The ongoing tussle between Justice Karnan of Calcutta High Court and the 7 Supreme Court Judges has exposed the fault-lines in the Indian Judicial system. The fault-lines run much deeper than what is apparent from this ongoing tussle between Justice Karnan and SC Judges.

The non-representative, exclusionary, un-diversified social composition of the Supreme Court and High Court Judges is the root cause for these fault-lines in the Indian Judiciary.

Indian Judiciary is the outright fiefdom of “select few castes” out of 6500+ castes that Indian society is made of.

Whenever, as an exception, a person outside this group of “select few castes” makes entry into this closely guarded power structure of higher judiciary, the whole system starts operating in a way that person from outside the “select few castes” is thrown out of this system.

The OBCs constitute just 12% of the total number of judges in the lower judiciary.

The SCs are represented by 14% and the STs are about 12% the lower judiciary.

Source: Times of India, 28 January 2018

The cases of Justice Ramaswamy- the only Supreme Court judge who faced the process of impeachment, Justice Dinakaran who was forced to resign, and now Justice Karnan, are ample examples to prove the hostility of the judicial system towards the Judges coming from the Schedules castes and Backward castes. Even the most brilliant and high calibre person like Retired Chief Justice of Supreme Court Justice Balakrishnan had to face the wrath of this system after his retirement.

For Indian judiciary to become functionally efficient, the non-transparent collegium system for selection of Judges in the higher judiciary should be done away with at the earliest. A national level judicial commission like UPSC should replace the collegium system to make appointments to the higher judiciary. Secondly, the government should make the higher judiciary more inclusive, one that has representation from a social cross-section of the Indian society. The country cannot afford to live with an inefficient judicial system fully controlled by representatives of “select few castes”.

Ever since, former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan retired on May 11, 2010, no judge belonging to the Scheduled Caste has been elevated to the Supreme Court. Also, none of the current high court chief justices belong to the Scheduled Caste, which comprises over 16 percent of the country’s population. It is a similar story in the case of Scheduled Tribes as well. [Source]

Caste bias is not hidden in caste-ridden Indian judiciary and Dalit Judges are ignored despite their seniority.

The relation between caste and the judiciary is a 2006 interview of noted constitutional expert and jurist Fali Nariman during the release of his book India’s Legal System where he states,

“Former law minister P. Shiv Shankar, a Dalit, told me that as policy, in some states, if two justices have to be sworn in on the same day, the guy from the preferred community is sworn in first, so that the guy from the non-preferred community doesn’t supersede him in becoming chief justice”.

Did you know? There is a Manu (of Manusmriti, law book of Brahmins) statue in front of the Rajasthan High Court.

The low rates of conviction for crimes committed against Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities is mainly because of the upper-caste judiciary which has no understanding of lives of Dalits, violence, and oppression that Dalits face on daily basis.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes in its report of 2011 inter-alia recommended the constitution of a National Judicial Commission for making an appointment to the Superior Courts. In this regard, the Government enacted the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment)Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 w.e.f 13.4.2015. The Supreme Court vide Judgment dated 16.10.2015 has struck down both the Acts as unconstitutional and void. [Source]

Can Dalits-Muslims expect justice from such Brahmin courts? Is there any justice for Dalits and minority communities in Brahmin India? In courts around 80% judges are Brahmin, can we expect justice? Dalits die waiting years and years for justice, which is just a word for Dalits and minority communities in India. Recently, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, the lone survivor of Khairlanji Dalits massacre died waiting for justice from Brahmin courts. Will things ever change for Dalit-Bahujans in Indian judicial system?

Author – Jayanti Pathri and Velivada Team

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