Thinking Allowed: Lawless lawyers

Clever lies become matters of self-congratulation. Solemn pledges become a farce — laughable for their very solemnity,” wrote Rabindranath Tagore. “The nation, with all its paraphernalia of power and prosperity, its flags and pious hymns... and the literary mock thunders of its patriotic bragging, cannot hide the fact that the nation is the greatest evil for the nation...”

The sound and fury over alleged “anti-nationalist” slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the belligerent, showy “nationalism” of people in public life reminds me of Tagore’s words from a hundred years ago. Is the nation really the greatest evil for the nation? I don’t know. But what I do know is that nationalism can be a heartless weapon in the hands of populist, politically motivated people. Anyone can be branded an “anti-nationalist” and be beaten up or clapped in jail. Anyone can pose as a nationalist and beat you up and clap you in jail. The police will look on. The law will look away. Even in Delhi, in the buzzing capital of a proud democracy.

JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges and branded an anti-national with no proper evidence against him, and beaten up by lawyers while in police custody in Delhi’s Patiala House courts last week. But a lot of people have been hit with the sedition charge — an academic here, a doctor there, a budding artist elsewhere, people whose views annoyed the government of the day. And under trials are routinely beaten up in police custody. So what is so special about Mr Kumar’s case?

It is special because it brings the festering wounds of our injured democracy out in the open — there is no veneer of doing the right thing or respecting the law. It shows how shamelessly politics can manipulate the rule of law. It shows that democratic institutions are not sacred anymore and we are not ashamed about it.
So if you dare to dissent you can be slapped with a sedition charge based on a fake tweet and reportedly fake tapes.

Officers of the court can attack you like a lynch mob inside the court and strut about as heroes thereafter. All this violence is compounded by the total lack of regret or shame by these lawless lawmakers. And the lawyers who beat up the journalists and the defenceless student are felicitated, garlanded and hailed as heroes in “nationalist” rallies. They are also caught on camera bragging about how they had beaten up Mr Kumar for three hours and how they are planning something even grander for the other student, Umar Khalid — maybe a petrol bomb in court. These lawyers are smug and immensely satisfied with their criminal acts. They are ready for political leadership.

This did not happen overnight. Wayward lawyers have had a free hand in lawless behaviour for years. And the bar associations have humoured them. Lawyers have beaten up people in court before — like Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher, accused of killing children in Noida’s Nithari. Lawyers even attack fellow lawyers who try to follow legal procedure, like when they attacked and gravely injured Mohammed Saleem, the defence counsel for the accused in the Uttar Pradesh serial blasts case in a Faizabad court.

Curiously, bar associations do not discipline such lawyers who bring shame to their profession. In fact, they often behave like the mob themselves, passing resolutions that prevent their members from appearing for those charged with crimes they find distasteful — never mind the basic principle of justice, the fundamental rules that every citizen deserves a fair trial and must be regarded as innocent till proven guilty.

Of course, this time, following the violence at the Patiala House courts, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has apologised and started an investigation. It has promised that licences of lawyers found guilty would be suspended. It would be superb if the disciplinary committee of the BCI finally wakes up and protects its profession.

Because we are tired of walking on eggshells fearing the law and contempt of court when sundry lawyers go rampaging about, defiling the sanctity of the court with impunity. If the BCI cannot protect its own profession and continues to protect its black sheep instead, it would be failing in its duty to the Indian state. And we would need to hunt for other ways of protecting our otherwise superb justice system from the hooligans in black.

It is scary to be in a country where justice is in the hands of goons. Whatever our faults, we can be proud of our judiciary — especially the higher courts — which usually does what is right. If that changes, it would be the end of our democratic freedoms.

Disciplining — however slight — is necessary. When lawyers take to hooliganism inside the court, they insult the Constitution. Now, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, specifies: “Whoever in any public place or in any other place within public view burns, mutilates, defaces, defiles, disfigures, destroys, tramples upon or otherwise shows disrespect to or brings into contempt the Indian national flag or the Constitution of India or any part thereof, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”

These lawyers were clearly insulting the Constitution by their criminal acts in lawyers’ uniform. At the very least, they should be fined and put away for three years. Of course, they do not deserve to be legal representatives, since they have no respect for the law. Otherwise they would not indulge in criminal acts for the sake of cheap heroism. But that is a growing problem with our law and governance. Populism rules. From the Allahabad high court’s Ayodhya ruling in 2010 to the recent Juvenile Justice Bill, we see justice being influenced by populist demands. Hopefully, this will stop. Because populism is a slippery slope and not a safe path for justice. Especially since justice is supposed to be blind.