INDIA - A SUPERPOWER WITHOUT A FAIR JUSTICE SYSTEM

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What prevented India to become a superpower or at least one mega economic power in the world? Well, we all have our takes on it & already and have started cursing- Bureaucracy, Red Tape, Politicians, Corruption, Population, Poverty, Education, Criminalisation of Politics, Activism, Subversion and as many other reason for our failure as a nation. Indeed the list is pretty long and is never exhaustive.

I would just attribute our collective failure as a nation to just one attribute- Failure of Legal & Justice System. Any other trait that we assign is just a collateral damage.

The Legal Web of India is so closely knit that societies are entangled in it. Ask anyone doing business in India who got in the web of Indian Legal system that imposes on its citizens at least 1,540 Laws, 69,250 Compliances Rules & Regulations and almost 6,620 filing needs.

Even Wikipedia publishes with a caveat that “As of January 2017, there were about 1,248 laws. However, since there are Central laws as well as State laws, it is difficult to ascertain their exact numbers as on a given date where it goes on to say “This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Acts_of_the_Parliament_of_India   

All these can be broadly categorised in ten broad legal contours-

1.    Constitutional and administrative law

2.    Criminal laws

3.    Contract laws

4.    Labour laws

5.    Company laws

6.    Property laws

7.    Tax laws ( IT Act, GST Act, CBD Tax , HUF etc. are all part of it)

8.    Trust Laws

9.    Family Personal Laws (Each have its own categories by religion, caste, etc)

10. Nationality Law

 None should get misguided by a small list above for its brevity- as on date they hold about 1,540 Laws identified under these ten categories.

The maximum numbers of Laws are under Labour Laws where 463 Acts are further supplemented by 32,532 compliance needs and 3,048 filing requirements.

We have nearly sixty million MSME governed by the above laws and out of them nearly 90% have employments below five employees. None of the MSME is eased by the compliance matrix of about 9,000 rules that is over and above regulations that demands compliances that are punitive in nature & can jail a business owner.

For business sectors in MSME, compliance cost, legal charges, out of pocket expenses & filing fee stands today at nearly Rupees Fifteen Lakh Crores or about US$ 185 Billion, provided they have not been criminally prosecuted under any rules. That is the ease of doing business after climbing up from 139 to about 80 points.  

Yes, the maximum non compliances and breach of law is not from the Labour Laws, but from the Tax Laws and it suits the legal system to keep the cases pending as a thumbscrew on the assesses for exploitation by the nexus of courts and lawyers. 

We are not done with it yet. We have a thick RED TAPE in Indian Bureaucracy without that no industry can function and can come to a grinding halt in days.

The twelve RED TAPES that ties one down in an Indian environments are-

1.  Licence
2.  Registration
3. Permission
4.  Consent Order
5.  Filing of Periodic Returns
6.  Hang Display Boards
7.  Maintain Register of Activities and Compliances
8.  Filing of Challans
9.  Make Payments
10.  Take Payments
11.  Renewal of Notices
12.  Giving & Taking of Notices 

Therefore, it is important to understand the legal system of India right from the top – The Constitution of India & at the bottom of it- The Specific Laws and how regressive & unproductive it has become.

Without a clear understanding of it, the Judge is not capable to dispense justice, hence they push the envelopes to a next dates & more dates. Giving a time bound just and fair verdict is not the DNA of Indian Judicial System. Justice maybe is blind- but Judges do have eyes and ears!!!

Not that the lawyers are competent- in 99% cases they are more interested in expanding the billing cycle by getting additional dates from the Judges and not in its early and fair settlements.

There are 59,900 cases pending in the Supreme Court, and 4.8 million cases in various high courts. At the district and subordinate court levels, the number of pending cases stands at a shocking 31.5 million.

Our public representative that we assign the status of “Law Maker”, one third or more of them are non graduate and nearly as many are having criminal cases pending against them. Out of the 539 winners in Lower House of 2019, 233 MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The total MLA’s representing states are 4,123 and 1,347 out of them are having criminal records. Overall, more than one MLA out of three has declared through a sworn affidavit his criminal cases pending against him / her!!!

Neither pending criminal cases nor lack of educational qualifications debar the MP/MLA’s from contesting and secure a seat in the house of public representations. That is Indian election system that doesn’t have any benchmark for criminality against a Law Maker and neither does it put any educational qualification for the “Law Maker”. What quality discussions & debates can we expect out of them?

These are the passing reference to know the quality of MLA & MPs and consequently the ability of Parliament and Assemblies to frame laws to govern the nation. 

Sensing such gaping holes in the parliamentary systems where ill gotten money, coercion, social nuisance & open criminalities have become norms, especially after the advent of coalition politics, parliamentarians and criminals first colluded and became an “accomplice duo” in Hindi heartlands and occupied public space.

They were then joined by businessmen needing protection & favour throwing all cautions to wind when a person like Vijay Mallya was nominated to the committee of aviation ministry is just an example. There was no conflict of interest seen!!!

It almost became a deluge in last thirty years when retired bureaucrats, judges, criminals, retired generals, chief secretaries to GOI , RBI governors et all- wanted a parliamentary seat or at least a post retirement position of an ambassador, chairmanship of government bodies, seat on a committee, private trusts like BCCI or even a governorship.

The Parliamentarians are happy to oblige them for a price and adequate favours.

Hardly any senior government official, bureaucracy, PSU Chief and criminal are left untouched and they all indulge in “accomplice politics” bending at the knees to become a stooge to become our public representative.

Icing on the cake was recent nomination of CJI Ranjan Gogoi in the pandemic to Upper House who took the Upper House nomination within weeks of his retirement.

Past CJI & SCJ have cried at the knee of uneducated politicians at public functions for seeking gubernatorial positions and have been accommodated as governors, ambassadors, Chairmanship of NGT and in various ministries as advisors etc.

The list is endless and not exhaustive who have sought favour from the power.   

Our legal system is now becoming a commodity in an auction- bid –pay and take.

It has little room for common citizen & justice is dispensed only to be turned on its head in a higher court at the earliest opportune, while being denied to thousands daily.

But that is just one side of the story; Justice in India today is served on a platter to those who matter and can afford to fund it.

We are living the era of à la carte justice system. A system tailor made for those who are willing to pay for getting a favourable order from Apex Court within 24 hours within opening of court for 2 G trails or for coalmine allocation. All is on sale- Cash & Carry.  

Or even restrain orders on sex tapes of a Minister who sought sexual favours for out of turn promotion from an intern so that facts are taken down from public domain as it tarnishes their images. Just pay and make it disappear from Google also.

Even CJI throttled a case of sexual discrimination & favours for one of his assistants, where the CJI was heading the bench and the Judge and Jury become one and the same. It is one of the most unbecoming of behaviour from an apex legal office that India looks forward to as a protector of Law and upholding the Justice System for people of India who still look at such high offices in Judiciary with some hope. 

And yet, a common victim of rape, molestation and outrage of modesty of an ordinary daughter of India become a topic of public debate outraging her modesty on prime time TV for days together. We have become so numb that we do not even blink an eyelid.

When a Judiciary becomes an elitists club for conveniences to cater to a specific elements of a society that are mighty and powerful, then the shield of democracy has become porous and is just a few steps away from collapse of established systems to just suit a few.

It is then not fair and just for all, but becomes an overburdened system where cases are pending still from 1878- almost 142 years!!! This is the legacy of our judiciary that has now more than 38 million cases pending in all courts- a few thousands, plus or minus, would not matter. It is a luggage & not a legacy.

Judiciary when is unable to stand public censure for its action, then in a democracy – it is a travesty of justice with loss of face and values in the democratic institutions. It is undermined and its institutions are rendered ineffective when criminals control them.

The people must have faith in the impartiality of our judiciary systems, if we are to have order in our society. Public safety depends on our collective faith in fairness and our view of the law as legitimate tool for equality.

Somewhere along the way, the balance between the prosecution, the defence, and the judiciary has shifted so much so that justice just slips off from the hands of institutions responsible for guarding it.

So with the fundamental question, with which I began, what has prevented India to become a superpower or at least one mega economic power in the world?

 I said just one attribute- Failure of Legal & Justice System responsible for complete destruction of democratic institutions in this country & what is this country without democracy? In such case, can we be globally competitive ever, leave alone XYZ?

Point to ponder for all of us and to ponder over the points when justice is a social contract of expediency entered upon to prevent from harming or being harmed. 

 

14 July 2020.