Thursday, August 14, 2014

Where Do We Really Go ?


The recent revelations about Supreme Court judges and their collegium selection system have left me stunned and speechless.

 Indian constitution holds this court as the final authority as far as judiciary is concerned and expects to be the go all and end all for everything under disputes.

Being the ultimate wise men with highest level of expertise on constitutional matters, common people consider the verdicts delivered by Supreme Court judges as the final ones considering they cannot go wrong. 

When one reads about some of these otherwise respected lot are either compromised or corrupted, the soil under the feet is simply taken away. These supposedly infallible set of people, once being held in high esteem, are showing up just like any other common person- prone to be influenced by bribes or other external factors. The recent startling facts also reveal  the out of the way measures taken to either appoint incompetent judges in highest level or give undue favors to inept representatives under political duress. The once iron willed institution today is under the scanner like many other corporate or social organizations.

On one side, Supreme court has ben appreciated for taking up the cudgels to drive the country towards prosperity providing direction to parliament – the executive arm of the country (though some say it is overstepping the limits drawn between executive and judiciary), on the other side, it has been exposed that they are not above the very basic human nature of greed and power exposing its cruel teeth and nails.

The common man is perplexed and asking a question.

Where do we really go?

 Who do we really look up to?

Yesterday Lok Sabha passed the landmark bill, ratified by Rajya Sabha today, to scrap Collegium system – judges appointing judges and to be substituted by a 6 member committee.

While I do not know if the new committee will be any better, it is high time, this institution look inside to cleanse the system and get back its erstwhile respectful image in the eyes of the public.