Do you think that when it comes to corruption cases, the high and mighty are treated favourably by courts compared to ordinary citizens? Justify. (200 Words)
Rule of Law is a basic feature of Indian Constitution. It essentially boils down to the premise that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law irrespective of status, power or wealth. However, last six decades of Indian experience has led us to believe in the contrary and in a regime where rich have subverted law especially in corruption cases by using money and muscle power and poor have been victimized by the same.
Though, judgments in the 2G Scam, Coal Scam or Fodder Scam did give hope, the larger picture especially with the recent events have belied this trend. A common course has been to pin-point the blame on the judiciary. However, to pin-point all the blame on judiciary is more of a speculation rather than based on reasonable arguments. On the contrary, it has been judiciary through activism and at-times unintended over-reach has brought bring justice to the masses. Further, being open to public in comparison to other elements of Criminal Justice System, it has been consequently more scrutinized than them.
The reasons for the problem lie in other levers of Criminal Justice System. This starts right from formulation of laws with loopholes, to Police filing of FIR, to investigation, to prosecution and them to judgement. Muscle and Money power has been found to be highly influential in stages of filing of FIR and investigation. Also, during prosecution inadequate protection by police to witnesses, complex procedures and subversions by quality legal aid [which can be afforded only by rich] have served the interests of rich.
Thus, blaming the judiciary is akin to missing the woods for the trees. Though, Judiciary can’t be absolved of all the blame for the actual perception, the deeper fault lies somewhere else.
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Recent example of Attacks and killing of witnesses in Asha Ram Bapu Case.