CHIEF JUSTICE LAHOTI OUTBURST
We welcome long over due "confrontation" between judiciary & the legislature

For the first time in the history of "independent" India, we had a grand, a very welcome "confrontation" between the two creatures of the Constitution - the highest judiciary representing the ruling upper caste property-holders and the legislature, representing the people.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterji, Union Govt. and MPs and even Supreme Court Chief Justice Lahoti might have denied that it was not a "confrontation". This they said for public consumption. It was indeed eruption of the long bottled up fury against the higher judiciary. We are happy Chief Justice Lahoti pulled the cork and the fury flowed out.

Such a confrontation should have taken place long back but it was getting delayed and consequently the oppressed millions of India were denied social justice. DV references to the war, which we have continuously conducted against this anti-people higher judiciary, are cited on page 8. As the country's oldest and largest circulated journal of Dalits, treated as the lowest of the low, and all other persecuted nationalities denied human rights, we owe a duty to our constituency and we are doing it.

Courts blocking social justice: It is our considered opinion, which is also shared by the elected representatives of the people (state legislatures and Parliament), that the country's un-elected higher judiciary is consistently coming in the way of social justice to which the Constitution has given the highest priority. It is also our view that the country's micro-minority upper caste rulers, who have usurped the country's wealth and power, are increasingly depending on the judiciary to seek protection to their ill-gotten wealth and power and perpetuate their misrule. And the judiciary has been systematically obliging them.

Only one Dalit in Apex Court: Hence we welcome the latest confrontation between the two and the consequent frustrations of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is not Supreme. People are supreme. Sovereignty rests with the people. Not the courts. And the people have vested the power with the elected representatives, MPs and MLAs. And they exercise these powers on behalf of the people.

The un-elected judges, who are appointed like other govt. officials and draw their salaries from the Consolidated Fund, cannot be expected to understand the pain, the agony and the depth of the feelings of the exploited people reeling under upper caste tyranny. This is because the judges are mostly from the upper caste. Hence the need for reservation in higher judiciary.

There is only one Dalit judge in the entire Supreme Court and when the then President of India, Dr. K.R. Narayanan, proposed his name (Justice Balakrishnan) the then Chief Justice exploded. Not only that. The Brahminical Govt. then in power in Delhi conspired with the Chief Justice and transferred the power of appointing judges to the Supreme Court - thus finally barring the doors to the entry of judges from deprived sections.

Respect not given but taken: Justice Lahoti in his outburst in the court asked the govt. to "give the respect the courts deserve" (Hindu, Aug.24, 2005). Respect is not demanded but it is commanded.

The higher judiciary has been gradually losing the confidence of the people. How can it command the respect of the people? The Aug.23 outburst of the Chief Justice shocked even the Hindu nazi party MPs. Its spokesman, V.K. Malhotra, said Parliament had every right to maintain social harmony. CPM's Gurdas Dasgupta said "never before had such caustic remarks been made by the Supreme Court which contained elements of animosity and intolerance and undermined the Constitution".

Who is confronting whom: The outburst of the Chief Justice was on the issue of reservation to India's deprived destitutes. The upper castes have been using the higher judiciary to deny social justice to our people in the name of "merit".

To think these upper castes will have a change of heart one fine day and we wait for that day is futile. Wolves will never, ever love and sleep with lambs and protect them. Hence the need to separate the wolves from lambs.

Upper castes losing political power: We demand the issue of reservation to Dalits, Tribals, Backward Castes and religious minorities, comprising over 85% of our population, be brought under the 9th Schedule of the Constitution so that no court can fiddle with reservation. Because reservations are our human rights.

We are happy that the lava boiling inside the volcano has burst out. And it is now open. We welcome this confrontation signifying the sharpening of the social contradictions between the haves in the judiciary and the havenots represented by the legislature. The higher courts have been not only consistently blocking social justice but also infringing on the sovereignty of Parliament and the state legislatures. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterji himself has said this.

As more and more deprived sections of the society start opening their eyes and electing their representatives to the legislature, the upper castes will be losing their political power. The higher judiciary as the representatives of the upper castes is rushing to the aid of its jatwalas by trying to eat into the rights and privileges of the legislature.

The way-out is the govt. will have to take back the powers given to the Supreme Court to appoint judges. Pending a constitutional amendment to introduce reservation in higher judiciary, immediate steps must be taken to select judges from the socially deprived sections. The outburst of the Chief Justice must alert Delhi to act immediately. The anger of the people and the people's representatives should be made use to immediately pass such constitutional amendments.