Your Honour, Your Balance!

Whether it is found in the actual Courtroom or not, in movies we see a statue of the Angel of Justice blindfolded holding a physical balance (scale) in her hand.  She is said to be reminding the judge concerned to be impartial and weigh the case on hand – the crime against the  arguments, evidence and witnesses.
Late M Karunanidhi,  during his tenure as Chief Minister (2006-11) established libraries in major temples in the State.  Each library was supposed to hold texts of Bhakti and Vedanta. However, in reality with Hindu Religious Charitable and Endowment funds,  cunningly he placed Holy Bible & Quran and atheist works of Dravidian writers along with Hindu religious texts.  For this ‘ great service to Hinduism ‘, in one of the public functions,  a Justice of Supreme Court, compared MK with Sekkizhar (12th Century CE), Chief Minister in Chola Raja’s court and a Poet. Sekkizhar’s monumental work known as Periya Puraanam is a compilation of the life histories and services of 63 Nayanmars, Saivite saints. In that event, this Justice hailing from TN intending to flatter MK made an atrocious statement of had Sekkizhar been alive in these times would have sung the services of MK first and then only the Nayanmars!  And we are told that Judges are expected to be balanced and composed in their appearance, utterances and conduct.
Why all these now, you may wonder. Last week, we all had the ‘privilege’ of hearing the words from Noble men of Judiciary. Consider the following two:
⦁ ‘Beg, borrow, steal’: Delhi HC pulls up Centre on oxygen scarcity in hospitals for COVID patients (April 20 )
⦁ Election Commission is responsible for Covid-19 surge, must face murder charges: Madras High Court (April 26)
Indian Constitution has clearly defined the respective roles of Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Further, the architects of our Constitution had the vision of maintaining a balance between the above three branches. Is it happening in reality? There are conflicting views from the legal fraternity itself on the Judicial overreach and hyper activism for quite some years. For example, in the above two instances (Delhi and Madras High Courts) many in the public feel that the remarks of the honorable judges are more emotional outbursts than experts’ view. Why these moves could not be considered as encroaching upon the turf of an independent constitutional body, that is Election Commission, one wonders.  When Lordships make such grandiose statements, can the Media lag behind? For the next three days, electronic media and social media fed each other to attack Modi and Edappadi Governments. That is nothing new. However, the unintended by-product was some of the activists aiming shots at the Judiciary for not exhibiting the activism in time while the political parties were violating the Covid 19 safety rules.
We recapitulate the DMK regime of 2006-11. In those times, most of the lower courts soft-pedalled the cases against the ruling party members. Prominent among them was the torching of the Madurai office of Dinakaran Tamil daily, in which two employees lost their lives. However, a few judges of the High Court had the nerve to be independent. Even this could not be stomached by MK and his men. In one of the official functions in Madras High Court in January 2007, in the presence of CM and Chief Justice, Arcot N Veerasamy, the then Electricity Minister criticized the attitude of the members of Judiciary and questioned whether they had descended from the heavens. To top it, CM Karunanidhi said that ‘somebody was needed to bell the cat and Veerasamy took the lead. Everyone knew pretty well that Veerasamy was only echoing the voice of his master.
Coming back to the physical balance or a weighing scale, we are reminded of the saintly words of Tiruvalluvar.  As a scale essentially stays put at Zero position (not leaning towards any side) at rest as well as while weighing,  wise and noble men remain impartial at all times ( சமன்செய்து சீர்தூக்குங் கோல்போல் அமைந்தொருபால் கோடாமை சான்றோர்க் கணி.Tirukkural No. 118)
For the media to gain supremacy, sensationalism is more important than balance. Hence, we citizens of this country do not believe much in them. However, we still do trust you, My Lord.