JUDICIAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION : MY SOLUTION TO CORRUPTION

I believe in every word which Justice Katju has said about corruption in the Judiciary. Though CJI Lodha is one of the most upright judges that this country has produced, perhaps he also like many other upright judges feels that reputation of the judiciary is more important than a corruption free judiciary.

In my considered opinion the only way to eliminate corruption in the judiciary is to create a Judicial Bureau of Investigation (JBI) directly under the control of the Supreme Court with power to investigate any judge alleged to be corrupt with the power also to tap the phones of such judges. The Supreme Court could create this JBI even by a judicial order.

 In many cases as the Federal Court said in 1949 in Justice Shiv Prasad Sinha’s case from Allahabad High Court that a perusal of some orders passed by a judge can by themselves establish that the orders could not have been made due to an honest error and could only be on account of some extraneous consideration and must lead to removal without any other corroborative material.

While we have many eminent able and incorruptible judges in each High Court, it also cannot be denied that the High Courts have many judges who are prepared to sell their souls if enough money is on offer. I do not know how many Supreme Court judges are aware of this, but ignorance of corruption in the Judiciary is not the right way forward and hence I fully support Justice Katju because he is the messenger of this bad news but this bad news needs to be conveyed.

 "Don't Shoot the Messenger": SHOOT THE CORRUPT. 

SHANTI BHUSHAN

FORMER UNION LAW MINISTER & SENIOR ADVOCATE

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.

SPIRIT OF THE GAME SHOULD BE MAINTAINED

Whatever be the truth in the Jadeja-Anderson episode, though to me the Indian version, that without any provocation from Jadeja, Anderson abused and pushed Jadeja seems to be quite unlikely and the version of Anderson that he did abuse Jadeja on the provocation of Jadeja seems likely to be closer to the truth. I am very strongly of the view that the Indian complaint is doing Indian Cricket no good.

Let us appreciate that a victory does you proud only when it is fairly obtained against the best team of the other side. What is the value of a victory if it is achieved against a depleted team of the opposition by getting their best bowler disqualified?

A Test win in cricket does not get you any wealth or a piece of territory but only honor and happiness. Both these would be absent if you win against a depleted team.


SHANTI BHUSHAN

FORMER UNION LAW MINISTER & SENIOR ADVOCATE
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.

Why did Sonia Gandhi refuse Prime Ministership?

Since a controversy is raging in the wake of Natwar Singh’s book on Sonia’s refusal to be PM, I propose to express my views on this.

In my opinion, several factors have combined to make her refuse and her inner voice was her well-considered decision by carefully assessing all these factors. One, the fear of getting assassinated on assuming high office. The assassination of Indira and Rajiv happened under very special circumstances on account of some very wrong decisions taken by the two. There was hardly any chance of any such happening in the case of Sonia. But members of the immediate family do not view things so rationally and they are apt to exaggerate their fears many times over, on account of their natural love for their loved one. So Sonia’s children must have been insistent on her not accepting to become PM. Second, the job of the PM in India is a very difficult one. Any and everybody is not equipped for the job. It requires great administrative and political acumen to handle such a job in India which is full of problems.Sonia apparently was hardly so equipped.

In my opinion in spite of her being hardworking as her 2004 campaign showed, she would have been a miserable failure as PM. She must have been fully conscious of all her limitations in this regard. So her fear of failure also must have told her inner voice so. Third, if she accepted to be PM in spite of her Italian descent, the BJP would have launched a huge movement against her, even though she was fully eligible to be PM after becoming an Indian citizen.

It was therefore a very wise decision to refuse to become PM.

A PM has to run the government and the country which is a difficult job. He also has a lot of patronage to distribute by which one can establish his hold on the party. So Sonia did a very clever thing. She selected Manmohan Singh, a political nonentity for being PM, so that he could run the government and she could distribute the patronage and select ministers, governors as well as other important functionaries. So she wielded power without being accountable, a very very convenient arrangement indeed.

Now that the Congress is not in power, and she cannot distribute any patronage, her hold on the party is weakening and is likely to disappear fast.

SHANTI BHUSHAN

FORMER UNION LAW MINISTER & SENIOR ADVOCATE
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.

Manishankar Aiyers' interview with Karan Thapar about Natwar Singh's book

I have watched this interview with great interest and my admiration for Manishanker has gone up further.He is a very intelligent and clearheaded person who is also very articulate. He was clearly able to put Karan in his right place which only a few people are able to do. He was able to make Karan Thapar look quite foolish and childish.

Hats off to Manishanker.

I find the style of Karan's interviews quite offensive. He does not give a fair chance to the interviewee to explain his point of view and is aggressively intimidating. At the same time it must also be said that he works hard and is thoroughly ready with the facts.

On the whole I would give him only 4 out of 10 as a good interviewer.

SHANTI BHUSHAN

FORMER UNION LAW MINISTER & SENIOR ADVOCATE

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA