Episode #19 : Unjust justice & Quota controversy
For the past couple of weeks, there has been one high profile conviction after the other. But there exist big inconsistencies in the sentences handed out which makes us think whether the Indian courts have become like cricket umpires where a few bad decisions are all part of the game? The jessica lal case has been going on forever and then at the same time a rape sentence is handed out within 10 days.
Our second topic was about the reservation controversy.
Episode Notes:
- Out, in and out again for the main accused in the Jessica Lal case. The entire story covered here
- The rajasthan court just took 10 working days to give a 7 yr sentence in the Rajasthan rape case
- Reservation or totally merit based? Amardeep has a good blog post
Yours Internetally,
Aditya
P.S : Intro & concluding music provided by Alms for Shanti
Listen Online (64 kbps) :/Episode lenght : 20 mins
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Hi guys,
As you accepted yourself, your discussion was all over the place, but hey, my podcasts aren’t any better:p. I had talked about reservation a week ago, I had given some “solutions” in it, but the actually solution lies in reforming politics, which cannot happen until the “aged” generation of voters and politicians are out of the picture. So we just have to sit and wait hoping that things will change, until then no discussion or debate will bring a solution (especially issues such as this, which are “welcomed” by the opposition parties as well). It’s a cynical view, realistic nonetheless. Here’s my podcast (you can probably leave episode 1, it’s not entirely relevant to the topic)
Comment by Suresh — April 21, 2006 @ 9:54 am
Ok one more comment about the discussion about judicial system. It’s not the judicial system’s fault that some of the rulings are “inconsistent”. The rulings are “inconsistent” because the cases are.
Jessica lal’s case - If there’s no good evidence to convict the accused, if the prosecution’s arguments are week, how could the judicial system take responsibility for that?
Salman Khan’s case - The prosecution and the evidences were strong (but the case was still dragged for 7 years). One’s sentence is based on the arguments put forth by the prosecutor, which then translates to a judgement, of course with some bias on the part of the Judge (but not so significant though). There have been several others cases where poachers have been sentenced in a similar scale (including those who killed an animal for their livelihood, which is so not the case with Salman Khan). What probably resounded most in the prosecution’s argument was his total lack of respect of an “endangered” animal. So the argument that he was vindicted for being a celebrity is not entirely true (may be it motivated the prosecution to be strong and ruthless, which the judge or the judicial system can’t accept the blame for)
Rape cases - Crude and cruel as it may sound, if the evidences are established comprehensively there could be no delays in processing the case. Even in a judicial system which is supposedly corrupt, irrefutable evidences have the power to incriminate anyone and that, swiftly. And if the accused confesses his/her crime, things get to move faster.
That having said, I agree that the judicial system is corrupt. But it doesn’t comprise the judges and the lawyers alone, it involves the police, the CBI, the medical examiners, witnesses and a plethora of other factors. Any “inconsistency” in judgements cannot be attributed to the court alone. When they say “a rich man gets to buy the law”, they don’t mean they can bribe the judge per se, but the police the witnesses and others I’ve mentioned above. And above all, hire a lawyer who can tear the case apart. And this isn’t specific to India either, even some of developed nations such as US have some embarrasingly unresolved cases. Tupac Shakur was murdered amid a busy Las Vegas crowd, nobody came to testify, and the case this still unresolved. OJ Simpson was close to getting convicted for killing his wife, but the jury ruled saying the policed have planted the evidences and he was acquitted.
As I has said earlier, in a country like India it doesn’t come as shocker when there are some “revolutionary” judgements. And again, we just need to sit through another couple of decades till the current generation marring all the Govt institutions, retires.
Suresh
Comment by Suresh — April 21, 2006 @ 10:26 am
Suresh,
Yeah, I may be guilty of comparing apples with oranges. You are bang on target when you say that my resoning may be a bit flawed when I compare a Salman’s verdict with some other. I may have lost objectivity for a while.
As you rightly said, the case depends on entirely how the prosecutor defends it. So, there is always the possibility that justice is tampered with. So, my point is that the entire purpose of the process of fighting a case in the court of Law is a farce (jessica lal’s case and the one that you’d mentioned above).
Part of the solution may be that the courts should stop kidding themselves and the public by extending dates at whim and for lack of “adequate” evidence.
Comment by Abhishek — April 24, 2006 @ 4:32 pm
Oops, on hindsight, the above comment of mine seems that I have no faith in the judicial system. That is not what I meant if the tone suggested that.
Comment by Abhishek — April 24, 2006 @ 5:15 pm
Say, your suggestion has already been implemented and it is a big success. Cochin Center for Excellence (CeX) which was currently under incubation by IIM-Cochin and now re-chirstined CREST is doing that. Making the aborginal folks and the the downtrodden, first rise and then fight instead of artificially pulling them up. This has two visible benefits - one the individual is not going to feel, I was given alms and two, this develops healthy respect for those who were not fortunate to go to BIG NAMED colleges and institutes. A third benefit was the students of IIM-C were then ones involved in helping out the students at CeX-A case of ground reality searched for and found on the ground.
A second solution is which is more difficult to implement as the verification process would have to be very stringent. Subsidize/Give quota/Reservation the individual instead of the whole caste/group/sub-group etc. Those who are well off can be denied the benefits of the such. Then the competing field would be even and not politically tilted in favour of a particular bunch of aspirants. Well may be I am a dreamer… whose dream might come true… (sic)
Comment by Manikantan a.k.a Mani — April 25, 2006 @ 11:37 am
i feel that quotas should be implemented for ALL ｃａｓｔｅｓ ａｎｄ ｔｈｅ ｏｎｌｙ thing which shd be considered is the income of the family. valid point — if someone is from a backward caste but is making 20 crore a yr then quota isn’t really serving its purpose
Comment by Lavanya — April 29, 2006 @ 2:27 pm