Three decades ago, former Chief Justice of India P.N. Bhagwati had devised a mechanism for registering of a writ petition even on a simple one-page letter from a person to the Supreme Court about his grievance and use of its special powers under Article 32 of the Constitution to entertain it as public interest litigation.
But over the years people seem to be using the facility as a “letter-writing practice” as during the past five years out of 1.25 lakh letters written directly to the CJI or other judges, only eight could stand judicial scrutiny to be treated as writ petitions under Article 32.
Thus on an average, 25,000 letters were received by the SC administration every year but ironically hardly any of them stood the strict judicial scrutiny. Article 32 gives the top court special powers to intervene in any “genuine” complaint, irrespective of the fact whether it is filed as per the proper procedure of law or just mailed in the form of a simple one-page letter.
The explosion in writing letters to SC judges has been revealed in reply to an RTI application asking the top court administration as to how many direct communications were received from the common man during the past five years by the judges directly about their grievances and how may of them were actually converted into writ petitions.
As per the reply furnished by the SC’s Principle Information Officer, 23,490 letters were received in 2007 but only three were found to be “genuine” as per scrutiny standard fixed to weed out “frivolous and motivated” complaints. Similarly, in 2008 four letters were registered as writ petitions out of 20,821 and only one letter was found to be in proper order out of 24,611 during 2010.
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Naxals ban mobile phones in Abujhmad
age correspondent
Raipur, April 7
Apparently rattled by the recent incursion by security forces into the rebel-stronghold of Abujhmad, a vast forested area extending from south Bastar in Chhattisgarh to Gadchiroli in Maharasthra, Naxals have launched a drive to bust “rural networks of police” in the region, considered impregnable till date, intelligence sources said on Saturday.
As a part of the measure, the rebels have imposed a ban on use of mobile phones by locals in the entire region and prohibited entry of people into their villages in the area carrying mobile sets. The ultras have also launched an operation in the border villages of Abujhmad to seize the mobile sets from their owners.
“Naxals attribute the recent success by security force to storm their stronghold to the rural networks built by the police. They suspect that police has been supplying mobile phones with SIM cards to keep a vigil on them. Hence they have launched door-to-door search in many villages to seize the mobile sets,” a senior intelligence officer said.