(Adapted from the Tamil original carried in Savukkuonline.com)
So the Supreme Court has extended the bail for AIADMK
supremo J Jayalalithaa and her co-convicts in the disproportionate wealth case
till May 12.
This is certainly a setback for Amma – for uncertainty continues
and so does the house arrest. And if the new bench prefers to go with Justice Madan
B. Lokur, the case will have to be heard afresh in Bengaluru – so another three
to four months for a verdict.
In case the final HC verdict is unfavourable, the SC can
always come to her rescue, as had happened in the TANSI case a decade ago. At
least such are the expectations in many quarters.
And so she and her minions should indeed be praying to all
the gods they can think of that they are able to see through the case before Mr
Dattu steps down as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Thanks to his benign approach, she could not only move out
of the stultifying and degrading confines of a prison, but the hearing in the
appeal in the Karnataka High Court too was fast-tracked .
Mr Dattu has chosen to ignore all pleas to him to recuse himself
from the case.
Born in
Chigmagalur district of Karnataka, Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu
was enrolled as an advocate at the bar in 1975. He appeared as government
counsel in the Karnataka High court for the sales tax department from 1983 to
1990, was government advocate from 1990 to 1993, standing counsel for the
income tax department from 1992 to 1993 and a senior standing counsel for the
Income Tax department from 1993 to 1995.
Dattu was appointed a judge of the Karnataka High Court on
18 December 1995. Thereafter, on 12 February 2007, he was elevated as the Chief
Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court. On 18 May 2007, he was transferred to
head the Kerala High Court. He was elevated to Supreme Court in 2008 and sworn
in as the 42nd Chief Justice of India in September last year.
Within a few weeks of his ascent to highest post in the
Indian judiciary, the then Chief Minister of
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| John Michael D'Cunha |
The sentence
is delivered on Sep.27 and bail is denied, resulting in her incarceration in Bengaluru
itself.
Even as many wonder whether she might have to cool her
heels there, the Supreme Court, now headed by Mr Dattu, comes to her rescue.
And His Highness chooses to hear her bail plea himself instead of referring the
case to any other bench.
Distinguished advocate Fali Nariman makes a forceful plea
all right, and Mr Justice Dattu tries to show that he is a no-nonsense man by
grilling the defence counsel, twitting him how long did it take the Karnataka
special court to dispose of the case against Jayalaltihaa. Sheepishly Nariman
admits, “Several years.”
Dattu retorts, “Wont you take 20 more years to fight out
the appeal in the High Court?” The uninitiated might be forgiven if they laud
the CJ for making it that difficult for the appellant.
But the question only facilitated a way out for
Jayalalithaa – for Fali promptly offered to ensure that the writ appeal was
argued out in just two months and the bench agreed, without any further ado.
Now remember here it took Kanimozhi and Raja more than six
months to be released on bail, a year for Y S R Jaganmohan Reddy in
neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, two years and eight months for Satyam’s Ramalinga
Raju and three years and eight months for Janardhana Reddy of Karanataka in the
mining scam.
Even Lallu Prasad Yadav and Om Prakash Chautala of Haryana
had to struggle hard for a couple of months at least before getting the nod
from the Supreme Court.
If Jayalalithaa had not been responsible for the violence,
how come it all became quiet the moment she issued a statement exhorting her
followers to maintain peace?
Anyway please note that as of Sep. 2014, there were as
many as 63,843 cases pending. Then why the urgency in the case of Jayalalithaa,
hearing out of turn and granting bail in just 21 days? And how could anyone,
leave alone their Lordships, afford to forget she had done everything she could
to subvert the course of justice and succeeded in protracting the course of
hearing for an incredible 18 long years?
OK, if you are going to say in view of her eminence or
whatever, why should the other
convicts, Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran be
shown similar consideration?
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| (Clockwise: Jayalalithaa, her confidante Sasikala, Sudhakaran, disowned foster son and Ilavarasi, widow of Sasikalaś brother Jayaraman) |
Also remember there are hundreds of
thousands languishing in jails, without any chance of a bail whatsoever,
irrespective of their sentence terms.
How come such issues were not factored in by Mr Dattu when
he so readily granted bail to a politician, notorious for her arrogance and
corruption?
Even the insistence of a judgement in just four months
from the high court could be said to have been a blessing in disguise for the
appellant – possible she would succeed in the appeal and triumphantly reenter
the portals of Fort St George. Was the CJ then not expediting the process
please?
The Dattu saga doesn’t seem to end there. Our inquiries
reveal there was pressure on Karnataka
Chief Justice D H Waghela to have a pliable judge to hear Jaya‘s bail plea, but
in
vain.
 |
| Justice D H Waghela |
The plea was turned down, and eventually Dattu sahib had
to do the job himself.
Pressure was mounted yet again when the time came for the
nomination of a judge to hear Jayalaltihaa’s writ appeal, still an upright
Waghela wouldn’t give in.
Then it was widely rumoured that Waghela was being
transferred out of Karnataka itself and a judge from Allahabad, Vineet Sharan,
was being brought in.
The idea apparently was that when Waghela was transferred
out, the man to assume charge as CJ would be Manjunath, seen as someone who
would be more favourably disposed towards Jaya.
But the news was out in social media siteṣ. Savukku too
reported the move on December 31, 2014.
Alerted to the grand plans, the very next day Waghela
announced the appointment of Justice C R Kumarasamy to hear Jayalalithaa’s
appeal. January 1 was a court holiday, still Justice Waghela made the
announcement, perhaps because he wanted to warn all those concerned that he was
the boss so long as he was around there and no messing around with him.
Sharan himself was not keen to move to Karnatka for his
own reasons. Besides two judges of the Supreme Court had opposed the transfer.
But there was no
resisting the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court. Newspapers reported, “Justice Dhirendra Hiralal Waghela, Chief
Justice of the Karnataka High Court, has been transferred to Orissa. He has
been directed to assume charge as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court within
two months.”
Tamil Nadu leaders like
former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and PMK founder Dr Ramadoss have denounced
the the transfer of Waghela.
Now with Waghela out and
another person in, it would be possible to have a more ‘acceptable’ judge to
hear Jayalalithaa‘s appeal in case in the High Court yet again. Such is the
apprehension in many circles in Tamil Nadu.
The transfer orders were
issued on April 12, a day before the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act came
into force. If the transfer had been effected subsequently, that might be
questioned during the hearing of the petition challenging the new Act. But Dattu
Saheb has successfully forestalled such an eventuality.
Also look at the case of Justice R Bhanumathi who sat with
Justice Madan Lokhur and upheld the appointment of Bhavani Singh. She was known
to have been close to Jayalalitha when
she served in the Madras High Court.
Reliable reports have it she had met the AIADMK supremo before she went to New
Delhi to assume charge in August last year. In any case she had used a popular
Tamil honorific while referring to Jayalaltihaa at a function and it is in Dattu‘s
stint she has been appointed to the Supreme Court.
 |
| Justices Lokur and Banumathi |
His Lordship has lost no time in constituting a new bench to
hear the Bhavani Singh case, though normally such take a pretty long time to
materialize. He has also directed that the new bench start hearing Anbazhagan‘s
appeal from April 21.
They have to hear and pronounce a ruling one way or another after
which only the Karnataka High Court can deliver its own verdict on Jaya’s
appeal against her conviction. Quite a tortuous process that, considering our
good Samaritan‘s term expires in December this yeaṛ.
But what if the new bench doesn’t oblige him and the hearing
continues a bit longer, even stretches to December and beyond ! Where is the
guarantee that Dattu’s successor would be equally considerate. One can now
understand the anxiety on the part of all those involved.
We can draw our
own inference from the fact that Mr Dattu has chosen to ignore all pleas for
his recusal.
The Human Rights Protection Centre collected
signatures from as many as one thousand advocates and presented a petition to
the President of India demanding that Mr Dattu keep away from cases related to
Ms Jayalalithaa. But the CJ would not heed.
That
irrepressible activist Traffic Ramasamy too wrote to him seeking his recusal. When
the matter was raised in the Supreme Court, Dattu shrugged it off, saying, "Somebody will say I have taken Rs.1,000
crore to grant bail etc. Don't worry. I can take care of it. I am too thick
skinned for such allegations.
In the absence of any documentary
evidence to show that Mr Justice Dattu has been compromised, one can only go by
reasonable conjectures – and most point to his being guilty.
As with the TANSI verdict in November
2003, tongues are wagging about corruption in high placeṣ.
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/25/stories/2003112506160100.htm
And look at his generous certificate to Namo –
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Narendra-Modi-a-good-leader-human-being-Chief-Justice-of-India-HL-Dattu-says/articleshow/45830081.cms
Many might also remember the
controversy over holding a meet of the judges on Good Friday recently.
Again Dattu sought to make light of
it, but it is clear such gestures would go down well with the present
dispensation.
Back in September 2009, in an
interview to Tehelka, noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan had talked openly of corruption
in the judiciary – “ In my view, out of the last
16 to 17 chief justices, half have been corrupt. I can’t prove this, though we
had evidence against
Punchi, Anand and Sabharwal on the basis of which
we sought their impeachment.”
http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne050909half_of.asp
An enraged Supreme Court initiated
contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan. But his father, another leading
light, refused to be cowed down and went ahead to file an affidavit on his own,
virtually repeating his son verbatim.
The case is still hanging fire, as
the august judges cannot bring themselves to decide how to proceed further!
People at large might not be privy to
details that lawyers like Prashant Bushan would be aware of. But it is
generally perceived that K G Balakrishnan, who served as the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of India between January 2007 and May 2010, would surely find a place in the hall of notoriety. He has been charged with accumulating assets
disproportionate to his known sources of income, it must be noted.
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-tells-government-to-decide-on-balakrishnan-case-481781
The track record of Justice P Sathasivam, who was the CJ between
July 2013 and April 2014, is no less unedifying. When assuming charge, he was
hailed as the first Tamil to adorn the prestigious chair, but he only brought
greater disrepute to the office than any of his corrupt predecessors.
Pray, how come he
managed to install himself at the Thiruvananthapuram Raj Bhavan,
Just before his term ended, Justice Sathasivam was on the
Supreme Court bench that scrapped a second FIR against Amit Shah in a fake
encounter killing case, saying it was linked to the bigger Sohrabuddin Sheikh
killing case and did not need to be separate.
It was
that ruling which was linked to his appointment as Kerala Governor. He is the
first former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to become a governor, it may be
stressed.
But he
had played it safe, granting bail to Lallu too earlier ! Leaving nothing to
chance, our illustrious Tamil friend.
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ex-chief-justice-as-governor-which-verdict-pleased-modi-amit-shah-asks-congress-657916
One
might remember Sathasivam took everyone by surprise in by hinting judgement in
the appeal for commutation of death sentence in the Rajiv assassination case
was to be delivered soon - it was a
highly emotive issue in Tamil Nadu. He had said so when the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J
Jayalalithaa was going about imperiously demanding reprieve. Nothing like
being in the good books of a powerful politiciaṇ.
But he
is never indiscreet enough to put all the eggs in one basket. You never know
after all! So also in the Rajiv killers’ case, first he sought to please
Amma. But the ever wily Karunanidhi, knowing full well that Sathasivam was
openly hinting at a reprieve that would only go to strengthen the hands of his
bête noire, took objection and said such
judgement trailers, so to speak, were not oṇ. Our amazingly supple Sathasivam
is nothing if not smart and so promptly referred the case to a constitutional
bench, thus ensuring for years it would be on the back-burner.
But he
is not resting on his oars simply because he has become a governor. He has been
manouevering no end to become the chairman of the National Human Rights
Commission, on Balakrishnan’s retirement.
Latest
reports say Mr Sathasivam has succeeded in prevailing upon the Modi government.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sathasivam-may-take-over-as-NHRC-chief/articleshow/46952535.cms
Quite
interesting this gentleman should aspire to follow so closely in the footsteps
of his predecessor – though in a way he proved smarter than the other, in
bagging governorship, and thus though Balakrishnan is a Dalit and should be
carrying everything before him with just that tag alone.
And pray
why Sathasivam should seek to ‘sacrifice’ all the perks and prestige of a Raj
Bhavan tenure ? Well he is not being any humble or is so passionately concerned
with human rights. Far from it. A New Delhi-based job, ensuring as it does
proximity to the powers-that-be, holds out innumerable advantages. Our
Sathasivam knows which side of the bread is buttered and how much !
Rightly
did he admit judiciary was facing credibility crisis while
participating in a function alongside Jayalaltihaa, when she was an accused in
a corruption case (she’s now a convict)!
Is there any
light at the end of the tunnel then ? There could be – but what we see at the moment
is the headlight of an oncoming train.
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