Opinion JPC at last
Wisdom and good sense have prevailed.
JPC at last
Wisdom and good sense have prevailed. The Prime Minister has announced the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). One wonders why the same spirit of accommodation and understanding did not prevail earlier which could have avoided the loss of a full parliamentary session. The Opposition was unyielding in its demand for a JPC and the government was equally intransigent in its refusal. At best,it looked like childish obstinacy on both sides. At worst,it smacked of intimidatory pressure tactics by the Opposition. The PMs statement that owing to special circumstances,the demand for a JPC has been conceded,has been criticised on the grounds that it impliedly suggests that the decision was taken under coercion. This is strange. If the demand for a JPC is not granted,the government is lambasted and when it is conceded,motives are attributed for the decision. There is no appreciation of the fact that thanks to the governments decision,the real possibility of disruption by the Opposition of the Budget session,which would certainly have not been in national interest,has been obviated. Assuming there was coercion at times,discretion is the better part of valour.
Intemperate judicial remarks
Of late,there has been an unfortunate tendency on the part of some judges to make off the cuff adverse remarks and pass strictures on a class of litigants who are appearing in a case before them. I am informed that some judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court,before whom I am privileged and happy to appear,have indulged in unwarranted indiscriminate remarks against real estate developers and builders and described them as thieves and fraudsters who are looting the nation. If my information is correct,such judicial conduct is thoroughly unacceptable because it destroys litigants confidence in fair and unbiased administration of justice. If judges have pre-conceptions about a class of litigants,they should recuse themselves and not hear their cases.
Recently,a PIL has been filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court assailing Justice Srikrishnas report on Telangana. The judge who is hearing the PIL writ petition after he was shown some parts of the copy of the Justice Srikrishna report,flared up and is reported to have said,It is all a tissue of lies. If that be true,this judicial conduct is highly regrettable and betrays lack of judicial restraint and decorum. I understand that the Government of India is taking appropriate proceedings in the matter. Judges should realise that sitting up on the Bench does not give them a licence to indulge in intemperate tirades in general and which are not warranted or occasioned by the facts of a particular case before them. The urge to make media headlines must be eschewed. And what applies to High Court judges should apply equally or rather with greater force to judges of the Supreme Court. Noblesse oblige.
Krishnas UN faux pas
Our Foreign Minister SM Krishna has been the butt of jokes for reading the Portuguese Foreign Ministers speech in the UN instead of his own setting out our governments position. How did this egregious error occur? Moreover,one wonders why the FM did not quickly realise that what he was reading was someone elses speech,which could have little in common with our governments stand. However Krishna took the faux pas in his stride and cool as cucumber he observed,these things do happen.
Actually they do. It happened in a case in England before the celebrated judge Lord Eldon. The Solicitor General in his opening argued with gusto all the submissions of the opposite side. When the Court brought this to his notice,the unflappable SG said,My lords,I have fairly argued all the points which could be urged by the other side. I shall now demolish each of them. And he proceeded to do so brilliantly to the admiration of his clients and to the anguish of the opposite side. Mind you,I am not putting our FM in the category of the SG of UK. God forbid that I should make such a faux pas.
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