By

B.N.Gururaj, Advocate

Today's newspapers report that after the Supreme Court collegium meeting yesterday, no decision was taken. It simply means that the Supreme Court will not do anything to drop the name of CJ Dhinakaran from the approved list of Five Supreme Court judges. Now, presumably, it is left to the Exeuctive, i.e., the Prime Minister to decide on the issue and recommend to the President to return the name to the Collegium of Judges.

But, will the Executive, i.e., the Prime Minister do this? As it is, the Judiciary is a holy cow, even if it were smeared by dung and all. So far, the Executive has initiated no action against judges, even when the CJI himself has recommended action. Example Justice Soumitra Sen's case of impeachment motion. Hardly anything has happened until this day, except submission of memorandum to the Speaker of Lok Sabha, though the CJI's recommendation is nearly a year old.

Now, if the Prime Minister refrains from acting and recommends to the president not to appoint CJ Dhinakaran, he will become the judge of the Supreme Court. If this were to happen, who can really stop a judge alleged of being corrupt, from discharging his judicial functions. Only the Bar can do so by boycotting the tainted judge's court.

But, it seems that the Bar itself is becoming a divided house in this matter. The day before yesterday, Mr.Shanti Bhushan, in his stridency against Corrupt Judge becoming the judge of Supreme Court uttered that the CJI being a Dalit, was going soft on CJ Dhinakaran's issue as the latter was also a Dalit.

Now, this has caught attention of a section of advocates, especially in Bangalore, with a backward community senior counsel opining that the statement of Mr.Shanti Bhushan amounts to "atrocity" under the Schedule Castes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act! Either the careless words from Mr.Shanti Bhushan, or the opportunism of casteist advocates will ultimately enable CJ Dhinakaran to become a Judge of the Supreme Court.

It would seem that the reputation of the Judiciary in India has touched the nadir. Or is there any more place to go down?