Aiding and abetting contempt

One of the great national delusions which according to self-serving propagandists of socialist post-independence India, distinguishes this country from communist China, third world dictatorships and Middle East satrapies, is that it is served by a magnificent, free and independent judiciary. But the plain truth is that commendably democratic India‚s judicial system is the slowest justice dispensation system in the world with a pending backlog of 30 million cases, most of which have been trapped in the coils of the sytem for decades. Instead of addressing this problem and demanding its resolution, their lackadaisical lordships of the Supreme Court and the upper judiciary are pre-occupied with stifling public criticism by invoking self-defined contempt of court laws. The latest example of misuse of judicial power is the sentence passed by the Delhi high court against four journalists of the Delhi edition of Mid-Day, an afternoon daily in the national capital, for contempt of recently retired chief justice of India Y. K. Sabharwal and by implication of the Supreme Court. The daily had reported widespread allegations that in his last days in office, Sabharwal had passed orders sealing business premises in residential areas of Delhi which had benefited his businessmen sons. Taking suo motu cognizance of the Mid-Day reports, a bench of the Delhi high court ruled that the four journalists had denigrated and committed contempt of the Supreme Court and the judicial system as a whole. Curiously while hauling up the Mid-Day journalists for contempt of the former chief justice and the Supreme Court, the learned justices of the Delhi high court have not taken cognizance of signed articles in the press by former apex court judge V. R. Krishna Iyer and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan who have publicly demanded investigation of corruption charges against the former chief justice. Cocooned in their ivory towers, their delusional lordships seem unaware that by neglecting to cleanse the augean stables of the justice system, they are aiding and abetting rising public contempt of the judiciary. Common man‚s canIn the chronically mal-administered republic of rackets that is contemporary, sanctimonious India, the common man ‚ or aam admi whose interests the Congress party which heads the 17-party coalition government ruling in New Delhi claims to represent ‚ is being openly and continuously deprived of his life savings by unholy coalitions of politicians, babus and real estate racketeers. This flagrant racket was briefly exposed when copious rains lashed the garden city of Bangalore in mid September. Following heavy flooding of several arterial roads, it was discovered that a large number of homes including multi-storied apartment complexes had been illegally constructed over storm-water drains in several areas of the city. Quite clearly babus in the land records office of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (municipal corporation) had been bribed to manipulate land records and titles by the city‚s notorious fraternity of builders to clear their construction projects. But following widespread public protests over heavy flooding of city roads during the recent downpour, BBMP demolition squads razed 16 buildings…