the fate of the junior judges had they delivered judgments on the whims and not as per the law. And then what would have been the fate of people? Why we want judges to deliver judgments on the suiting to the public perception and not based on the facts and laws? Why we are scaring them? Why we are creating an environment that they are not secure within?
It may be irrelevant but not out of context that judges, at least upto ADJ level, otherwise also are not working in best of the conditions. They get to the provincial civil services after much tougher tests than the SDMs or the DySPs still they do not get even the same treatment by the respective state governments. Hundreds of them are living in much poorer houses than the other civil servants. Hundreds of them are coming to courts and going home without bare minimum a gun man. Not all have orderlies or even the judgment writer on their disposal. Their spouses won’t be transferred with them for months together, if serving the state establishment. They would be knocking for the accommodations on the doors of from ordinary people to may be criminals if govt houses are not spared from SDMs or even the tehsildars. They have even been challaned by the traffic police for denying SHOs the frequent police remands. Their court rooms san ACs, houses the cleanliness and families the security. For god sake, don’t make them feel insecure amongst the people also. Don’t diminish the dignity of judiciary as a whole. Discuss do good to deliverance if you find wrong but don’t destabilize the establishment. Stop judging the judges by almost illiterate reporters lest the judiciary itself tells you do so!
Writer Jagmohan Phutela is senior journalist
