Chennai: Known for his firmness tempered with patience, erudite verdicts that often brought landmark changes to cleanse the system and help people, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has earned a name in the hoary history of the Madras high court. His significant contribution to easing the mechanism of justice delivery to the commoner will be long remembered.
Assuming charge as Chief Justice of Madras high court on July 26, 2014, Justice S.K. Kaul bestrode the charted court for about 30 months. Initially, he witnessed an event free high court. But, subsequently he saw major upheavals. There were rallies, fasts, dharnas and court-boycotts in the first week of February in 2015, over the list of nine names forwarded to the Supreme Court for appointment as judges of the high court and the proposal to shift the law college.
On February 13, 2015, the protesting lawyers barged into several court halls and shouted slogans saying “go back to Kashmir or Delhi”. Reacting to this, Justice Kaul, who is from Jammu and Kashmir, had said, “They raised slogans asking me to go back. I am anguished… I do not have any objections to go anywhere, but my only worry is about the great institutional tradition of the Madras high court. It is up to you to save the tradition or degrade it”.
In other episodes, lawyers barged into his official chambers and later a group of lawyers breaking the security laid siege to his official residence and vandalised it.
In yet another incident, busloads of lawyers from Madurai descended on the court campus here and created chaos. And then there were prolonged boycotts of subordinate courts over his decision to empower the lower courts to punish errant lawyers.
These events made Justice Kaul to take the bold decision to bring the high court under the Central Industrial Security Force cover, resulting in peace descending on the high court campus.
In an exclusive interview to this newspaper, Justice Kaul said, “I feel working lawyers have congenial atmosphere now to work. There should be discipline in any system. I wanted discipline in this institution. I am satisfied with what I have done. After a long gap, the advocates abstained from courts on January 20 for jallikattu.
They cannot be blamed as they were also part of the society. After August, almost for nearly five months, we had no issues and everything has been smooth. There was no agitation. Initially, the advocates did not understand me and I also did not understand them. Now, they understood me and I also understood them. In this institution, there are practicing advocates. The introduction of CISF helped more than what I had expected”.
The Bar Council of India took a firm stand and initiated action against the errant lawyers. This has wiped out the whole concept that lawyers cannot be touched. Extreme elements were being suspended by the Bar Council of India. This was the signal to correct them.
“Their job is to work in the court. We cannot strike work. We are for the litigants, who want the system to function”, Justice Kaul pointed out. Referring to disposal of cases, Justice Kaul, who presided over a record disposal of cases, said it has now been possible to achieve parity between the number of case disposals and the cases filed so that the pendency level is in check. “When I came here, there was huge backlog of cases. Now, if 1.45 lakh cases are being filed and 1.35 lakh cases are being disposed of. Our disposal rate has picked up.
“When the litigant approaches the court hoping for speedy justice, we are answerable. We are trying to dispose of the cases quickly. But, the problem is old cases pending over 5 years were stuck in the system. When I came here, the old cases were many more, say at least 24 percent. But, now it is less than 18 percent. If more judges are appointed, the pendency will come down drastically.
“How long should I litigate, 20-30 years, is the worry of the litigant.
Systematically, this has to be addressed. We are more individual based. We are not system based. If we become system based, we can handle things better. There should be some kind of interaction. Whenever I get a chance while attending meetings with bar members, I keep telling them, do not give up work. Keep working. Litigants should not suffer. Litigants are forced to come to court with a hope to get quick justice. If they do not get justice in time, they will lose faith in judiciary”, Justice Kaul said.
When pointed out that normally people approach the high court as the last resort to get justice when all other avenues have failed and many think judges are like the Gods, Justice Kaul said, “We are not Gods. Judges are also from the same society. Judges should never be put on a pedestal. If everybody put their best foot forward, everything will succeed. Actually, I am satisfied, we are working collectively. 25 out of 57 judges were recommended and appointed by me. Another six plus 15 are in the pipeline. Everybody (judges) is putting their best. Lawyers are also co-operating”.
Commenting on Public Interest Litigations, Justice Kaul said one cannot come to the court for everything. “When I joined here, I was deciding PILs alone till 3 p.m. PILs were filed even for small issues like toilets, thereby wasting the court hours. Now, the PILs have come down. Of course, there are many filing PILs for genuine causes. They do home work and come to court. This helps the court to decide the issue without wasting time. We advise the litigants to approach the authorities and their elected representatives where possible”.
Noting that the society is going through a churning process, Justice Kaul said, “Such churning had been volatile in the western countries but luckily that’s not happening here as we have faith in religion and believe in fate”.
Justice Kaul has several landmark judgments to his credit. When asked to name some of his ‘best’ judgments, he smiled, paused for long, before recalling his verdict in the case of Tamil novel Madhorubhagan that underlined the value of the freedom of expression and led to the ‘resurrection’ of the writer, Perumal Murugan.
Justice Kaul’s verdict that the process of appointment of the 11 members of the state public service commission was deeply flawed and lacked transparency thereby defeating the very constitutional scheme for such appointments was
another landmark pronouncement.
This order was upheld by the Supreme Court recently. With the Supreme
Court considering his name for elevation, Deccan Chronicle wishes Justice Kaul greater times ahead in the Capital.
