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Krishan Mahajan
On October 10, when Adarsh Sein Anand takes over as India's 29th Chief Justice, he would bring with him not only many firsts but also the much needed moral capital. He will be India's first doctorate Chief Justice bringing back the tradition of scholarly expertise from criminal to constitutional law.
He is the first chief justice-designate who has openly talked about transparency, accountability and the need to justify people's faith in the judiciary itself. For the first time a Chief Justice of India is not only talking about speedy and inexpensive justice but organising legal aid as the strategic delivery arm for this purpose.
These many firsts are backed by his deep religious devotion from which springs his stern sense of judicial dignity by self-denial, Chief Justice of India Sabyasachi Mukharji was to reach Madras from Delhi when Justice Anand as the Chief Justice of Madras high court was sitting in the court.
Unlike several chief justices of India, Justice Anand did not shut down his court torush to receive Chief Justice S. Mukharji. He met him at the end of the day after finishing his court work while his registrar received with all courtesy and care the Chief Justice of India who equally recognised this value system.
Recently, when he was using Supreme Court holidays to boost the Lok Adalat in Orissa, he was informed that his wife Mala in Delhi had to undergo a major medical emergency. But he refused to use the state plane put at his disposal and landed in Delhi by a normal flight after his wife had already been operated upon.
That is why Chief Justice of India M. N. Venkatachaliah, who during a foreign trip put himself and his companion judges in the Paris Ramakrishna Mission to remain free of executive and private influence, described Justice Anand as a ``rare combination of a judge, constitutional lawyer, scholar and more than all a great human being whose personal charm and gracious relationship is matched and perhaps surpassed only by his great scholarship and penchant forjustice.''
No other Chief Justice of India-designate has been so commended. But all the firsts and the moral capital of Justice Anand will be tested by the concrete steps he takes to tackle three crucial problems.
Eight days after Mahatama Gandhi's birthday Justice Anand will head India's judicial family that is of course the most powerful but also the most troubled. In the absence of any publicly known and accountable norms of entry, continuation, transfer and elevation, the judicial family is in a constant state war.
The public management of judicial integrity and ability will be a test for Justice Anand as he inherits the thorny crown of secrecy-cum-contempt power. What he does with this inheritance will determine his ability to take the judiciary to the twenty-first century.
The tragic legacy of fifty years of politics, economics, the rule of law and unimplemented public interest litigation orders, requires a Chief Justice who can defy a group of fortune-hunting lawyers who have been ruling,devising, and capturing private legal business markets and official legal posts. This class is also the politically connected one that creates national and international associations with or without judges as patrons, talks a lot of human rights, uses the judicial connection to capture human right or legal aid posts and ensures its legal business market.
A Chief Justice who associates with this class gets trapped in the so-called VIP culture, foreign trips and a powerful coterie that subtly turns language and occasion to its business purpose. The tremendous urge and energy that exist in the bar for using the law as a service instrument can be released only when a Chief Justice puts an end to this culture of caucus.
With his vast experience at the bar and the courts -- judgeship of J&K at thirty-eight, chief justiceships of J&K and Madras high courts till his elevation in November 1991 to the apex court -- Justice Anand is uniquely placed to recognise this need.
That alone will put the vast army of thebar and the professionals of other disciplines at his disposal for turning the Legal Services Authorities Act into an instrument for reform of judicial administration of the courts within which legal aid itself has to ultimately function. Then the rest will follow: respect for the litigants' time; ensuring the availability of documents to litigants without any underhand practices, the punctuality of judges in attending their courts, the quantity and quality of legal aid work as criteria for rewards, people-oriented court information systems, time-bound judgments and implementation of court orders, and relevant legal education.
Till then asking the lawyers to stretch out their hands to someone who needs them will be subverted simply by not carrying out the Central Legal Service Authority's direction to put up a notice outside each court about the availability of a free lawyer. A new judicial working culture alone can restore people's faith in the judiciary.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers(Bombay) Ltd.
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