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.
All these can be
broadly categorised in ten broad legal contours-
1.
Constitutional
and administrative law
7.
Tax laws ( IT
Act, GST Act, CBD Tax , HUF etc. are all part of it)
9.
Family
Personal Laws (Each have its own categories by religion, caste, etc)
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-
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.
