Buckling Judiciary

[Nutan Thakur]

Justice Mehtab Singh Gill is a honoured Judge of the Punjab and
Haryana High Court. In 2002 when the infamous Punjab Public Service
Commission Recruitment scam came into limelight and the Punjab
Vigilance Bureau caught hold of stacks of money, going into crores
from the Banks lockers of Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu alias Ravi Sidhu, a
former journalist and the then Chairman of the PPSC, of the many
startling facts that came out in the open was that Justice Gill was
also a beneficiary of the free-job boom where one of his relatives was
wrongly provided job in Punjab civil service. He was not alone. There
were also Justice Amarbir Singh Gill and M L Singhal to give him
company.
These sad news had pained the then Chief Justice of the High Court, B
L Saharya so much that he had got a detailed and discreet in-house
enqiuiry conducted. While his enquiry proved the complicity of the
above three Judges, it also showed him that Justice Mehtab Singh had
the habit of “flaunting his official position” and “tendency to
interfere in matters of local administration” and much more seriously
“in judicial matters too.” He sent a detailed report regarding the
three Judges to the then Chief Justice of India, B N Kirpal.
The result was that J Amarbir Singh was asked to proceed on leave as
he had only a few days of service left, while J Mehtab Singh got a
reprimand and J Singhal was absolved. Thus, there was hardly any
substantial action against any of the Judges.
Again, when the Forest Hill case came in light in Punjab, names of a
few Judges of the High Court came to have taken favour from the owner
of the Hill Reorts which was totally illegal and had been constructed
by giving a sidekick to all kinds of rules and regulations. Yet, while
action was taken against a few administrative and forest officers, the
Judges got completely scot-free.
When Rs. 15 lakh got delivered at the doorsteps of Justice Nirmal Kaur
which supposedly was for another High Court Judge Justice Nirmal
Yadav, much hue and cry was made. The case finally got transferred to
the CBI. As per the reports published by the HT (07/06/2009), while
the CBI sent a report to the Union government to grant prosecution
sanction against the High court Judge, having enough evidence against
her, the Union government has turned down the request saying that the
evidence was insufficient. For all that it seems the case will also
peter down and will eventuallu=y meet its end. Thus Justice Nirmal
Yadav will remain safely ensconced on her chair of Justice.
Now, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau has come up with taped conversations
in which names of a few High Court Judges has popped up in some highly
objectionable contexts on a regular basis. The phone tapping confirms
existence of all kinds of malpractices in the lower and higher
judiciary in Punjab which would have been sufficient enough to indict
and charge-0sheet any other person than a mighty Judge of a High
Court. J Mehtab Singh ‘s name features here once again. Ironically the
matter has already got the notice of the Chief Justice of India. All
that is recommended as an action-taking attempt is to transfer Justice
Mehtab Singh. That is way back in Mid 2008. The transfer file gets
struck in the Law ministry and J Mehtab Singh still remains the Judge
of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The purpose of describing these incidents is not to single out a few
persons. The purpose is to show the real situation of the Judiciary
today and how much revamping and cleansing it needs. It is a fact that
Judiciary today is under attack. But much of the discredit for this
must vest with the Judiciary itself. In all these cases and in many
other cases like the PF scam case of Ghaziabad or the Justice Sen case
of the Calcutta High Court where J Sen refused to oblige the
suggestions of even the CJI, a signal is going around that the Supreme
Court is proving highly ineffective in dealing with the corruption
cases of the High court Judges. It is being seen that each one of
those Judges against whom there are ample proof of corrupt practices
are firmly placed in their seats and no punitive/ legal or even
administrative action is being taken against them. This is a dangerous
sign and is the most damning for higher judiciary in India.
Judiciary hinges completely on trust and once this trust gets eroded,
all the public influence the higher judiciary has, will get completely
eliminated. The Supreme Court, being the custodian of Judicial system
in India will have to realize that the time has come when out of
Judicial protections and privileges on one side and public perception
and trust on the other, it would be better if it chose the later one.
Otherwise, it might be too late.

Dr Nutan Thakur
Editor,
Nutan Satta Pravah,
Lucknow