A Tribute To The Rogue Judge: Justice Jasti Chelameswar

Photo Courtesy: The Quint

There is a prevailing notion in the society that Judges are people belonging to the elite class of the society and are persons of academic significance divorced from the reality of the society as is often accused by the Executive wing too. The view is not far from reality and is based on logical and reasonable grounds. When just to lay down that ‘Right to Privacy’ is a fundamental right and is an integral part of Article 21, the learned Judges had to write 547 pages of sheer philosophy! not much is left to say against the ‘Academic Judges’ view. These people babble about the idea of justice and liberty as if they are themselves the incarnation of goddess Justitia. The problem is not with their babbling but with their conduct when their own interests are at stake. How they abandon these ideas and make them orphan.

Some examples of Judges who after breaking up from reality and practicality also divorced from their ideas about which they bragged about daily in their courtrooms are A.N. Ray, H.M. Beg, P.N. Bhagwati (yes, he was a pawn of Executive and a brilliant essay writer), P. Sathashivam and a hefty number of other Supreme Court judges. Not to forget this small list is coming from the Citadel of our Country. The lower we go into the echelons more is the number of Gods who have fallen in their war for upholding their integrity and honesty. In all, they are not the man of action who stands guard to protect their idea at the cost of their own self. In such a  depressing situation a person takes a stand which actually justifies his prefix ‘nyaaymurti’. Yes, he is Justice Jasti Chelameswar.

I first got to hear about him when he was the lone dissenter in NJAC judgment who in his separate judgment upheld NJAC Bill citing problems with the current system and at once he became a villain to me. But with time I actually realized that real villain was not him but the system itself and nothing short of a revolution will bring about a significant change. Like every other revolution, even this one needs a self less and determined pioneer. Maybe J. Chelameswar is or is not that pioneer but he is the first from the privileged to step up for improvement selflessly and determinedly. Why did he need to do that? What benefit does he have? He is already the Judge of the Apex Court which one can only dream about being. 

From not attending collegium meeting to doing an unprecedented press conference he did everything that he thought was justified to bring things in order and to save democracy. He is a man of action and unlike any other judge he stood up for 'the independence of the judiciary from within,' an aspect of prime importance that has been largely ignored till date. People including former Supreme Court judges criticize him for what he did by saying that he brought contempt on the image of Supreme Court. But these are the ones who forget that institutions like the Supreme Court are not an end in itself but only a means to the end. The end is to secure for all the citizen justice, equality and liberty and if the institution is so plagued from within that it itself is crumbling slowly but surely then it has no right to exist in its present form. The institution is plagued from within with nepotism, incompetence, and favoritism and it would be a crime against the nation to help such a façade exist.

He has my respect because he stood up against the majority and hit them with no punches pulled back. He attacked everything that he thought was wrong and unjustified without having any care about the repercussions on himself. That is what a ‘ Justice’ is ideally supposed to do. Not just learn all the synonym of Justice, liberty, etc. and vomit all of them out when any matter comes before them but to stand up for those values which he believes in when the right moment comes. He did.

The allegations put forth by J. Chelameswar have at least a hint of truth in it and he was totally justified for standing up for them thought it is a matter of great regret that he could not muster much support from within the institution itself. Well,  that people from inside of Supreme Court did not extend their support to him in itself is a proof that he was right. Why will incompetent people support him? Why will beneficiaries of nepotism stand up against the same system which nurtured them and will hopefully help their kids too… I mean seriously why will they? Why will people already earning Rs 2 crore be unhappy with the system? Such complaints only come from the deserving circles which have been longly neglected and if you can curry favors in SC then you will be a part of SC and competence is no criteria.

How can one digest the notion that in today’s democratic society feudalist principles like 'master of the roaster’ could be anything more than an ancient artifact and much more become the modus operandi of the Apex Court of the largest democracy in the world. It essentially means that if CJI is the master then all other judges are’ servant of the roaster’  or to put it much simpler, they are the servant of the master of the roaster i.e. CJI. Such ideas are inconceivable in the present times but the present system allows all this to happen in broad daylight. It is Jasti Chelameswar because of whom we are having a hint of transparency in the form of a column labeled ‘Collegium Resolutions’ on Supreme Court website.

He has waged a war for transparency and he alone deserves the credit for this one, even for anything that happens in the future. Dushyant Dave rightly remarked that Courtroom 2 of Supreme Court has been the arena for great judges of the likes of H.R. Khanna and J. Chelameswar is a valuable addition to this short list, though I am not sure about the prospects of his portrait placed in Supreme Court by the very people against whom he stood.