The King’s Court

“Though the rabbit came through the ordeal of the experiment, this must not be taken as an evidence of its harmlessness”

Justice nowadays can be as callous as the men who plot to topple the balance in hands of the goddess of eternal justice. In light of the recent verdict against the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, without encroaching on the rights or wrongs of the judgment, the highlighted fact that this case has been in the dockets for more than one and half decade swaying and meandering between “appeals” and “stays” makes one introspect the judicial effectiveness of the country. Being the largest democracy in the world, have we over-embraced the conception of democracy that the laws that stand to safe guard the citizens who abide by it now equally defends those who break it? Or is it made to look that way by the lawyers hired by these felonious men to dazzle and mislead the jury with legal jargon that is meticulously stitched to expose the case in the grey areas of the law?

 The notion of a court is to serve justice and punish the guilty. Over time, the two entwined concepts have drifted further apart and now have established their own domain in the system. The contentious impression that justice can be served only if there is equality has ensured equal representation on behalf of both the prosecution as well as the defense. A common man is usually unconcerned with the abstruse process involved between the filing of a case and the final verdict, and hence feels cheated when the system itself conspires the escape of an accused, on whom the rabble set little value upon for survival after an ordeal in court. Little would they want to know about the offender who has been hiding behind the façade of a counsel of lawyers, who flaunt their law school degrees, that boasts of their expertise to manipulate the law and also the judgment in favor of their client for a sleazy cut without much regard for truth and justice.    

In retrospect, the famous tales of Akbar and Birbal speak of speedy and unbiased judgments of a Kings court, where the plaintiff and the defendant are brought face to face under the direct examination of the king himself, where they are aided not by a lawyer with successful courtroom victories under his belt, but by one’s own truth, conviction and experience. The system just as simple and effective as it is, it also leaves very little chances of any external persuasions. A court room that in lucid terms defines the rights and wrongs and that pronounces a verdict fearless of any peripheral force. Our quest for structuring and making things as “democratic” as possible has now lead us to construct a system, whose turtle-paced judgments may be calculated for diligence, but seldom seems to achieve the justice as observed in a King’s Court over centuries ago.  

When is it, that people will realize that freedom is more than just the right to cast a vote in an occasional election but the fundamental right of every single human to live their own life? And when will they realize that one cannot live their own life as long as political and economic influences dominate every dimension of life? And the judicial system that’s very own existence perpetrates to justice feigns to be as blind as the goddess of eternal justice, who is but a silent observer in every courtroom of the country, blind and deaf.