SOME COMMENDABLE COURT DECISIONS

The front pages of newspapers on May 14^th were all about the conquering ladies, Mamata Banerjee in Bengal and Jayalalithaa in Tamilnadu. Mamata had made history, decimating the Communists in Bengal and laying claim to the chief ministership of the State just 13 years after launching her Trinamul Congress party. Jayalalithaa had engineered a massive defeat  for the ruling DMK alliance, and regained the chief minister’s chair.

In the euphoria of these feats, little attention might have been given to some important news in the inside pages. The Hindustan Times (Delhi Edition) carried four court judgements that showed courage and conscience on the part of the courts - the Supreme Court of India and the Allahabad High Court.

The Allahabad High Court seemed to have made some amends for its highly questionable “safe” judgement it had passed a few months ago on the Babri Masjid title case and which the Supreme Court had rightly thrown out recently.  This time its verdict on the UP Government’s Land Acquisition in Noida showed some teeth. It set aside the acquisition of some 150 hectares in the Chak Shahberi village and 70 hectares of land in Surajpur area of Greater Noida. The land belonging to poor farmers was acquired by the government for industrial purposes but was sold to developers on relaxed conditions. The developers had built houses and sold them – and I guess, made a killing on the back of the poor. More houses were being built. The court has stood by justice for the farmers against the power of government and the might of the developers. The land is to be returned to the farmers.

The Supreme Court came down heavily on police officers involved in fake encounters and recommended them the death penalty, labelling fake encounters “cold blooded brutal murder by persons who are supposed to uphold the law” which should be treated as “rarest of rare” offence. A few days earlier the Supreme Court had recommended death sentence also for those who perpetrate “honour killings.”

In another significant judgment the Supreme Court quashed the Karnataka Assembly Speaker’s decision to disqualify 16 MLAs hours before the October 11, 2010 no-confidence motion against the Yeddyurrppa government.

In still another judgment that gave importance to human life rather than profit, a bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia directed a freeze on the killer pesticide endosulfan. The Court banned the production, sale and use of the pesticide for the next eight weeks all over India. (I wonder why eight weeks?). It also directed authorities to freeze the production licence granted to the manufacturers till its next order.

In these judgments, the Supreme Court of India and the Allahabad High Court have clearly taken a stand on behalf of the powerless against the powerful, besides upholding justice. And this is very commendable, indeed!