JUDGES AND JUSTICE IN INDIA

RRJ ( a recently retired judge of the Supreme Court ) has been in the news. Not for any landmark judgement..On the other hand for disgraceful and shocking reasons. When the whole Indian nation was angry and agitating against the horrifying gang-rape of a student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012; and when the angry young women and men were trying to enter the Rashtrapati Bhavan braving unprecedented police action and barricades for justice for NIRBHAYA ( the brave heart girl ), RRJ was doing things immoral. A law intern went to his hotel room to help him with his work. She never dreamt that the man whom she considered like her grandfather would touch her body with sexual intentions. But he did what he should not have done in a Nirbhaya (without fear of consequences) manner. She escaped without being seriouly assaulted  sexually. But she did not file any complaint then. Instead she wrote her unpleasant experience in her recent blog.  The Chief Justice of India suo motu constituted a three-judge panel to look into the allegations. The Pandora's Box is now opened. An FIR is filed by the Former Dean of the Law School that 3  other female law interns had similar sexual  abuse experiences. One of the 3 women also wrote her experience with the NIRBHAYA  RRJ. What will be the outcome of the panel's enquiry? The whole nation is keenly watching.

First Information Report is a mandatory responsibilty of the Police when a cognizable offence is reported to the police. But often this is not done by the police. It is common for the police officials to ask the complainant to go and get white papers and carbon sheets if he is not well-to-do. Often cases are not recorded. In many cases NCR (Non-Cognizable Offence Report) is given to the complainants who demand FIR.. The Supreme Court observes that  the police  stations do not file FIR in 6.5 million cases in a year. What a staggering negligence of investigative responsibilty? Some years ago, there was an upright Police Chief the late E.L.Stracey. At his request I made a study of  crime reporting in a residential locality in Madras. As Mr Stracey predicted, 68% of the crimes went unrecorded with an FIR. It was his view that police officials  would have  full knowledge of the criminals in their areas as the offenders regularly grease the palms of the policemen. The recent order of the Supreme Court that the police should mandatorily register FIRs in  all cognizable offences would change the criminal investigation system to a great extent.