The Mughal emperors styled themselves
as ‘the shadow of god on earth’ (zill-e-Allahi). Even though real power
was shorn off the later Mughals, ordinary litigants continued to consult them
out of old habit to settle the disputes among the public. Once, a washerman
from the other side of the Yamuna river approached Bahadur Shah II, the last of
the Mughals. However, the god’s shadow had to send him back with a frank
admission of his lack of jurisdiction over the other bank of the river that
still flowed insouciantly under the ramparts of his own fort.
India’s Supreme Court is steadily losing
its authority by repeatedly engaging itself in litigation in which its arbitration
is least sought by anyone concerned. It had been steadily moving forward with a
great appetite for writs and indiscriminate interpretations of the constitution.
However, it seems to have landed itself in great trouble on the issue of Jallikkattu in Tamil Nadu. The court is
now in the unenviable position of the matador who had caught the bull by its
horns – they are not able to subdue the raging bull, nor able to let it go without
causing injury to themselves. When a Public Interest Litigation was
conveniently filed by an animal welfare organization, a few judges found it
expedient to ban a form of public amusement that had assumed cult status and
the paraphernalia of a religious ritual to many Tamils. But the public opted to
defy the apex court and came out en masse to organize large scale protests in
the streets, crippling public life with it.
The learned judges first outlawed the
use of sun-control films in cars and other vehicles. No one knows how or
whether the use of sun films violated any prevailing law of the land and at the
same time, removal of films could slash fuel efficiency by up to 5%. But the
people obliged when the court gave strict orders to the police to enforce the
ban and removed those films for which they had paid their hard-earned money
earlier to install. If you can use a curtain made of cloth in the car, what was
the big deal with sun-control film? Then came the strange rule that new judges
will be selected by the old ones – the collegium system which is sharply
criticized even inside the judiciary. Newly promoted judges ensured lucrative
positions for the outgoing ones as a mark of gratitude. Thus, the Supreme Court
took the reins of BCCI. If the court goes by the dictum of assuming the
administration of a body in which corruption is alleged, wouldn’t they take
over the control of the country’s executive as well? The nagging question of
judicial corruption would still remain.
The next revelation was to play the
national anthem in movie theaters before the show begins. Whether you like it
or not, the law states that you should stand up and pay respect to the anthem
(whether you feel it or not). But, what was the rationale behind playing the
anthem in all the movie theaters of the country? Jallikkattu was the latest in
a series of the Supreme Court’s overtures. But this time, the court had to cow
down before the public outcry against it. Unless they are restrained under some
kind of leash, they’d ban the celebratory procession of elephants next.
But there is a clear danger lurking in
the spontaneous outbreak of protests. All regimes are mortally afraid of mass
movements without a leader or organized by a party. The Jasmine Revolutions of
the Arab countries were the realization of the popular will that was long
suppressed in those autocracies. But if we allow such leaderless rebellions to
win their course in India, our social structure will soon collapse and we will
be led down the slippery slope of mob psychology! Remember what happened to Piggy
and Ralph in Golding’s Lord of the Flies?
