A matter of concern over the last week goes back to two years from now when demonetisation was implemented without adequate preparatory arrangements. The other thing of concern is the plight of under-trials in the jails of our country and the sad state of affairs in the related (criminal) justice delivery system.
Last week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance headed by Congress MP Veerappa Moily was informed regarding the impact of demonetisation on the agriculture, labour and employment and micro, small and medium enterprise sectors. The report from the Ministry of Agriculture inter alia said demonetisation came at a time when farmers were engaged in either selling their Khariff crops or sowing Rabi crops. Both these operations required huge amounts in cash, which was removed from the market by the demonetisation. The report said: India’s 263 million farmers live mostly in the cash economy. Millions of farmers were unable to get enough cash to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops. This was not confined to small land holders but included in its fold the bigger ones. The bigger landlords faced a serious problem in paying daily wage to farmers and in purchasing agricultural needs for the growing crops. The National Seed Corporation failed to sell 1.38 lakh quintals of wheat seeds because of the cash crunch. The sales failed to pick up even after the government, subsequently, allowed use of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 for wheat seed sales. Reliable sources indicate that the Standing Committee had sent a team of bureaucrats from the Agriculture Ministry as the Secretary of the Ministry did not show up. Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi, a member of the committee, raised the question whether the government was aware of a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy that stated that 1.5 million jobs were lost between January and April 2017 post demonetisation. Over 17 per cent of the seeds produced by the National Seeds Corporation remained unsold following demonetisation. Around 263 million farmers were adversely affected.
It is already known that most of the money withdrawn was back in circulation. The damage done to the unorganised sector is quite well-known. In this scenario, singing the praise of demonetisation, even through laudatory reports from the Labour Ministry, would not inspire public confidence. Speaking at a rally in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Modi said he used the “bitter medicine” of demonetisation to bring black money into the banking system and give “proper treatment to the deep-rooted corruption system”. There appears to be a large gap between the hype and the truth. The MSME sector and the informal sectors, including service-based industries, got a severe blow by the adventurous announcement of demonetisation.
Again over last week, the Supreme Court called upon the government to state whether it viewed the under-trial prisoners and children who suffered primeval conditions in jails and observation homes as “human beings”. The world average of under-trial prisoners is around 18-20%. In India these prisoners accounted for 62%. Two Supreme Court Judges, Justice UU Lalit and AK Goel (now retired) visited the Faridabad jail and observation home to understand the extent of horror of the living conditions of the inmates. Subsequently, a Bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta expressed their anxiety in noticing that officials hardly went out of their offices to visit these prisons or observation homes. The judges painfully observed, “Just go and have a look… Your officials do not know because they have never been to a jail or observation home. They do not step out. Taps are leaking, no whitewash, clogged sewage, toilets not working…. The situation is very pathetic.” This disturbed the conscience of the judges. Justice Lokur went on to observe, “The whole thing has become a joke… Do these people have no rights? Are they even seen as human beings? These are children… Are these children not citizens of our country? Please visit these jails and observation homes.” The Supreme Court compared the condition of the under-trial prisoners and the juveniles in observation homes with that of influential prisoners, who watched TV shows on sofas and “enjoy life” in prisons. The judge further observed, “Is there a parallel system running in jails? Do they (the influential prisoners) have special rights? What have you done about Tihar jail?” The last observation relied upon media reports. The judges commented, “He (the prisoner) is enjoying TV and God knows what all he is enjoying.” There has been a judgment of Supreme Court regarding the grant of bail to under-trial prisoners, who had undergone incarceration for more than half the period of maximum punishment for the offence they are charged with. The judgment remains a mute witness. There is no resort to “continuing mandamus” in the hands of the judges of the High Court. Two Odisha Chief Justices BL Hansaria and BN Agarwal were the last who had implemented the spirit of the judgment and released large numbers of under-trials from jails following the dictum of the Supreme Court. This requires immediate attention of the judiciary and the executive so that we do not have overcrowded prisons with almost non-existent amenities of elementary living. Another ancillary aspect of criminal law administration and the delivery of justice also engaged the attention of the Supreme Court over the last week. There are forensic laboratories, both in the Central and State levels, to evaluate and examine crucial evidence, which could decide between life and death in many criminal cases. The involvement and role of the laboratories have expanded of late with the emergence of cyber crimes and drug-related offences. Forensic laboratories also play a very crucial role in utilising medical evidence to crack sex crimes. A two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, consisting of Justices Madan Lokur and Deepak Gupta described the prevalent situation in the forensic laboratories as “utter chaos and chaos”. A document available to the court shows that the vacancies (in the country) in the man-power in forensic laboratories are alarmingly high. At the same time, there has been an increase of cases in the trial courts; and under-trial prisoners continue to languish in jails. This document of November 20 reveals that 164 posts out of 450 in six Central Forensic Science Laboratories under the Directorate of Forensic Science Services are lying vacant. The Central Bureau of Investigation has 87 vacancies out of 184 sanctioned posts in its forensic laboratories. It was highlighted that 40% of the total 7,582 sanctioned posts in the 31 forensic labs are vacant. This takes to a figure of 3,685 vacancies in State Governments’ forensic laboratories. In Uttar Pradesh, out of the 1,132 sanctioned posts, the forensic laboratory has 830 of them vacant. “That makes it an 80% vacancy,” Justice Lokur had to remark. Similarly, in Bihar, the forensic laboratory had 126 vacancies out of a total sanctioned strength of 191 posts. In Tamil Nadu, the forensic laboratory has 124 vacancies out of 496. In Delhi, there are 78 vacancies out of 318 sanctioned posts.
The requirements for good governance and a growth-oriented administration, the agriculture and MSME sectors and the justice delivery system (especially in the administration of criminal laws) demand immediate focussed attention so that the enormous mass of youth power is not handicapped because of neglect of either agriculture or basic law and order administration. Sometimes, the obvious is not noticed. The local Legislative Assembly functions for the critically-required number of days; and you do not have the doors of the temple of democracy open for debating out these issues. Under such circumstances, these problems have to be thrashed out and remedial measures implemented by the civil society and especially by the activists therein. But this does not involve a sectarian interest.
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. (jayantdas@hotmail.com )