Shoot down that cunning plot called Shariya courts!

After having miserably failed to create chaos in the country with a sinister motive to disintegrate the largest democracy called, Bharat, the hardcore communal forces masquerading as Messiahs of the perceived oppressed Minorities along with the notorious ‘tukde, tukde’ gang of crass anti-national elements, now have floated the mischievous idea of setting up the so-called ‘Shariya Courts’ for Muslim women which is nothing but a direct affront to the scheme of justice delivery mechanism enshrined in the Constitution of India.

The plot of establishing the Shariya Courts throughout the country aims at two goals viz. one, to send a message to the world that Muslims in India do not care two hoots for the Constitution of India and two, to extend ideological support to the nefarious and divisive activities of the IS and other similar banned Islamic groups of fanatics by subjugating country’s entire female population of Islamic faith to the savage practices of mediaeval age.

True, the said divisive plot smacks of political motives as the general elections in the country are just about a few months away. The plot has been obviously conceived on a shaky and false assumption that some hardcore fanatic Mullas and Moulvis still wield undue influence on Muslim population that would dance to their tunes. Therefore, not only the political parties with a majority of Muslim leaders governing the same but also other opposition parties have chosen to turn a Nelson’s eye to the illegal and unconstitutional move to set up the Shariya Courts.

But it would be a costly mistake for India just to take this idea of Shariya Courts lightly or merely as a poll gimmick. Clearly, it runs contra to the avowed principle of One Nation, One Law. The holy book of our democracy, the Constitution of India, clearly lays down necessary mechanism befitting to such lofty idealism.

Unfortunately, the past governments for their partisan gains had indulged in the ugly game of appeasement of Minorities which obviously benefitted the largest minority community of Muslims the most. The Nehruvian governments in the past not only scuttled the Constitutional provisions for uniting the country but created rift by allowing Muslims to have their fanciful Shariya regime that goes mostly against Muslim womanfolk instead of making them adhere to an uniform Civil Code.

Today, when the whole world is up in arms against Islamic fanaticism, we in India cannot afford to take a lenient view of such moves that are purely against the law of our land. These moves are apparently aimed at fuelling separatism and terrorism which can never be tolerated. The hidden agenda behind this well- orchestrated seems to incite the majority Hindu sentiments to strike back mercilessly so that the country once again engulfs in the worst communal holocaust with international portends. It is high time that such nasty activities were nipped in the bud, ruthlessly. Sooner the better.

Sharif, daughter jailed
Convicted former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam were arrested at Lahore airport upon their arrival from London in Avenfield reference case, also known as Panama leaks case. Later, they were shifted to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.

The conviction and imprisonment of one of the most powerful politicians comes at a time when the country is bracing up for the general elections slated to be held on July 25. Though there may or may not be some truth in the allegations of corruption, disproportionate assets and money laundering levelled by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the jet speed disposal of the case and timing of delivery of verdict and its execution are certainly the points that raise many eyebrows.

Except these points, we in India have to take a leaf from the Pakistan judiciary or the powers behind it and learn to prosecute and punish the criminals and other offenders irrespective of their social, political or economic status. People, in a democratic set up such as ours, have a fundamental right to speedy justice. And it is for the State to ensure that this very important right affecting all parties to a litigation is available without asking. Its negation means denial of the fundamental right.

In this context, recent observations of Justice Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court while delivering the third RNG Memorial Lecture on the subject, “Vision of Justice” are noteworthy. He said, “Not a reform but a revolution is what it needs, to be able to meet the challenges on the ground and to keep this institution serviceable for a common man and relevant for the nation.

Further, he added, “By micro level, what I mean is administration of justice on day-to-day basis. Here, the so called “inefficiency” and “slow processes” have been historical challenges...The judiciary today is not a poor workman who blames his tools, but it is a workman with no tools.”

True, hitherto tons of paper has been used to sermonise on this and that and volumes have been spoken by all the ‘stakeholders,’ but very little has been achieved. Now it augurs well that the tower of justice has taken call on the subject of piled-up cases.

Our stand vindicated
While taking note of the appreciable stand taken by the apex court in Mrinalini Padhi’s W.P (Civil) No. 649 of 2018 complaining about mismanagement and corruption in the temple of Jagannath at Puri and exploitation of the faithful by its employees, we had commented in these columns (The Hans India dated 11th June, 2018) as follows:

“The intervention of the apex court is timely and laudable. Today, when our umpteen number of places of faith are sadly plagued by mismanagement, corruption and exploitation of the faithful, this initiative by the highest court of the land is a welcome move in the right direction.” And we had added, “Having said so, let us also not exempt shrines of other religious faiths as the issues highlighted by the Supreme Court are common to all the religious places.

The apex court, in fact, has shown the strong stand to set right prevailing malpractices in the worship of all religions, otherwise the good move has the potentials to blow up as a discriminatory one and ultimately erupting into a major controversy.” Happily, by a subsequent order dated July 5 the Supreme Court has extended earlier order to cover all places of religious faith, thus, vindicating our stand.

Law Round Table
The Third Law Round Table will be held on July 20 at New Delhi. The theme of the event is, “Things I wish I learned in Law Schools”. Veteran jurist Jyoti Sagar will be the chief mentor, while the steering committee consists of eminent lawyers Dr Lalit Bhasin, Rupinder Suri, Justice Manju Goel, R Venkataramani and Sadhana Ramchandran.The Round Table will be held under the aegis of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF), a pioneer body of the Law Firms in the country.