In India, scams are like the daily garbage that we have to cross on our roads everyday. You just can’t avoid the foul stench of garbage anywhere you go, on your way to a temple, on your way to the office, on the way to the hospital…scamsters are determined thieves, convinced that stealing other people’s money and wasting it is perfectly justified use of whatever administrative power they have. There are scams everywhere, from sports to politics and religion. However, in this rush of scams, the democracy still works, with peaceful democratic people going about their daily work with whatever dignity they seem appropriate and complying to demands of price rise and tv advertisements. One reason, why the democracy still works (well, almost… perfectly), is because in India, we still have a Supreme Court, an entity that has been always looked upon as an emblem of justice and integrity. The reason behind that every court decision can be appealed against in the Supreme Court when the convicted (and his/her lawyer too) feels injustice is being done. However, when scams involving the judiciary sometimes emerge, this same judicial system sometimes dictates verdicts, that leaves space for the question that if the judiciary is corrupt, then who is there to judge? (Personally, I would leave that to divine powers and the law of Karma and stuff).
Such questions found some vent in a recent CBI court judgment regarding the Ghaziabad judiciary PF scam. Now what the hell is this new scam tamasha, you may wonder!! It is a pretty wonderful scam actually, where some of the most (respected) members of the judiciary (more precisely, Ghaziabad district court) were proven to be guilty of siphoning off the Provident Fund money of Class III and IV employees of the Ghaziabad district court. Is not it quite funny to think that the judges will do something this cheap, yet they did that actually, and the total money siphoned off between 2001 and 2007 amounts to some Rs 6.58 Crores. This is of course quite a petty money, considering the many lakhs of crores of black money stashed in Swiss banks, but it was kind of sufficient for the (honored ???) judges to spend it on electronic gadgets, household appliances, laptops, rail tickets and even taxi fare. (I would also like to think that a great deal was spent in alcohol and also on some socializing…ahem ; ) .
I mean what were these people (accused judges) thinking? Did not the government paid them their salaries or was it just the case of an over demanding desire to exploit poor people…people do not ask much questions nowadays unfortunately.
As of now how the case stands is somewhat like this. On 31st March, CBI Special Additional Districts Courts Judge A.K Singh decided to grant bail to six accused, brushing aside the objection of CBI lawyer V.K Verma and the case hearing has been adjourned till April 13th. Of course, the six accused judges, R.P. Yadav, Arun Kumar, R.P. Mishra, A.K. Singh, R.N. Mishra and R.S. Chaubey, were granted bail on conditions of furnishing dual bail bonds of 1 lakh each and an immovable property surety. One noteworthy point here is that the six accused were present in the court all day, seated in the last bench of the court room. To think of the humiliation of ones who had been accustomed to seat on the Judge’s seat, dispensing Justice to people !!! Well, if you ask me, they should have thought better not to steal the money of Class III and IV employees, that’s utmost cheap. Even the lawyers of the judges were unable to deny that the judges were not corrupt. The argument of the defense lawyer was centered around the discrepancy in the figures of the money stolen. Now, that is a great point to argue really, because the real money stolen facts never come out. Think how much surprised we will be if you get to know the total amount of money stolen.
Ok, and there’s some Googly too. This PF scam probe is Supreme Court monitored probe which has hereby witnessed the mysterious death of a prime accused and witness Ashutosh Asthana. Before dying, Asthana actually gave out the name of 30 judges involved in the scam, of which only six retired judges were thought fit for a judicial review. Why leave the rest 24 (?)...well, as usual there is no clear answer, which by the way seems somewhat obvious.
As a concerned citizen and a very positive person, the writer here sincerely hopes that the Honorable Judicial System does not fail in cleaning the corruption within the system itself, especially now when Honorable Chief Justice S.H Kapadia is at the helm of the judiciary. With Justice Kapadia’s impeccable integrity and his interests including Theoretical Physics and Buddhist Philosophies, this writer, along with the nation hopes that the scales of justice are in perfect balance and justice is delivered to amend such cheap acts such as stealing from the provident funds of class III and IV employees.
Time we clean the garbage. Only good intentions are needed, the rest will fall in order I guess.
______a freelance writer_____
References.
- http://in.news.yahoo.com/provident-fund-scam-accused-judges-bail-20110331-102134-431.html
- http://www.hindustantimes.com/Suicide-puts-spotlight-on-witness-safety/Article1-674256.aspx
- http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/judges/bio/sitting/hsk.htm
- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/132286/india/judges-should-not-lecture-the-society-says-cji-s-h-kapadia.html
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