In a candid remark in open court,Supreme Court judge Justice A K Ganguly Friday said no government wants a strong judiciary. He made the observation while hearing the government explain the four-year gap between the filing of chargesheet in 2006 and starting of trial in 2010 in the Amar Singh phone-tapping case. Justice Ganguly had earlier disapproved of the governments attitude of encouraging Central minister Vilasrao Deshmukh despite the fact that the politician had been reprimanded by the SC for allegedly using influence to favour money lenders against the poor. Justice Ganguly had also asked the government why it had A Raja as telecom minister when his spectrum allocation was under CBI inquiry. On Friday,Justice Ganguly referred the delay in Singhs case as an ideal example of how an overworked judge has no choice but to lag on as the number of cases pile up. The Magistrate Court is currently loaded with 1522 cases,including 146 CBI cases and 400-odd Delhi Police ones. Strictly speaking,this case should have been over in three months, the court said. Everything is just on paper. Look at the distribution of judiciary, the judges said,naming poor working conditions of judges as the chief cause for the monumental delay in disposing cases. Justice Ganguly then recalled how former CJI R C Lahoti had,in one of his speeches,said that judicial presence is hardly about one-tenth of the required manpower. No government wants a strong judiciary, the judge stated,repeating himself for emphasis. The court directed Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising to address it on what the government was doing to curb the delay. Jaising assured she would do so after receiving complete instructions from the Centre. When a lawyer pointed out that an outstanding book Justice,Courts and Delays by Arun Mohan has been written on delays in courts,Justice Ganguly was ready with a repartee: But even that book is 2,000 pages.
