One of which went into the recent black hole.
Sent from Samsung Mobile -------- Original message -------- From: "roland.francis" <roland.fran...@ymail.com> Date: 08-01-2014 10:04 PM (GMT-05:00) To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <goanet@lists.goanet.org> Subject: Aires Rodrigues Esquire v Manohar Parrikar CM Aires Rodrigues, Goanet member and vocal legal activist has conducted several campaigns directly blaming Manohar Parrikar as head of government, for several wrongs of commission and omission. I don't know how successful he has been or whether he has made even a slight dent with these màtters but this much I know: he is going to have even less success in the future if a recent GOI case is anything to go by. In the public mind, the authority of last resort, going by the Constitution, is the Supreme Court of the country. But in the latest case before it, the Court has pleaded helplessness in deference to the Government in the case to which I refer below. GOI asked the court to fast-track criminal cases of pending charges against Members of Parliament. Simply put, the Chief Justice denied the request saying that fast tracking should not be exclusive to MPs but to other categories of cases as well. He observed that long delay of cases was a poor reflection of democracy in India (methinks that was stating the obvious). However, he also commented that there would have to be a change of administrative procedures and the need of placing a lot of related infrastructure in the smaller jurisdictions of the justice system in rural India. So much, so far, is true. But here's the kicker. Instead of requiring the Government to complete the task by a certain period within the parameters set by the court (as for example ordering that criminal cases should be brought before the courts within 3 years), the CJI instead pleaded helplessness to order the govt to do this due to the enormousness of the task and the availability of resources. This is a laughing matter since it encourages the Government of the day to just ignore or dance around the intentions of the courts as has been happening very often lately in the country. Now they have a formal remark of India's Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to support their inaction. Now tell me what chance Aires has against the CM even in a case where the courts have ruled in the former's favor. Is my interpretation of the situation correct in assuming that succour from the Indian justice system is merely 'touch and go', or do the courts in India really hold sway in correcting government wrongs and injustices. Roland. Toronto. Sent from Samsung Mobile
