CJI Kapadia’s court revives activism, rattles power elite

Date

October 13, 2011

Post by

arZan

Category

India | News

The unseating of central vigilance commissioner PJ Thomas is the latest breakthrough made by the Supreme Court in the course of a resurgent judicial activism under the leadership of Chief Justice SH Kapadia.

By Manoj Mitta | TNN

The ouster of Thomas, who was earlier telecom secretary, comes close on the heels of resignation of his minister A Raja, again on the Supreme Court’s prodding through a public interest litigation (PIL) related to the 2G scam.

The vigorous manner in which the SC has pursued a range of PIL cases in recent months has marked a new phase and a sharp contrast to the earlier phase when KG Balakrishnan was the chief justice. Many government leaders consider the court now a thorn in their flesh, while to the common man, the judiciary is once again seen as a source of hope — the sole institution that has the gumption to stand up to the high and mighty.

Legal experts say under Kapadia the court’s credibility has been restored after the damage it had suffered during the three-year tenure of Balakrishnan, whose kin are now under the scanner for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The renewed efforts to hold the influential to account have helped the institution put behind the unsavory controversies of the earlier regime — such as the reluctance to disclose the assets of judges and the abortive move to elevate a judge allegedly with disproportionate assets.

The display of such extraordinary commitment to probity in public life was, in fact, consistent with a statement made by Kapadia at the time of his appointment as CJI in May 2010. "I come from a poor family. I started my career as a Class IV employee and the only asset I possess is integrity."

But as regards the idea of PILs, Kapadia seems to have had a rethink while in office. For, on his very first day as CJI, Kapadia, far from extolling the virtues of PIL cases, struck a note of warning by declaring that those filing frivolous PILs would be charged huge penalties. He also said the procedures for PILs would be tightened.

But as it has turned out, for PILs with merit, there hasn’t been a more sympathetic court than the one headed by Kapadia. The petition against Balakrishnan, for instance, was entertained despite Kapadia’s own acknowledgement that there were deficiencies in it.

He made several administrative reforms to ensure that PILs received due attention. Among other things, he broke from the past practice of the CJI’s bench monopolising PIL cases. Kapadia shared major PIL cases with other benches, including one headed by a judge who is 11th in the order of seniority, Justice G S Singhvi. It is the bench consisting of Singhvi and Justice A K Ganguly that has been relentlessly pushing the CBI to probe all the culprits in the 2G scam, from among politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists.

Since the Radia tapes were connected with the 2G scam, Kapadia’s administration ensured that Ratan Tata’s petition raising concerns of privacy and other such related matters were all placed before the already charged-up Singhvi bench. In much the same spirit of optimizing judicial resources, Kapadia transferred to Singhvi’s bench a long-pending petition of Amar Singh because of the phone tapping link.

It is not just the freshly-filed PIL cases that have been taken up aggressively. The Kapadia bench, for instance, revived the police reforms case which had seen little action during the Balakrishnan years. In a bid to implement the radical verdict delivered five years ago by the then CJI Y K Sabharwal, the current bench for the first time fixed a time frame for states to report compliance of the reforms aimed at reducing political abuse of the police forces.

12 Comments

  1. Bejibuhariwala

    the decison taken for his appointment as cji has made positie effects in legal justice

  2. Bejibuhariwala

    the decison taken for his appointment as cji has made positie effects in legal justice

  3. Bejibuhariwala

    the decison taken for his appointment as cji has made positie effects in legal justice

  4. gb

    Congratulations Mr.Kapadia for your Integrity and hard work. I am confident that if you desire than 700 families of parsis salsette assn, andheri east, mumbai will get JUSTICE FROM YOUR HONOURABLE COURT. This trust registered with the Charity Commissioner’s office under regn no. C-299/B has 7 illegal, dishonest, unscruplous, fraud trustees since the year 1993. Clause nos 30 and 35-c  are clearly violated by Openly Bribing Charity Commissioner’s office. They have amassed Crores of Rupees of Unaccounted money which is deposited in USA Banks. The Chairman and the lady trustee have Cheated more than 700 families and they continue fleecing poor and needy in the name of housing. An Earnest request to His Lorrdship Mr.Sarosh Kapadia to use your good offices and order thorough investigation and please give Justice to poor and needy 700 families of this parsi Colony. Thanks in Advance. You are our one and only last hope for the Community.  
    PLEASE HELP. GOD BLESS YOU.

  5. gb

    Congratulations Mr.Kapadia for your Integrity and hard work. I am confident that if you desire than 700 families of parsis salsette assn, andheri east, mumbai will get JUSTICE FROM YOUR HONOURABLE COURT. This trust registered with the Charity Commissioner’s office under regn no. C-299/B has 7 illegal, dishonest, unscruplous, fraud trustees since the year 1993. Clause nos 30 and 35-c  are clearly violated by Openly Bribing Charity Commissioner’s office. They have amassed Crores of Rupees of Unaccounted money which is deposited in USA Banks. The Chairman and the lady trustee have Cheated more than 700 families and they continue fleecing poor and needy in the name of housing. An Earnest request to His Lorrdship Mr.Sarosh Kapadia to use your good offices and order thorough investigation and please give Justice to poor and needy 700 families of this parsi Colony. Thanks in Advance. You are our one and only last hope for the Community.  
    PLEASE HELP. GOD BLESS YOU.

  6. gb

    Congratulations Mr.Kapadia for your Integrity and hard work. I am confident that if you desire than 700 families of parsis salsette assn, andheri east, mumbai will get JUSTICE FROM YOUR HONOURABLE COURT. This trust registered with the Charity Commissioner’s office under regn no. C-299/B has 7 illegal, dishonest, unscruplous, fraud trustees since the year 1993. Clause nos 30 and 35-c  are clearly violated by Openly Bribing Charity Commissioner’s office. They have amassed Crores of Rupees of Unaccounted money which is deposited in USA Banks. The Chairman and the lady trustee have Cheated more than 700 families and they continue fleecing poor and needy in the name of housing. An Earnest request to His Lorrdship Mr.Sarosh Kapadia to use your good offices and order thorough investigation and please give Justice to poor and needy 700 families of this parsi Colony. Thanks in Advance. You are our one and only last hope for the Community.  
    PLEASE HELP. GOD BLESS YOU.

  7. arzan mullaphiroze

    New ways of cheating are being invented by 7 illegal trustees of parsi salsette assn. all 700 ownership flat owners have suddenly become tenants. how and why nobody knows. builder persepolis has also cheated them becuase conveyance deed is still not given to all of them. what scoundrels parsis are cheating their own fellow community members. shame shame.

  8. arzan mullaphiroze

    New ways of cheating are being invented by 7 illegal trustees of parsi salsette assn. all 700 ownership flat owners have suddenly become tenants. how and why nobody knows. builder persepolis has also cheated them becuase conveyance deed is still not given to all of them. what scoundrels parsis are cheating their own fellow community members. shame shame.

  9. arzan mullaphiroze

    New ways of cheating are being invented by 7 illegal trustees of parsi salsette assn. all 700 ownership flat owners have suddenly become tenants. how and why nobody knows. builder persepolis has also cheated them becuase conveyance deed is still not given to all of them. what scoundrels parsis are cheating their own fellow community members. shame shame.

  10. gb

    Recently,(20 days back) one of the most philantrophist trustee of bpp donated a sum of Rs 1,70,000/- for higher education to a student in five minutes flat without studying minutely any details of the family background. Very Good you will say. Good work educating a student. But the recipient has 3 flats totalling to value more than Rs 3 crores (2 are allotted by bpp only) plus they have 2 successfully running businesses for which profit is more than Rs 5 lacs per month. It’s a clear case of rich exploiting richer. There are so many more poor and deserving students really poor and needy who has to go through a tough rigmarole of liasion committee where the social workers come to your residence and open your vessels and ask questions whether you have cooked chicken to-day and if you have cooked chicken that day, then even Rs 300/- per month school fees will not be given per month. this is bpp for poor and needy. doing practically nothing for poor and needy. really shameful but true facts and figures. check it out.

  11. gb

    Recently,(20 days back) one of the most philantrophist trustee of bpp donated a sum of Rs 1,70,000/- for higher education to a student in five minutes flat without studying minutely any details of the family background. Very Good you will say. Good work educating a student. But the recipient has 3 flats totalling to value more than Rs 3 crores (2 are allotted by bpp only) plus they have 2 successfully running businesses for which profit is more than Rs 5 lacs per month. It’s a clear case of rich exploiting richer. There are so many more poor and deserving students really poor and needy who has to go through a tough rigmarole of liasion committee where the social workers come to your residence and open your vessels and ask questions whether you have cooked chicken to-day and if you have cooked chicken that day, then even Rs 300/- per month school fees will not be given per month. this is bpp for poor and needy. doing practically nothing for poor and needy. really shameful but true facts and figures. check it out.

  12. gb

    Recently,(20 days back) one of the most philantrophist trustee of bpp donated a sum of Rs 1,70,000/- for higher education to a student in five minutes flat without studying minutely any details of the family background. Very Good you will say. Good work educating a student. But the recipient has 3 flats totalling to value more than Rs 3 crores (2 are allotted by bpp only) plus they have 2 successfully running businesses for which profit is more than Rs 5 lacs per month. It’s a clear case of rich exploiting richer. There are so many more poor and deserving students really poor and needy who has to go through a tough rigmarole of liasion committee where the social workers come to your residence and open your vessels and ask questions whether you have cooked chicken to-day and if you have cooked chicken that day, then even Rs 300/- per month school fees will not be given per month. this is bpp for poor and needy. doing practically nothing for poor and needy. really shameful but true facts and figures. check it out.