PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2006 ID-2497
.
18 1006.
The Scales of Judgement: Weighed Against the Poor and Deprived I ··.
AISA .
Judiciary Can't Be Above Public Scrutiny and Democratic Process !! .
Finally, people's campaigns for justice forPn'yadarshini Mattoo have succeeded: Santosh Kumar Singh, her stalker .
who raped and k171edherin 1996, has been held guilty a full decade later. Priyadarshinl, a DU student of Law Faculty, had .
filed FIRs four times complaining ofsexual harassment by Santosh, a/so a senior student of Law. Despite this, the police .
.
I.
never filed any sen'ous charges against Santosh Since his father was a semor.officer of the Delhi Police. the police .
.
deliberately weakened the case ofrape and murder against Santosh. This son ofan mfluential father was acquitted by a trial .
court in 1999. The acquittal ofSantosh despite a/f evidence against him was aslap in the face ofjustice. It took a massive .
public campaign andmass outrage for the High Court to finally recognise thatthe tral/court, in acquitting Santosh, .
"murderedjustice and shockedjudicialconscience". The entire case shows that Court verdicts cannot be above .
publicscrutiny-it Is the dutyofcitizens to protest againstbiased}udgeff1ents andto ensure that Courts dojustice .
ratherthan serve the influential. .
.
A Latin American proverb says: 'Justice is like a snake-Itonly bites the barefooted'.The Police always favour the .
rich and powerful; for the minorities, the dalits, the women, the poor, 'police' has always spelt fear. discrimination, custodial .
torture and violence. Increasingly nowadays, our Courts too are passing judgements voicing the concerns of the elites, .
against the rights of the poor and the deprived, are arrogantly try1ng to usurp the powers of the legislature and place .
themselves above democracy. .
.
The SupremeCourt's latestdirective chastis1ng the Government for OBC quotas in educational institutions. and demanding .
the Standing Committee Report be placed before it, is yet another sign of this growing authoritarian and anti-democratic .
nature of the Courts The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to lnterfore In the functioning of the Parliament and .
the process oflawmaking. Its role is to uphold laws, not to dictate what laws can or cannot be passed, as long as .
the laws are not unconstitutional. .
.
The Mandai Commission recommendations which were the basis for reservations injobs have already been upheld by .
the Supreme Court a decade back. There is no call forthe Supreme Court to suddenly demand that a fresh data-the data .
that is good enough for job reservations is also good enough for educational reservations. At any rate, Supreme Court's .
blatantbias in favour of the antl-reservationists is shown In Its approval for payment ofsalary to striking doctors. .
The Court is always very quick to punish striking workers and to pass directives against strikes-but in case it is doctors .
on strike against the deprived sections and backward castes, tt is protecttng them! This has encouraged the striking doctors .
to keep flexing their muscles. They continue to indulge in blatant abuse and discriminatory behaviour towards daliUOBG .
doctors and medical students in AIIMS, and the state of theAIIMS management is exposed when students and staff die of .
dengue even inside AIIMS itself. When the demand is raised that the Director be held responstbility for mismanagementand .
for the spreading virus ofcasteism (far worse than dengue) in the AIIMS hostel, the doctors have once again threatened to .
go on strike. At a time when thousands of people are In danger of losing their lives thanks to the dengue epidemic, .
.
these doctors, confident of their backing by the Supreme Court Itself, threaten a strike! .
Courts are not above democracy; they are accountable to the people and must answer their questions: .
.
A PIL has been filed against SEZs, and SEZs are nothing but blatant reservation of the country's richest resources and greatest privileges for the greedy corporates. Why Is the Supreme Court not declaring a moratorium on SEZs, which give corporates a free hand to rob farmers ofland, deprive workers of rights, destroy the environment, and undermine national sovereignty by creating 'foreign' territory on Indian soil? .
.
.
The Supreme Court crossed all limits of insensitivity and inhumanity when it told slum-dwellers, "If you can't afford to rent a house, why do you come to the city?", branded them as uencroachers" whose numbers "keep growing and growing". The Supreme Court keeps ordoring domolitions of slums to make way for .
.
.
game-parks, and small shops to make w ay for malls. .
The Supreme Court itselfhas passed a judgementthat Sardar Sarovar Dam oustees 1n the Narmada Valley must get irdgated land as compensation for land, and that rehabilitation ofthe displaced must be complete one full year before the height of the dam was raised But the dam height kept bemg raised. despite the fact that entire villages are yet to be rehabilitated and land-for-land rule 1n compensation has been blatantly violated. Yet the Supreme .
Court turned a blind eye to such violations and upheld the raising of the height of the dam1 .
Emboldened by the Supreme Court, the YFE in JNU has once agatn begun its campaign. They forget that theirclaims· ofstanding for 'Equality' lie in tatters after their blatant casteist leaflet branding rectpients of reservation as 'sub-standard human beings', 'inferior mortals', monly for stealing and unfit to study in JNU'. Standing for equality means consistently challenging elitism and injustice. IfYFE really stands for Equality, why don't they speak out against SEZs? Why did the YFE never bring out a single leaflet condemning the ABVP's murderous assault on Prof. Y K Sabharwal at UDain? Their silence reveals their unity with the greedy corporales and the Sangh Parivar-both the corporate world and the Sangh had backed the YFE's campaign against reservations. .
Democratic citizens needto be vigilant, andspeak out against everymove bytho Courts t.o Infringe on people's rights andsubvert ourdemocratic processes, ensuring that the UPA Governmentpasses the Quota Bill without furthet delay. .
sd/-Satya Venkata Siddhardha Kr. 0., President, AI SA. JNU Sd/-Sandeep Singh,Vice-President, AISA, JNU .
.
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2006 ID-2497
.
18 1006.
The Scales of Judgement: Weighed Against the Poor and Deprived I ··.
AISA .
Judiciary Can't Be Above Public Scrutiny and Democratic Process !! .
Finally, people's campaigns for justice forPn'yadarshini Mattoo have succeeded: Santosh Kumar Singh, her stalker .
who raped and k171edherin 1996, has been held guilty a full decade later. Priyadarshinl, a DU student of Law Faculty, had .
filed FIRs four times complaining ofsexual harassment by Santosh, a/so a senior student of Law. Despite this, the police .
.
I.
never filed any sen'ous charges against Santosh Since his father was a semor.officer of the Delhi Police. the police .
.
deliberately weakened the case ofrape and murder against Santosh. This son ofan mfluential father was acquitted by a trial .
court in 1999. The acquittal ofSantosh despite a/f evidence against him was aslap in the face ofjustice. It took a massive .
public campaign andmass outrage for the High Court to finally recognise thatthe tral/court, in acquitting Santosh, .
"murderedjustice and shockedjudicialconscience". The entire case shows that Court verdicts cannot be above .
publicscrutiny-it Is the dutyofcitizens to protest againstbiased}udgeff1ents andto ensure that Courts dojustice .
ratherthan serve the influential. .
.
A Latin American proverb says: 'Justice is like a snake-Itonly bites the barefooted'.The Police always favour the .
rich and powerful; for the minorities, the dalits, the women, the poor, 'police' has always spelt fear. discrimination, custodial .
torture and violence. Increasingly nowadays, our Courts too are passing judgements voicing the concerns of the elites, .
against the rights of the poor and the deprived, are arrogantly try1ng to usurp the powers of the legislature and place .
themselves above democracy. .
.
The SupremeCourt's latestdirective chastis1ng the Government for OBC quotas in educational institutions. and demanding .
the Standing Committee Report be placed before it, is yet another sign of this growing authoritarian and anti-democratic .
nature of the Courts The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to lnterfore In the functioning of the Parliament and .
the process oflawmaking. Its role is to uphold laws, not to dictate what laws can or cannot be passed, as long as .
the laws are not unconstitutional. .
.
The Mandai Commission recommendations which were the basis for reservations injobs have already been upheld by .
the Supreme Court a decade back. There is no call forthe Supreme Court to suddenly demand that a fresh data-the data .
that is good enough for job reservations is also good enough for educational reservations. At any rate, Supreme Court's .
blatantbias in favour of the antl-reservationists is shown In Its approval for payment ofsalary to striking doctors. .
The Court is always very quick to punish striking workers and to pass directives against strikes-but in case it is doctors .
on strike against the deprived sections and backward castes, tt is protecttng them! This has encouraged the striking doctors .
to keep flexing their muscles. They continue to indulge in blatant abuse and discriminatory behaviour towards daliUOBG .
doctors and medical students in AIIMS, and the state of theAIIMS management is exposed when students and staff die of .
dengue even inside AIIMS itself. When the demand is raised that the Director be held responstbility for mismanagementand .
for the spreading virus ofcasteism (far worse than dengue) in the AIIMS hostel, the doctors have once again threatened to .
go on strike. At a time when thousands of people are In danger of losing their lives thanks to the dengue epidemic, .
.
these doctors, confident of their backing by the Supreme Court Itself, threaten a strike! .
Courts are not above democracy; they are accountable to the people and must answer their questions: .
.
A PIL has been filed against SEZs, and SEZs are nothing but blatant reservation of the country's richest resources and greatest privileges for the greedy corporates. Why Is the Supreme Court not declaring a moratorium on SEZs, which give corporates a free hand to rob farmers ofland, deprive workers of rights, destroy the environment, and undermine national sovereignty by creating 'foreign' territory on Indian soil? .
.
.
The Supreme Court crossed all limits of insensitivity and inhumanity when it told slum-dwellers, "If you can't afford to rent a house, why do you come to the city?", branded them as uencroachers" whose numbers "keep growing and growing". The Supreme Court keeps ordoring domolitions of slums to make way for .
.
.
game-parks, and small shops to make w ay for malls. .
The Supreme Court itselfhas passed a judgementthat Sardar Sarovar Dam oustees 1n the Narmada Valley must get irdgated land as compensation for land, and that rehabilitation ofthe displaced must be complete one full year before the height of the dam was raised But the dam height kept bemg raised. despite the fact that entire villages are yet to be rehabilitated and land-for-land rule 1n compensation has been blatantly violated. Yet the Supreme .
Court turned a blind eye to such violations and upheld the raising of the height of the dam1 .
Emboldened by the Supreme Court, the YFE in JNU has once agatn begun its campaign. They forget that theirclaims· ofstanding for 'Equality' lie in tatters after their blatant casteist leaflet branding rectpients of reservation as 'sub-standard human beings', 'inferior mortals', monly for stealing and unfit to study in JNU'. Standing for equality means consistently challenging elitism and injustice. IfYFE really stands for Equality, why don't they speak out against SEZs? Why did the YFE never bring out a single leaflet condemning the ABVP's murderous assault on Prof. Y K Sabharwal at UDain? Their silence reveals their unity with the greedy corporales and the Sangh Parivar-both the corporate world and the Sangh had backed the YFE's campaign against reservations. .
Democratic citizens needto be vigilant, andspeak out against everymove bytho Courts t.o Infringe on people's rights andsubvert ourdemocratic processes, ensuring that the UPA Governmentpasses the Quota Bill without furthet delay. .
sd/-Satya Venkata Siddhardha Kr. 0., President, AI SA. JNU Sd/-Sandeep Singh,Vice-President, AISA, JNU .
.
.
.