Don’t Blame the Bar

Context: Court with unblemished integrity and autonomy will always enjoy dignity and confidence from its key stakeholders like litigant public and the legal fraternity. 

Justice Delivery System’s Prime Stakeholders

• Litigant public: move the court as a matter of last resort (avoid costly and time taking litigation).
• Legal fraternity: depends on the purity of the judicial process for its survival.

Issues in Legal Processes 

• The fate of an accused seeking bail: Occasionally determined by the differing opinions of the judges of the bench.
• Asymmetric and inconsistent judicial treatment: with litigant where one is granted hearing without documentation, while another faces an imminent threat of arrest.
• Processual asymmetry: with departure from settled practices (like hearing habeas corpus petitions the day after they are filed) and handing over documents in sealed covers to the court.
• Delay in hearing matters of national and public importance.
• Flawed internal functioning of the court: in terms of elevation and transfer of judges. 
• Assertive executives: seek to dominate the judicial process both within and outside court.

Way Forward

• Judicial criticism by members of the bar: over its inaction on grave national issues does not denigrate the judiciary or question its independence instead protect its independence.
• PILs being spearheaded by public-spirited citizens ensures fast redressal.

Conclusion: Lawyers as hyphens between the litigant and the court build public confidence in the judicial system and portray independent judiciary as protector of freedom.

Quote: “fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves”.