SC ruling in fodder scam warning to all

Passing spectacular orders on Monday in the Bihar fodder scam case, in which former chief minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, a political heavyweight, is implicated, the Supreme Court upheld the majesty of the law in a manner that betokens that the highest court will not tolerate impunity in any quarter. This ought to serve as an object lesson to high-ranking politicians, judges of the higher judiciary, the top bureaucracy and the CBI. Stinging rebuke was recorded against the judgment of the Jharkhand high court which appears to have gone soft on Mr Yadav, and against the CBI for unconscionable delay in appealing against the high court verdict.

It is to be hoped that the Supreme Court will also fix accountability on the judge in question even if he may have retired, just as it has asked the CBI director to pin accountability on the official who did not file an appeal in due time. Starting with the Jayalalithaa case, to the revival of the Babri Masjid demolition case involving L.K. Advani and other senior BJP leaders, of whom one is now in the Union Cabinet and another a governor, and now revisiting the fodder scam cases, the nation’s highest court has sent out a strong signal that bending the law is out of bounds.

This is necessary. High-pitched public campaigns by idealistic individuals and non-political society leaders help to raise public awareness about corruption and criminality, and show how these work against development and negate democracy. But when, taking advantage of such campaigns, new governments take office on the plank of providing a corruption-free administration, it doesn’t take long for the malaise to return. It is simply not enough to have the best laws, as we often do in India. It is important that our legal machinery act swiftly against the guilty by offering quick, fair and transparent trials. This is what was found to be lacking in the three prominent cases referred to here. In each, the judiciary at the top intervened after a considerable lapse of time. But it will have a salutary effect that the higher judiciary did intervene in the end when the guilty had almost got away.

Thus, Lalu Yadav, along with his predecessor Jagannath Mishra and former Jharkhand chief secretary Sajal Chakraborty, will now be tried for conspiracy to defraud the Bihar exchequer through concerted acts of defalcation of funds of the animal husbandry department from different state treasuries, and Mr Yadav will face separate trials in each of the five remaining fodder scam cases in which he is an accused. The political fallout of Mr Yadav’s fresh trial can impact the Bihar government, in which the RJD is a partner, and have an effect on anti-BJP politics nationwide.