New Delhi, July 1 (India Today): Delivering the 17th Justice PD Desai Memorial Lecture on Wednesday evening, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said polls might not be a guarantee against the tyranny of the elected. CJI Ramana warned the high pitch campaigns on social media that could affect institutions including judiciary.
Identifying Covid-19 as “an unprecedented crisis”, CJI Ramana said the governments should reflect how it has used the “rule of law” (the topic of his speech) was used to deal with the pandemic and protect citizens.
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Here is what CJI Ramana said in his Rule of Law speech: 10 quotable quotes
1. Election no guarantee against tyranny
“It has always been well recognized that the mere right to change the ruler, once every few years, by itself need not be a guarantee against tyranny.”
“The idea that people are the ultimate sovereign is also to be found in notions of human dignity and autonomy. A public discourse, that is both reasoned and reasonable, is to be seen as an inherent aspect of human dignity and hence essential to a properly functioning democracy.”
2. Strong independent judiciary
“The judiciary is the primary organ which is tasked with ensuring that the laws which are enacted are in line with the Constitution.”
For the judiciary to apply checks on governmental power and action, it has to have complete freedom.”
“The judiciary cannot be controlled, directly or indirectly, by the legislature or the executive, or else the Rule of Law would become illusory.”
3. How social media affects institutions
“Judges should not be swayed by the emotional pitch of public opinion either, which is getting amplified through social media platforms. Judges have to be mindful of the fact that the noise thus amplified is not necessarily reflective of what is right and what majority believes in.”
“The new media tools that have enormous amplifying ability are incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, good and bad and the real and fake.”
“It is therefore extremely vital to function independently and withstand all external aids and pressures.”
“While there is a lot of discussion about the pressure from the executive, it is also imperative to start a discourse as to how social media trends can affect the institutions.”
4. Citizens in democracy
“[M]embers of society have the ‘right to participate in the creation and refinement of laws’ that regulate their behaviours. We live in a democracy. The very essence of a democracy is that its citizenry has a role to play, whether directly or indirectly, in the laws that govern them.”
5. Time for government to evaluate itself
“In the seventeen national general elections held so far, the people have changed the ruling party or combination of parties eight times, which accounts for nearly 50 percent of number of general elections.”
“In spite of large-scale inequalities, illiteracy, backwardness, poverty and the alleged ignorance, the people of independent India have proved themselves to be intelligent and up to the task. The masses have performed their duties reasonably well.”
“Now, it is the turn of those who are manning the key organs of the State to ponder if they are living up to the Constitutional mandate.”
6. The Covid-19 test
“[T]he entire world is facing an unprecedented crisis in the form of Covid-19. At this juncture, we necessarily have to pause and ask ourselves as to what extent we have used the Rule of Law to ensure protection to, and welfare of all of our people.”
“I do not intend to provide an evaluation of the same. Both my office and my temperament prevent me from doing so. But I began to feel that this pandemic might yet be a mere curtain raiser to much larger crises in the decades to come. Surely we must at least begin the process of analysing what we did right and where we went wrong.”
7. What is the rule of law?
“I think that any law backed by a sovereign, must be tempered by certain ideals or tenets of justice. Only a State that is governed by such law, can be said to have the ‘Rule of Law’”
“The British used the law as a tool of political repression, enforcing it unequally on the parties, with a different set of rules for the British and for the Indians. It was an enterprise famous for ‘Rule by Law’, rather than ‘Rule of Law’ as it aimed at controlling the Indian subjects.”
8. Law must not have secrets
“[T]hat ‘laws must be clear and accessible’. This is the fundamental point that when laws are expected to be obeyed, the people at least ought to know what the laws are. There cannot therefore be secretive laws, as laws are for the society.”
“Another implication of this principle is that they should be worded in simple, unambiguous language.”
9. Gender equality and minorities
“Another aspect I want to highlight over here is the issue of gender equality. Traditional roles are changing within the family, as is the structure of the family itself”
“The legal empowerment of women not only enables them to advocate for their rights and needs in society, but it also increases their visibility in the legal reform process and allows their participation in it.”
“Bias and prejudice necessarily lead to injustice, particularly when it relates to the minorities. Consequently, the application of the principles of Rule of Law in respect of vulnerable sections has to necessarily be more inclusive of their social conditions that hinder their progress.”
10. Lesson from history
Judicial Murder of Raja Nand Kumar: “Raja Nand Kumar had accused the then Governor General Warren Hastings of receiving bribe. Shortly after this incident, charges of forgery were preferred against Raja Nand Kumar.”
“On 15th June, 1775, Raja Nand Kumar was found guilty of the charges and was awarded the capital punishment by Chief Justice Impey, a close aide of Warren Hastings…Historians have later stated that Raja Nanda Kumar paid the price for daring to accuse the Governor General Warren Hastings.”
“Around 150 years later, there was a growing consciousness about the values of liberty, equality, justice and fraternity. As part of persistent and organised campaign for the freedom, the Indian masses were increasingly made aware of how unjust and oppressive the discriminatory laws of the colonisers are.”
“In 1922, during his famous trial, Mahatma Gandhi captured the imagination of the nation with the following words: ‘Little do they realize that the Government established by law in British India is carried on for this exploitation of the masses…In ninety-nine cases out of hundred, justice has been denied to Indians as against Europeans in the courts of India’.”
“He thus concluded, ‘In my opinion, the administration of the law is thus prostituted, consciously or unconsciously, for the benefit of the exploiter’.”
END
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