A self-proclaimed RTI activist of Odisha has been convicted for obscene posts on the Facebook. The court held him guilty of placing unacceptable pictures of his own friend’s wife. Aghast, the close friend alerted police which routinely sprang into action. The cyber wing of the Crime Branch swooped on the offender after collecting indisputable information relating to the crime. By this time, frontline RTI workers had declared this guy as an outcast in their community for being rabidly obsessed with making mad allegations against a number of State functionaries, including an incomparably spotless judge of the Orissa High Court. The activist had seemingly revelled over some media coverage based on cooked-up documents with silly charges without any factual foundation. He had alleged that Justice Indrajit Mahanty had wrongfully remained engaged in business with a working capital loan from the SBI. A few media houses with dysfunctional brains carried the nonsense-loaded story. Not one agency went deeper than the skin to dig out the truth. Pained by the false allegations, some senior journalists, columnists and researching statesmen went the extra mile to come up with the truth and projected in good light the judge, who is known for his unfathomable jurisprudence, grand discretion and phenomenal commonsense apart from the command over the English language and enviable skills in oratory. Despite all this to his credit, not once did he utter a single word of hate against the insane tormentor. Smiling ruefully, had he said once to sensible columnist friends, “Guy doesn’t know how sinful he is getting with a mad obsession of remaining in public glare. I only pity him; God give him sense!” That virtually sums up Indrajit Mahanty, the big-hearted human being who may occupy the CJI’s chair in future. He has both the advantages of age and a zero-error performance graph unless of course mad detractors show up yet again and make trouble to be demolished only by God. Even after punishment was awarded to the tormentor-activist, Justice Mahanty remained cool and composed. “The ignorant person never once looked into the truth,” he quipped, “he could have done a great job by exposing the reality. If I were ethically blemished, the society would have punished me first.”
What the minority media did not make clear was the fact that the property is a personal one owned by him. A hotel comes up to generate revenue by giving employment to many. The structure keeps requiring upkeep, repair, renovation and expansion, for which block capital loans would be required from time to time and repaid on schedule. After becoming a judge, his daughter who was the key controller of the business, passes on the operation rights to professionals on long-term lease as per legal norms. The operations of business change hands, but the immovable property or the structure on it cannot alienate the lawful owner anyway, be he a cutthroat money-mad trader or a detached, dispassionate judge of the highest court. Delinking a person from ownership cannot happen, and there is nothing blasphemous about it. If only he had availed a working capital loan with a cash credit limit in his own favour, he could have been nabbed as an offender of law or norm. Simply put, it’s like a sitting judge putting his age-old house on rent. Countless judicial functionaries live in and enjoy such a situation. The sensation-seeking media had never looked beyond the curtain. Besides, the mad tormentor had produced self-modified or morphed documents to confuse the media. Most unfortunately, this simplest of facts was not ever scanned or assessed by the negligible number of media houses which jumped to craziest conclusions and carried crazy stories.
Justice Mahanty has never availed any business operation loan on record. Developing his own property with any institutional loan is his birthright in a civilised society. He did not steal money or extort any from anyone trapped in legal nets and seeking relief in the judicial domain where he has the power to use his personal discretion to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Corrupt judges, the number of which is rising by the day, do make money by selling judgments because superior judges are not accountable for any kind of judicial conduct. The affected parties can go on appeal to higher forums.
People now say, “The mad man fell into the trap set by himself. lies, falsehoods and megalomaniac obsession to remain in public glare caused his doom. He behaved insensibly. True activists are invariably sensible. Once they discover the path taken is wrong, they make course corrections instantly. This person remained stubborn on the wrong foot only to suffer in good time.” Justice Mahanty has remained stoically silent all this time. He has not lost his composure or cool, insiders report. He does not revel over a poor fellow’s defeat. He is monumentally magnanimous.
Not surprisingly, the same poor guy had gone after the would-be CJI Dipak Misra, the third Odia to bring the glory. The convict activist had maligned him by hurling charges which hold no substance. The sole objective was to ensure Justice Misra is defamed and dismissed from the highest temple of judiciary before his coronation. There is quite some murmur amid the legal community of Odisha about a gang of envious colleagues, former and serving, feeding fools with falsehood only to derive sadistic pleasure. But Justice Mahanty trashes the whole theory with a loud laugh, “Oh God, no! My colleagues, past and present, are fairly big-hearted and extremely helpful. Most of them are angels. But if the wild rumour is even remotely true, I would only pray to God to give them sense. Because they will suffer more as one day or the other someone will expose them. I wish I knew them so as to be able to put them back on the ‘love, respect and trust track’. Our solidarity is the best shield against common danger. Disharmony and rivalry only earn infamy for all of us.”
A number of social activists who made comments did say there are retired and serving High Court judges who have shamelessly availed land with false affidavits, which is by itself a colossal ‘conflict of interest’ issue which, if ever resolved, could land greedy judges in big trouble. The so-called activists are only chasing a few unruly, populist, ignorant politicians who are incorrigible and not expected to protect the spirit and letter of the Constitution. But judges who have cheated the state should never be forgiven.
Independence Day is only four days to go. Some information about the judiciary in the colonial times: The major figure in the colonial court system was the magistrate (a local official with limited power), often called justice of the peace or, simply, judge. This person mostly dealt with petty crimes in his local area. The local trial courts in the colonies were commonly called county courts. Judges overseeing these courts were not professionals but usually religious or political leaders. Some colonies also had higher courts of appeal. As communities grew larger, they developed special courts to hear certain kinds of cases. Occasionally, appeals from these various courts would be taken back to England's courts. Rarely did colonial courts use juries or lawyers. In early colonial times it was difficult to assemble a jury in many areas since the settlements were so small and far apart. Juries mostly served only when the death penalty was involved. For petty crimes, a magistrate heard the case and decided the verdict.
Magistrates were fully in charge of the colonial court proceedings. These justices firmly believed their main role was to force a confession from the accused and make them repent for their sins. The goal was to bring order back to the society.
As the 17th century progressed and populations in the 13 colonies grew, the legal system became more similar to the English court system. Use of juries, dating back to medieval England, increased in the colonies as did the number of lawyers. By the 18th century, the jury trial was common. By 1730, the defendants were allowed to have defence lawyers. What hurts is that even after becoming independent, India keeps nurturing a colonial judiciary that follows the vicious practice of ‘judges choosing judges’ by the Collegium system, a cozy judicial club functioning as a super judiciary escaping public accountability and posing threat to the democratically-elected Governments. This system has promoted ineligible judges who keep intervening and nullifying real good, revolutionary measures taken by the Government. It seems India is independent in text only; in spirit, it is still in misery.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)