Indian Judicial System: Beyond religion and emotions

The Indian judicial system is very much complex and confusing according to me. I know as I have written a very big line so it’s my responsibility to give a very strong reason to support my views. As we know that when a person is arrested for commission of an offence he has a number of ways to prove himself innocent if he really is innocent. From subordinate court to the highest court of our land i.e. the Apex Court he has the opportunities to give or present his views before the court. Not only this much if the person is imprisoned than he has a right of remedies under article 72 and article 161 of the constitution of India. He has the right to appeal in the superior court if the party is not satisfied with the judgment of the court.

The main purpose of this blog is not to discuss about the rights of the people but to express the views of a common man like me and like you all reading this blog. Before the conviction of the terrorist Yakub Menon and even after, there was a huge contradiction among different sections of the people regarding his conviction. Many questions were raised by different people of our own country and frankly speaking I would love to answer these questions. The first question and the foremost question was that, Death Penalty is given in our country on the basis of religion. And this all is because of government.

So, now it’s my turn to answer. The people who raised this question are either very clever or unknown about the laws of our country. I am saying them clever because they are aware about this fact that they don’t have the power to raise questions about the judgment of the Court. So, by taking the name of the government they are indirectly blaming the Indian Judiciary. And I am saying them unaware about the law because, in our country almost everyone knows that it is not the government to decided conviction or acquittal to any person but it is only the sole duty of the court. However, a report by Death Penalty Research Project of the National Law University (NLU), Delhi shows that of the 1,414 prisoners in the available list of convicts hanged in post-Independence India, only 72 are Muslims. According to a report published in English daily, this is not even 5 per cent of the total executions. It is very much disappointing that some of the people are raising these types of questions. Why they forget this thing that they are the son of the World’s largest democratic and secular country.

Now moving to the second question which is raised by many people all over the world and especially by the families of the convicts. The question is that the punishment of such convicts should be commuted who are the only breadwinners of their family or who has a family after him.

Now it’s answer time. Truly speaking, when a person is convicted he is not alone to suffer the conviction but along with him his whole family suffers that conviction. The conviction of grief, pain, tears, and disrespect in the society. But this is not at all the fault of the court. As we know for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction {Newton’s third law of motion}. So, when a person commits something wrong or unlawful act then he is liable for the punishment. As a law student I have got the privilege to meet some of the judges of different levels of court. And when I asked them a question that how does you feel after giving conviction to a person who has done something wrong and believe me friends I got same answer from everyone that they feel that they are convicting their own son, brother or friend. They say that after sitting in the highest chair of the court they have only one religion and relationship that is Justice.

Everyone say this that Indian Court’s are very slow but they never accept or say this fact that the same court’s provide a number of chances to everyone to prove their innocence if they are really innocent. Indian judicial system is such a great judicial system which provides chance to prove innocence to even such a terrorist who have been caught while committing the offence before everyone. Yes I am speaking about kasab. This is not possible in any judicial system of this whole world. I am proud that the highest court of my land gave chance to express the views and to clarify the point of views of the convicts even before few hours of their execution. On the day of execution of surinder koli the then chief justice of India {Retd.}Justice R.M Lodha along with two more judges heard a plea to stay the execution of koli at around 1:30 am on his residence. The same chance has been given to Yakub Menon only the place of hearing the petition and final decision of the judges were different.

This is only possible only in Indian Judicial System. So, in place of criticizing the Judicial System and Government the people should encourage and support them.

Satyam mishra

3rd year law student

S.K Acharya Institute of Law,kalyani

Email_id: satyamnotty001@gmail.com