I have witnessed many proceedings during which acts of travesty stood validated and legalized by informal judicial decree, witnessed to by a horde of impotent lawyers dumbstruck as though paralyzed by the proverbial judicial phallus stuck up their derriere. What ensues is a blatant, intellectually degrading, rhetorical “sleight-of-hands” by the Tryer of Fact regardless of whether he/she is empowered by law to do so; public mockery that’s tangential to reason, logic, rationale, fair play; all one expects from a learned person of Honor, particularly the Judge. Evidence can never originate from a fictional source that does not exist! Except in India …and only when the Judge says so!
But let’s “think outside the Box” for a moment: were it not this way, our Criminal Justice System would be just another lackluster service-oriented government Department instead of what it is in reality today: The most lucrative, government-supported monopoly promising guaranteed returns and perpetual profits.
In a court system such as ours, where trial by jury has been substituted by Trial by Judge, no one dares challenge His Divine Honor’s “Supreme”, “Apodictic” ruling – and the matter becomes yet another whimsically created legal precedent…. Unless one has the resources and tenacity to proceed on to the risky appellate level. Nevertheless, a sizable majority of court patrons would rather not be tried by a jury of their peers. It’s just a “numbers thing” and commonsense economics. Rather than endeavor influencing twelve people on the Stand, wouldn’t you prefer dealing with just one?
Prudence usually dissuades one from pursuing the Mandamus route and having to reappear before a thoroughly pissed-off judge. Consequently, as a charitable display of some notional sensitivity toward the underdog, certain time-honored principles of Indian jurisprudence have been discretely omitted from the bestselling collection of nursery rhymes for aspiring little toddler jurists, “MAXIMS OF (in-)JUSTICE AND OTHER BEDTIME FABLES”, like f’rinstance:
“Don’t piss-off the Judge. Piss on the Defendant.”
“It is better that ten innocent men hang rather than let one guilty person escape justice.”
“Give ‘em a notional trial; then hang 'em."
“How to maintain a discrete, profitable understanding with the commission agents: The Cops.”
“Dissension is our business, and business is pretty damn good."
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