India Governed By Rule of Law
Pakistani citizen Ajmal Kasab has been found guilty of committing terrorist acts by the Mumbai court. There is no question that the Indian judicial system worked this time. He is clearly guilty. Testimony provided by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the trial also clearly shows that all the gunmen came from Pakistan. Whether the attacks had the “blessings” of Pakistani government agencies is irrelevant. Pakistan should be held accountable just based on the fact that it was carried out by their citizens from their soil.
After the verdict the Home Minister P Chidambaram has made some statements that are baffling to say the least. He said that “The court has convicted certain accused. It has also acquitted two accused. That shows the independence, fearlessness and integrity of the court”. How can such a high profile case be used as an example of the independence, fearlessness and the integrity of the Indian judicial system?
The Indian judicial system clearly is one of the best in when you compare it to the rest of the developing nations. But is it remotely close to that of the developed nations? Indians who are familiar with our civil and criminal court proceedings know that it almost impossible to get a verdict in a case within year. So the Mumbai bombing trial is the exception and not the norm.
The Home Minister added “I am satisfied that within a year we have been able to bring a verdict of conviction of a large number of accused in perhaps a very complex trial. The trial underlines the fact that India is a country governed by rule of law. A criminal trial can only proceed step by step and within a year, the prosecution has been able to get conviction”. But what about the Indians who are waiting for justice although their cases are decades old?
According to Supreme Court of India there are approximately 25 million cases pending in the Indian court system. It will take centuries for these cases to be resolved at the current rate. Indian judges and other employees of the court system are very poorly paid compared to other professions. This and other factors like lack of judges have lead to wide spread corruption, bribery and political interference. The reality is that very few Indians “trust” the Indian judicial system.
India like many developing nations does not have a lot of success stories. So the successes we have are typically blown out of proportion. This is true when we talk about our space programs and its achievements, Sania Mirza and tennis or our IT “revolution”. We can claim to be only good at something when the majority of us are good at it.
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- India Moving Away From the Death Penalty
Category: News & Government