Pendency of cases and death penalty are weightier issues the apex court could dwell on
The Supreme Court, we are told, is interested in knowing more about the conspiracy theory behind Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and has asked the amicae curiae to look into the issue on a petition by Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and trustee of the Mumbai-based Abhinav Bharat, who has, since 1996, been personally probing the possible “foreign hand” in Gandhi’s murder. Phadnis’ efforts in this regard are appreciated and can even be applauded, now that we also know that he has filed an Right to Information for declassification of a report filed by Herbert Tom Reiner, Disbursing Officer, who was within five feet of Gandhi and had helped nab the assassin. Reiner filed this report on reaching the US Embassy that every evening which, even after 70 years, remains classified. The declassification may or may not throw up any startling facts but the question is why should the Supreme Court be distracted by such non-vital issuesIJ Such issues find more meat in a tell-all book showing up the foreign hand, if any. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were hanged to death in 1949. The Mahatma is long gone, so long live The Mahatma!
With all due respect, the Indian judiciary and its apex court have weightier and more relevant issues at hand to spend time looking into than mere theory of a private petitioner. As of now, the nation is burdened by the pendency of a whopping 2.18 crore cases in various courts and a shortage of close to 5,000 judicial officers, and this is definitely an issue that the Supreme Court could have tasked the amicae curiae to look into and find a way out of. The Indian Judiciary Annual Report 2015-2016 and Subordinate Courts of India: A Report on Access to Justice 2016 talk of this problem and say that nearly 15,000 more judges are required in the next three years to overcome this massive pile-up. And if this was not weighty enough for the apex court, perhaps, it could go into the other issues that affect the nation, like whether we should end the draconian measure of hanging until death and go for more sensitive ways like a no-pain injection to carry out death penaltyIJ Judicial time in India is much too precious to be wasted on issues that are almost irrelevant even if they become important with the current political dispensation of the nation. Clearing the name of right winger Godse may look good in the record books for Hindutva enthusiasts, but is much too peripheral to be hogging the time of a burdened Judiciary. In any case, how much can one defend a guy who pulled the trigger on The Mahatma in full public even though Phadnis believes that the CIA may have been behind Godse’s actIJ Feeding curiosity is an after-all-work-done indulgence which our respected lordships should not have allowed to come into play.