Supreme Court and Jallikkattu

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?