D Nagarjuna
Until proven guilty, all are innocent is an adage of the past. Somehow this seems to have undergone some metamorphosis. Now it’s difficult to gauge whether those outside are guilty or those inside jails are innocent. Whether they are inside or outside, the media doesn’t spare to conduct its own trial. The less said the better it is for social media.
In yesteryears going to jail, and getting a bail were serious matters sans publicity but these days it looks more frequent accompanied by high drama while going inside or exiting the jail. Flowers, bouquets, and slogans either way. Pretty heroic giving an impression to common people that perhaps going to jail, getting bail, and media publicity are necessities in one’s life to go up the political ladder.
The number of people who have become chief ministers after coming out of jail is increasing and one day one wonders whether this will be an essential qualification rather than a desirable need like in government appointments. Naidu could garner more sympathy for coming out of jail and returning to power with a thumping majority.
The sanctity that courts used to give to bail and jail has eroded and people are seeing this as a mockery either way. This happens when investigating agencies are misused for political purposes without giving them the independence it needs and the law also demands too.
Kavitha, more well known as former CM KCR’s daughter is an assertive lady on her own having carved out her political career with more ups and a few downs like the liquor case. She has been lynched by all political parties which found TRS/BRS as the biggest allergen.
They found in Kavitha a shoulder to shoot at KCR. Barring a couple of times oozing out confidence that his daughter is impeccable, KCR did not make much hue and cry despite all kinds of provocation from all political parties with Congress being in the forefront ironically. Ironically because they give a clean chit to Kejriwal in Delhi while in Hyderabad they hold Kavitha guilty whether the court could prove it or not. Congress is unable to come out of the cauldron of confusion in many issues which include the liquor case also, not to speak of Adani. It is ready to spare the kingpin and target the minions. In the process, Sisodias and Kavithas have to bear the brunt.
The political parties go to such an extent that the courts are forced to treat them more guilty than the guilty themselves who are in custody. Look at the admonishment of Revanth Reddy by the SC in his remarks regarding Kavitha’s bail when he had to eat the humble pie by giving a retraction through X (then Twitter) scripted by his media adviser.
Till the court gives its final verdict, we can rely on hypotheses. In that midst, let us assume Kavitha is guilty based on circumstantial evidence which is only a part of evidence that a court relies upon. It needs irrefutable evidence duly authenticated by the agencies competent to do so. It is not necessary for the court may pass judgment purely based on such evidence. Despite the forensic department certifying that it was Naidu’s voice in the vote for note case, he has been cleared like mineral water by the SC.
So, one cannot take it for granted with everything as we as common people are not competent to interpret law. It is this interpretation of the law that is the best safety valve for the judges who do yeoman service as well as doctors. Judges are more privileged than doctors. They are protected by the best weapon of the judiciary – the contempt of court. This writer, like any other, will have to think twice before writing just because of these three words COC. Coming back to Kavitha, right from the beginning, her case has been more political than legal. Even assuming that the investigating agencies could pin her down successfully by continuous interrogation and putting her in custody based on circumstantial evidence, they could not present to the court the evidence that it has to rely on to give its final verdict. The court was naturally offended by agencies saying that her phones have been formatted and it is in them their evidence is resting but they are unable to present the same in the required format.
Is this a confession of investigating agencies of their failure in not taking the case to its logical conclusion? The investigating agencies want the court to give a verdict on circumstantial evidence in the absence of any tangible evidence they are unable to produce. The word used by SC on HC’s refusal of bail ‘perverse’, speaks volumes about the state of the judiciary in our country. HC itself could have asked the question that SC asked and given bail much earlier to Kavitha.
But that did not happen. This often happens in bureaucracy when lower officials pass the buck to higher officials for all such matters that are highly political or sensitive. That is how courts at every stage are burdened with cases that have been heard, and decisions taken. It looks like we may reach a stage when a review of court judgments will outnumber the new cases that keep piling up. So nothing seems to be final even after a bench gives a judgement.
A Higher Court or bench is sought and after many years even a closed case is dug up as if something new has been found in history. That is why many judges feel that the courts in India are collapsing under their own weight of cases, genuine or otherwise.
