May 11: Even as some politicians have openly come in support of the unrecognised “khap panchayats” dictates against “same gotra” marriages dominating the headlines in the wake of certain cases of “honour killings”, Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan disapproved of their interference in personal liberty of any person, saying they have no legal
sanctions. “Once a person is in a love relationship, he would not mind such dictates. This (khap panchayats’ dictates) is only a social opinion, which varies in different social set-ups,” said Justice Balakrishnan in an interaction with media on a wide range of legal and constitutional issues a day before demitting the office.
The CJI clarified that the Hindu Marriage Act only recognised certain relationships prohibited for marriages and apparently such social opinions did not fit into the legal framework.
Regarding the abnormal delay in justice to Ruchika Girhotra, who was allegedly molested by former Haryana DGP S.P.S. Rathore and subsequently committed suicide, the CJI was candid enough to admit that “influential accused” certainly delay the judicial process. “Some cases take long time due to influence of accused persons or, filing interlocutory applications (by them) in courts to prolong the hearing.”
Asked for his comment the question of long delay in executing convicts awarded death penalty for the heinous crimes, including acts of terror as was perpetuated by Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and the pendency of a large number of mercy petitions before the President, the CJI said the role of judiciary ended once it has pronounced final verdict.
Apparently putting the ball into the court of the government, he said “you must ask this question to somebody else... I don’t want to say anything beyond that.”
For ensuring faster justice in major criminal cases handled by the CBI, the CJI said he had written to the Prime Minister a year ago requesting for setting up of at least 60 more special courts in different parts of the country. “I got a reply that the matter has been sent to the law ministry, I don’t know what is the status.”
The CJI said he was more than satisfied with the performance of the Supreme Court in disposing the cases during his more than three years tenure as the head of the top court of the country.
Though on record the pendency had shown sharp upward trend (55,000 cases as per latest data), it was mainly because of quantum jump in filing of cases.
This was evident from comparative figures for past nine years as in 2001 only 38,842 cases were filed with the Supreme Court and the list of new cases jumped to 71,179 cases in 2009, he said, admitting that rules in the Supreme Court were not as strict as in England or other Western countries to check filing of “frivolous” cases.