Arun Shourie - Anita Gets Bail: What Are Our Courts Doing? What Should We Do About Them?

Anita Gets Bail

What Are Our Courts Doing?
What Should We Do About Them?

ARUN SHOURIE

By the same author

Two Saints

Does He Know a Mothers Heart?

Self DeceptionIndias China Policies

We Must Have No Price

Where Will All This Take Us?

The Parliamentary System

Falling Over Backwards

Will the Iron Fence Save a Tree Hollowed by Termites?

Governance, and the Sclerosis That Has Set In

Courts and Their Judgments

Harvesting Our Souls

Eminent Historians

Worshipping False Gods

The World of Fatwas

Missionaries in India

A Secular Agenda

The Only Fatherland

The State as Charade

These Lethal, Inexorable Laws

Individuals, Institutions, Processes

Indian Controversies

Religion in Politics

Mrs Gandhis Second Reign

Institutions in the Janata Phase

Symptoms of Fascism

Hinduism: Essence and Consequence

In the memory of
H.M. Seervai, N.A. Palkhivala, V.M. Tarkunde, K.G. Kannabiran

And for
Fali S. Nariman, Soli J. Sorabjee, Ram Jethmalani, Ashok Desai, Arvind Datar, Prashant Bhushan

Having known whom, having been able to seek counsel from whomhave been among the privileges of my life

Contents

Introduction

This book elaborates a few of the points that I urged in two lectures: one at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, and the other at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, Hyderabad. I am grateful to the institutions for inviting me to deliver the lectures.

To illustrate the points with examples from recent judgments, I had to turn to lawyer friends. I am particularly grateful to Ashok Desai, Arvind Datar, Prashant Bhushan and Geeta Oberoi for drawing my attention to the relevant judgments. Saurabh Malik of The Tribune and Varinder Bhatia of The Indian Express brought me up to speed on the cash-at-the-judges-doorstep case. My grateful thanks to them. I owe an even greater debt to Rahul Unnikrishnan: at the cost of his own work he helped me get judgments and orders within moments of my requests. I owe as much to my good friend, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri of HarperCollins, for seeing the book through to press in the face of heavy responsibilities and pressing circumstances. A word of thanks also to Amrita Mukerji of HarperCollins for her work on the book in the final stages.

Some of the episodes, and some of the things that the judges have said, are so exceptional that I feared readers would scarcely believe me if I just quoted a sentence or two. To reassure them that I have not just picked the odd sentence, that what I am alluding to is the pattern, I have quoted passages at length. In one case, I have reproduced an entire judgmentso riveting and so delicious it is. I felt doubly justified in doing so as readers of this book are unlikely to be regular readers of the judgments of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

At two places I have used examples that I had mentioned in Falling Over Backwards: An Essay against Reservations and against Judicial Populism. But as the reader will discover, in quoting myself, I follow very high authority.

That book, and Courts and Their Judgments, which is being republished by HarperCollins along with this book, contain a fuller treatment of the points that are mentioned in passing here. I sincerely hope that the three books will be read as complementary volumes.

For a house we never built
on a plot we did not own

Sir, police waalaa ayaa hai, Madam ko bulaaney ko keh rahaa haiit was the watchman, he had come rushing up: A policeman has come, and is asking for Madam.

Police waalaa? Anita ko bulaa rahaa hai? I said in astonishment. And rushed down the stairs.

Anita Shourie yahaan rehti hai?

Ji haan. Meri wife hai. Upar beemaari ke kaaran leti hui haiAnitas Parkinsons had continued its relentless march; she had fallen a few times, by now she needed help in standing and walking, even in eating.

Uskey liye arrest warrant hai.

Arrest warrant? Anita ke liye? Par usney kiyaa kyaa hai?

Paanch baar summons dodge kiye hain. BWghoshit kiyaa gayaa hai.

Koi summons nahin aaye. Aur summons bhejey kyun gaye? I asked, totally bewildered.

Yeh mujhe pataa nahin. Meraa kaam sirf warrant serve karnaa hai. Agar kal subhey nau baje voh court mein pesh naa hui to paanch saal ki qaid.

I couldnt believe my ears. I didnt even know where the court was in which she had to appear. Frantic, I phoned my friend, Shekhar Gupta, then chief editor of TheIndian Express. Did he have a correspondent in Faridabad who could help me get to the court? Shekhar deputed a colleague from the administrative side of the paper who handled the papers legal work.

I left the house early next morningFaridabad is 40 kilometres from our place; we did not know the way; and there would be the morning traffic jams to get through. On the way, I read the warrant for arrest: I reproduce itboth for the outrage it triggered in me, as well as for its literary elegance:

***

Ms 4124 [Illegible]

In the court of YASHIKA, HCS, Judicial Magistrate 1st
Class-cum-Presiding Officer Speicial [sic]

Environment Court, Faridabad

PROCLAMATION U/S 82 CR. P.C.

Whereas the complaint has made before that Mrs. Anita Shourie w/o Arun Shourie, R/o A-31 West End, N. Delhi, 11-0021 has committed the offence punishable under section EP Act and it has been returned to a warrant of arrest there upon [sic] issued that the said accused cannot be found and therefore it has been shown in my satisfaction that the said absconded or is concealing himself [sic] to avoid the service of the said warrant.

Proclamation is hereby made that the said accused Mrs. Anita Shourie w/o Arun Shourie is required to appear at Faridabad before this court to answer the said complaint on 26-8-13 .

Given under my hand and seal of this court on 2-8-13 .

934/8/8/13

***

For the life of me I couldnt figure out what poor Anita could have done to injure the environment.

Shekhars colleague met me. He steered me to the court. A lady with a somewhat stern visage was seated on a raised platform. Several persons were simultaneously directing their pleas to her. Many more were sitting on benches. Many, many more were standing and shuffling around. Outside: noise, loud shouting to persons at the other end of the verandah, and over cellphones, names being shouted out. Shekhars colleague asked me to have a seat, and wait for Anitas name to be called out.

At last it was. I went up to the bar that separated the raised platform from us. Who are you? I explained that I was the husband of Anita Shourie for whom arrest warrants had been issued. Why is she not here? I explained her condition, I explained the effects of Parkinsons.