'A former trial court judge has been sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for taking Rs 2,000 as bribe in a 26-year-old case. Saying a judge's ethical firmness is the need of the hour, special CBI judge V K Maheshwari held former judge Gulab Tulsiyani (74) guilty of demanding and accepting bribe for disposal of a factory challan case in 1986. Tulsiyani was a metropolitan magistrate at Patiala House court at that time. The judgement reads as as follows:
"Judicial office is an office of public trust, therefore, high integrity, honesty and ethical firmness is the requirement of society from the judge. A judge's conduct is expected to be judged by standards higher than that expected from any other public servant. The confidence in judiciary is getting shattered day by day. Today judiciary is suffering from self-inflicted wounds... " the court said while imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on Tulsiyani.
The court, however, suspended its sentence till May 28 after the convict expressed his wish to appeal against his conviction. While releasing him on interim bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with a surety of the same amount, it asked Tulsiyani to appear before it on May 29.’
When we read such news items, if not anything, the blood pressure of any honest citizen (if at all anyone of this blessed country!) is bound to shoot up. Pray, what type of nation we live in? Is this case such a complex one which needed to be heard for 26 long years to give a verdict like this? Anyway, this is not going to stop here as the accused is bound to move to High and then Supreme Court if necessary to prove his ‘innocence’.
Similar is the case of Bangaru Laxman’s judgment after 11 years. John David, a murderer of a college student Navarasu was nabbed only after two decades. He was at large and also working in an IT firm at Chennai. He had done a cold blooded murder of his junior, that too the son of a Vice Chancellor and almost got away with it. Sankararaman’s murder inside the Kanchi temple case is still going on!
At this rate one can foresee when and what sort of judgments will come for the cases of 2G Scam, Adarsh Housing and CWC Games scandals.
India seems to be degenerating in ethics, integrity and honesty every day rapidly. If one opens to newspaper in the morning he is fed with news on graft, murder, scam, cheating and countless road accidents.
True. We claim that we live in a fast world; but when it comes to the court proceedings we should be slowest in the whole world. We prefer to deny justice by delay. I feel like laughing when I recall the stories like the Tamil Chozha King trampled his son to death through the chariot wheels because he had killed a cow-calf in his chariot wheels or the tale of Emperor Sibi who offered his pound of flesh to a vulture for saving a pigeon.
We are good in spinning stories and fooling the people and ourselves.
