Skip to main content

Karnataka’s Judicial Hall of Infamy

These are testing times indeed for the office of the ombudsman, the Lokayukta, in Karnataka.

Only recently, Justice Shivaraj V Patil was forced to step down as Lokayukta after a fine piece of journalism, by the Bangalore Mirror, revealed that he had obtained a plot of land in his wife’s name, which he had ought not to as a judicial officer. Another piece of investigative journalism, this time by the New Indian Express, reveals that former Lokayukta Justice N Venkatachala had converted a residential site allotted to him in Judicial Layout in Bangalore, into a tennis court, in full violation of land norms – a minor violation of course, compared to some scandals doing the rounds in the nation’s judiciary.

It must be remembered that Venkatachala was N Santosh Hegde’s predecessor – the man behind the investigative report on illegal mining that felled a chief minister and jailed a powerful minister. In fact, many wondered whether Hegde would be able to emulate him, such was the aura he had created while in office.

A former Supreme Court judge, Venkatachala brings to memory the daring officer who brought about a sense of respect and dignity to the office of the Lokayukta, which was granted little powers (or none in certain cases), by his raids on offices of corrupt government officials. T N Seshan's contribution to the Election Commission can be judged as a suitable corollary. Understandably, he was the media’s darling: the image of a diminutive Venkatachala standing in front of a humbled government official, caught for graft, remained, until recently, etched in the public’s psyche. It is difficult to say whether it would remain so. However, a comparison of the contributions of the officers to the famed institution is beyond the reach of this article.

While the violations committed by him may not rank alongside the famous (or infamous) 2G Spectrum or Commonwealth Games scandals, what is worrisome is the rather ham-handed approach to norms by the very authorities who need to ensure justice. On that notorious count, Venkatachala joins Justice P D Dinakaran and Justice K G Balakrishnan for being in the news for all the wrong reasons. The incident also holds out disillusionment for the common man in abundance; if the judiciary cannot be trusted to be clean, who can we entrust with the onerous task of cleaning the Augean Stables of the nation?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is what you are watching actually a cartoon?

Disclaimer: What you are about to read may seem weird, but what the hell, I am hypothesising it to be true, so who knows... Cartoons are basica lly meant for kids. The main reason e lders prefer letting the kids watch them without their sup ervision is that they need not fret over the incidence of X-rated content in it – namely content that concerns that famous three-letter word or violence. I suggest that we re-examine this mindset of ours (as someone who has grown up watching the very cartoons that I am about to damn, I have mixed feelings as I type this. Consider the following list: Tom and Jerry , Bugs Bunny and El mer Fudd/Yosemite Sam , Tweety and Sylvester and Coyote a nd Road R unner . These are cartoons which we would definitel y not squirm about before letting a toddler/child watch it. These cartoons are hilarious, have palatable themes; have caricatures that look cute (I am yet to come across a girl who hates Tweety). Tom and Jerry, for instance, was once even vot...

Why the editorial is the unsung hero of any newspaper

A tad autobiographical, this account encapsulates my experiences at a news organisation. Why wait until 50 or 60 to compose one? Hell, who knows, this could even be its blueprint! So, here goes my first stab at chronicling myself... I was prepared for all kinds of weird questions for my first job interview as a journalist four years ago, for the post of a sub-editor, but I never anticipated this one that caught me off guard. Noting that I preferred to work in the editorial than the reporting section, a HR representative at the organization asked in almost an air of dismissal, implying that the editorial is something redundant, “After all, we have Microsoft Word, in built with grammar and spell check capabilities, so why must I hire you?” I stared at him blankly for a moment as a smile grew on his face, perhaps out of exult at having stumped me. I trotted a familiar refrain, which I am sure he would have encountered countless times, “Because I am passionate about writing a...

Broadband and the Burst of Bangalore’s Browsing Bubble

Bangaloreans may not have noticed it, but net cafes, or internet browsing centres, are to India’s IT capital as the tiger is to a cell phone service provider – a twist in the catchphrase that featured in its recent advertisements makes for an apt description; few such centres are in vogue, save them. From the days of obsession, similar to what the Dutch had for tulips, to the near disillusionment of browsing centres, the IT capital has had its own Roman Empire; the market scenario prior to the entry of broadband internet can be approximated to the reign of Julius Caesar. Obsession? That too with the internet? Anybody growing up in the late 90s would extoll at length on the city’s then new-found obsession. For, inviting wide stares and fascinated looks on anything remotely associated to the internet – then in its infancy in the nation – be it on a TV channel, tabloid, newspaper, magazine, or heck, even a porno mag, was not unusual. Understandably, Sabeer Bhatia, the creator of Hotmail...