Supreme Court pillories corrupt, fraudsters

Now, the highest court of the land has come down heavily on corrupt and fraudsters.

On February 14 the long-awaited judgment on the charges of corruption, criminal conspiracy and disproportionate assets of the late J Jayalalithaa, her political heir apparent Sasikala Natarajan and two more kiths and kins was pronounced by a division bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Amitav Roy.

The judgment created a political earthquake in Tamil Nadu while others like Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister of Bihar heard the bitter news with bated breath.

The Supreme Court, upsetting the reversal order of the Karnataka High Court, restored the judgment of the Special Court for ACB cases in pursuance to which the chief ministerial aspirant Sashikala along with other accused was put in jail the very next day.

The apex court has come down heavily on the corrupt elements which eat away the very vitals of our society. This judgment has once again proved the dauntlessness of our judiciary and its commitment to ensure transparency, honesty and integrity in public administration.

The landmark judgment has been hailed by all sections of the society. After this judgment the common man’s faith in our courts has been once again reinforced. Wish it should have come a bit early, so that the ‘Queen of Corruption, Jayalalithaa’ would have had the taste of ignominy before departing from this world.

Hope, at least from now onwards, people would change their mindset while assessing a leader’s charisma and refuse to be carried away by the pomp and show.

Yet in another landmark judgment the apex court de-recognised the medical degrees of over 600 ‘doctors’ involved in what is popularly known as Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh.

Showing mercy or leniency on such fake doctors would have certainly demoralised the genuine, hardworking students. The long-drawn investigation of the scam exposed many bigwigs in medical profession and politics. Here again, the Supreme Court rose to the occasion and took a firm stand befitting its stature.

Penalised
The National Consumer Commission has ruled that if a Surveyor delays his report beyond six months, the insurance company has to pay penal interest to the claimant.

In a case involving Magapie International Ltd Vs. Oriental Insurance Company, the National Consumer Commission awarded usual bank interest plus 2 per cent extra interest to the Consumer as the surveyor had submitted his report after one year. As per IRDA norms, a surveyor has to submit his report within 30 days which can be extended in deserving cases.

The claimant company had claimed that it had suffered a loss of Rs 26 crore due to a fire accident in which land, factory, machinery and other valuable items were gutted.

Trademark disputes
The Gujarat High Court in its recent judgment has ruled that a dispute involving the infringement of a trademark is essentially a civil dispute, and added, resorting to a criminal court remedy is nothing but the abuse of law.

The decision came in Jeevan Bhai Vs. State of Gujarat. Two parties owning the trademarks, Badshah and Shahanshah were locked their horns claiming violation of their rights in respective trademarks.

Why Courts?
Perhaps following in the footsteps of the philosopher Plato, who said that the very presence of police force in a society shows that the members of the society are not self-disciplined, Supreme Court judge Jasti Chelameswara said; “... my opinion is more the number of courts and more the number of hospitals in a country, then there is something wrong with the society..”

He went on and asked, “Why do we need courts? To resolve problems. The moment you say there is a problem; obviously the society is not in an ideal state of affairs.” The judge gave vent to his feelings while addressing the National Jurists’ Conference organised by the Prajapita Brahmakumari organisation.

True, but until the ideal state of affairs is developed in the society, we shall have to have both, the courts as well as the hospitals, so that chaotic situation does not prevail in the society.