Logic of Vedantic Principles

Have been listening to various lecture series recently, one such speech has been an eye opener to me.

Narrate it here in my own words from my own perspective and the way I understood it: one such is from Adv Puneet Chaturvedi a famous Supreme Court Lawyer.


Here it is:


The influence of Vedanta on Indian thought process has been profound.


Vedanta is the ancient Hindu Wisdom Tradition containing innumerous principles that are timeless piece of creation by the ancient monks and seers through Vedas and Upanishads etc., and find its applicability even on date. Many of the principles have been gradually discovered to have scientific basis and are being slowly found relevant for any age after due research and have been duly popularized in the West. Apparently and without delving into details one may not be able to discover logic behind these principles. However, Adv Chaturvedi by his thorough understanding into the Vedantic domain knowledge has thrown insights which convinces about the rationality of these wisdom traditions and thoughts and he enumerated how it allows us to lead a better quality of life on simple terms.


In the context of contemporary education system in India, like present day examinations, where one usually memorizes the principles, writes on paper next day and forgets about it. Ultimately obtains good marks but no knowledge. The Good marks so obtained don’t help in conducting day to day lives as Judges, Adjudicators, Decision makers don’t bother about your marks when you present or argue your cases before them. This process of modern day ejection without digestion kind of taking examinations (although practiced by only a few) is a shortcut and is not at all prescribed by Vedantic principles and on the contrary Vedanta traditions rather emphasizes to follow three steps as below for fruitful study.


First, Adhayan: that is study by reading, listening, watching and using all sense organs to form a perception. Then,

Second Chintan: that is to do analysis of whatever being studied and thinking about it and churning ideas about the philosophy studied and thereafter,

Third Manan: that is imbibing the entire idea into one’s belief system, so that it works along with while conducting the life.
So if the study cycle follows above process then it could be complete study for sustenance and progress and not otherwise.


Science today has made it possible to provide all kinds of external comforts to us, say for example if the room is hot then it can make it cold and vice versa but what Science does not address is the internal calmness and serenity of the mind for which any scientific gadget is yet to be invented.


Today, we have realised that all problems and issues arises out of the self or Atman and Vedantic principles allows to delve into the Self and analyses the Self, and recognizes a principle called self consciousness, this if well understood makes the situation better to realise and discern the self for betterment. Vedantic principles logically endeavor to understand the self in great details as without understanding and comprehension of the self it can be compared to a blind circumstance. Naturally a blind cannot lead another blind to safety and be far from tranquil situation and prosperity. Thus one has to be aware or enlightened about self to lead others to improved circumstances.


Vedantic principles teach to control and guide self in the right direction through awareness and knowledge about self and individual consciousness. If one understands its own strengths and weaknesses then it becomes easy to mitigate in the external environment thus sustain and prosper.


Dharma as elucidated in various scriptures is not religion but righteousness with a great sense of duty in a disciplined manner.

The Mankind goes through the cycle of birth and death and the intervening period of life in between them is to be utilised with Karma or action which makes all the difference. Good Karma will evoke positivity and ensure prosperity of the environment surrounding the self for pleasurable sujorn in this Universe or amongst the creation. Essences of religion, according the Vedantic principles are sacrifice, passion and compassion for others. A Man does not live the life all for himself but with all others together, then only it is a useful living. There are no activities which can be totally independent of others for us to survive on this Earth.


So it is said men is a social animal. However, Mankind is bound to be made of qualities of good and bad and imperfections are inherent, but God or the principle of God is only complete and filled with perfectness. So in order to achieve peacefulness and serenity it is essential not to aim for extra ordinary perfectness, which is impossibility and can be possessed only by God or Godlike entity or the Principle of God.


Now how to control and calm the mind? Meditation and prayer are one the many ways to calm the mind and self and when the mind is at rest and not restless it will produce better ideas and perform better. Thus Vedantic principles prescribe Dhyan or Meditation and the lecture ended with a Meditative exercise with closed eyes.


Philosophy well understood.


#JaiHind

The Price of Prejudice, Thought, Opinion and Debate

I had recently been attending many lectures on diverse topics. One such which touched my mind is narrated here, the lecture summary from my perspective and written in my words and the way understood it.

Initially when I took admission in Law school, I was not sure what the word 'Prejudice" meant and never clearly understood it, so I made it a point to ask my Contracts professor who used to teach Specific relief act who uttered 'Prejudice" one day. I still don't recollect what explanations he gave and I was not much convinced about the term. But this lecture has been an eye opener for me. Here it is.


The Price of Prejudice, Thought, Opinion and Debate by Dr. Sameer Dalwai – Director, New Horizons


Prejudice is some kind of pre-conceived notion, bias , partiality, at times unfair assumptions, favourtism, predisposition and pre-conceptions that override our intellect, that is capability to distinguish between right and wrong in a rational and logical way.

Prejudice is an intellectual trait and a problem largely not recognized in our society as a potential danger which can lead to incurring of price in the form of degrading quality of life and its sustenance.

Prejudice at times may assume dangerous proportions and may lead to various problems in our day to day lives. Prejudice scrambles brain to such an extent that leads us in a completely different path, causing problems for the beholder of prejudiced notion and the environment one comes in touch with. Prejudice may be personal or collective unjustified view held towards a person or a group as the case may be without any reason and thus largely impairs judgmental capacity for progressive and peaceful sustenance of life.


Prejudice may not be a momentary phenomenon but can have long string of links as far as with our DNA and may be held for generations together. It may also be a phenomenon genetically programmed to discriminate. Prejudice also builds ever since the Child is borne due to environment the Child is in and the exposure it received from various quarters starting from mother to parents to relatives, to place of living, village, city, country, from school to various institutions it gets exposure to, it may not be a one day phenomenon. Prejudice brings in discrimination which is at times against rule of law and principle of natural justice and thus greatly impairs fairness to conduct of our lives.

Our body has 100 + trillion cells and every year 90% of our cells change, but how do you can recognise Mine 2009 model with that of 2010, because each cell before dying produce multiple cells with memory & thus produces Me like features in my eyes & eye brows; so that people can recognise Me in after years. Each human cell has got memory & I may not know the name of my 5th Grand Father but his nose may be on my face. Secondly, all 100 plus trillion cells like each other very much & remains in proper harmony & synchronicity. That's why we all love ourselves & like our own nature. If we sit by the sea shore we like it more than traffic jams on the road because sea shore is more close to our nature. Our cells are designed to give away love & compassion, so if we become jealous, angry, produce hatred, have high ego etc then our own cells get confused and start attacking, this in medical terms is called Auto immune disease. So spread love & compassion to stay healthy and get inspired by the champion of love & compassion His Highness Dalai Lama. So to have a prejudiced mind may produce auto immune disease or other heath conditions, so stay away from prejudice.


Other examples of prejudice are Child being brought up as Boy or a Girl and when girls are given Barbi Dolls and boys are given Toy Pistols, that’s when the parents start to superimpose prejudice in the mind of the innocent child. Likewise dressing pattern difference amongst Boy and a Girl, long hairs for Girls and short for Boys actually has no sound logic, it can be either way round with no harm at all. But the social prejudice plays a role here to determine the behavioral pattern not part of human’s natural conduct.


Social, Political, National prejudices leads to certain behavioral patterns that may lead the Society towards right or wrong direction and that’s where we need to guard against harboring prejudices and not lead the self, family, society or country to adverse positions so as not to benefit from the universal bliss and natural gifts of the creation.


So the issue here is first to recognize the prejudices, identify them and then make attempt to gradually get rid of them and avoid them as far as practicable, so that the price of the same is not incurred. This would ensure tranquility and prosperity in the social environment that we live in. Personally also giving refuge to prejudice in own mind leads to serious health risk for self like giving rise to anger, desire and other negative attributes etc., and at certain times leads to fatal health disorder like heart attacks at an early age. There are many live examples of young people suffering from premature diseases and ending life much earlier than average life expectation.


Therefore, Prejudice is just not a legal term but a health risk as well in these modern days of stressful living.

Women Empowerment and Development

In order that a country progress and prosper, the constituent comprising of half the population needs to be elevated and given equal status sooner so that the objective of development and prosperity is achieved. Whichever country has done it faster the quicker they have achieved their goal as most civilised and progressive society. Untill Women are empowered and developed with respect to living conditions, quality of life, liberty and freedom of speech and gender equality, the prosperity of the society do not occur and society do not evolve which has been the experience specially of the last century.

Hence the importance of empowering women and development of the women of the country is much desired to achieve the overall perspective of progress who are otherwise silently contribute towards the growth as a Nation. We need to pay heed to our near major or equal voice which is otherwise silent but expressive in the form of results in the society in delivering in the areas of literacy, growth, maturity and prosperity. All these progress parameters heavily depend on mothers and their upbringing.

Here the famous quote of Swami Vivekananda prevails, “Can you better the condition of your women? Then there will be hope for your well-being. Otherwise you will remain as backward as you are now.”

“A country is successful when it treats its WOMEN well” is what the President of the United States of America Mr. Barack Obama had said just before leaving India during his last concluded visit on 27th January 2015.

Development of Women thus is of paramount importance for a country to evolve and excel towards development and advancement, amounting to spread of civilization. A country is said to have evolved better if women are well educated, in leading positions in various occupations, able to exercise free speech, able to enjoy equal rights with that of men etc., among numerous requirements of a civilized society. In India, so far women have not been receiving adequate attention in more or less a traditional male chauvinistic society and therefore there existed a huge gender disparity and inequality.

In order to eradicate the various anomalies Government of India has come up with various policies over the period of time since independence. Following are the few of the policies and actions undertaken over the years.

Many noted personalities in the past have always stressed that mother and girl child needs to be taken care in terms of education, upbringing and even ensuring adequate nutrition, which the misinformed males of the societies are not aware of. Hence it was omnipotent to spread awareness that if the girl child and the mother are not cared for, it leads to the degradation family to that of the society and in fact society as a whole becomes weak.

Hence the subject of women development assumes importance and discussed as below in Indian context. Although multifarious programmes were drawn it needs to be implemented in grass root levels with outmost sincerity to produce desired results, which will be evident from the progress of the society.

The Beagle Night

Arya awakened by the sound of beagle blown from the Military Cantonment ‘Happy Valley’ up the hill beside his bedroom. Instantaneously he remembered ‘Oh! Today is the last day of the Bengali month Paush, the day auspicious for many good reasons & for celebration as well.’ From this very date the Sun takes a northwardly turn and approaches the longest night of the year he recollected.


‘We shall all do a Mera Meri’r Ghar’ said Arya & his friends roared a chorus, ‘Arya we shall built big enough a house this time so that all of us can sit & play inside.’ Demand mainly led as ‘We need a grand celebration of the occasion ‘Paush Sankranti’ said Papri. ‘And for the entire past one week you know Arya, all the likes of Madhumita, Arpan, Maya, Bubul, Tia, Manna, Archana, Ranjan, Himadri, Papri & Trisha were all grossly pre-occupied in collecting the pine tree leaves from the neighbourhood borough’ added Ranjan.


Trisha was the most talented of them all and expected to get position in the board exams; Arya on the other hand was just a mediocre guy but had enormous muscles and ‘V’ shaped figure to boost of. He at times looked like prince charming with his gorgeous eyes and sharp nose with complimentary temple.


The other day Arya took out a wooden plank three inches by one foot. He fixes up three inches long iron nails on that piece of wood ten to twelve in a row for around three to four rows and then fixes a handle to it. ‘Wow what a craftsmanship Arya’, said Trisha ‘You look nothing less than an impending Engineer!’ However, to Arya it looked like a miniature country made vacuum cleaner handle with nothing more than a scrapper. ‘Come let’s take this instrument to the jungle’ said Arya in jubilation. ‘Well you have done well in your Board exams and have nothing to worry’ said Madhumita.


In these cold winter days in Shillong, the nearby hill was full of Pine tree leaves with freshly shed ones on the top. Since the onset of the winter, in this dense pine forest, the grass by now got covered heavily with pine leaves like a thick carpet floor. ‘Pine tree leaves’ are long threads of thick cotton like and about half to one foot long and they make extremely good material for temporary house wall. The house after all called as Mera Meri’r Ghar by all the mates.


Over the past few days Arya & Co went regularly to the hill and one particular day he exclaimed ‘Oh its morning 9 O‘clock and imagine I am still shivering and it’s a lovely Chill guys!’ ‘Yeah it is a Disco December added Maya’. Every day with the increase of the cold intensity, more are the leaves that were scrapped from the ground by the hikers in delight. Trisha collected leaves in a jiffy and poured them all in gunny bags with rest of the guys laying helping hands. At times she playfully threw a few leaves at Maya, who in turn put scraps on Arya. Every day on return, the collection count stood at four to five gunny bags, this of course do not include the leaves that stuck to their sweaters! ‘Where in the Jungle had you been to get fully covered in scrap?’ Maya invited a frown from her mother.


In the afternoon when the Sun was brighter in comparison they fixed columns of typical bamboo (Nali bash) – these grow smaller in diameter in this part of the world. The entire frame work was made of that bamboo slashes and pine leaves were put all around like a thatched wall with bamboo reinforcements. ‘Maya imagine you need to stay with your hubby on this kind of a house’ said Papri. ‘Yeah I would love to if I have you as my Souten’ replied Maya in desperation.


On the D Day everybody sought permission from their respective parents to gather in the backyard garden of Arya’s house where the lovely looking house was built. It had one and the only open door but. Maya & Papri took ultra special initiative to decorate the house with coloured ribbons & placed sitting furniture, made the floor look the tidiest. All of them gathered past evening after the sunset and sat in encircled fashion. It was Arya’s idea to organise the party on this day of the powerful festival of east India and the guys looked set in no uncertain terms to be awake all night. The assembly gathered momentum with giggles from girls and loud laughter from the guys. They all nodded for a singing competition. It was Trisha to sing first, decided not by lottery but by consensus and Manna to strum his guitar and with Ranjan on his ‘Mridanga the Dhool’. Ranjan beat the drum in uncontrolled fashion for a few minutes before he could achieve his rhythm. ‘Trisha you sang really well’ sounded Maya with all clapping in rejoinder. One guy looked extremely happy at the outset and the way things started to roll on. He welcomed the first singer with outmost vigour & vitality to suit his extra muscular perception.


Trishaji confused herself with ’Lataji ’ and sang with all emotion and energy. Trisha unintentionally looked at someone while singing her finishing note and felt could not gulp and take a normal breath. She says ‘Papri can you please pass the water bottle.’ The moment that buddy rotated his shoulder for the impending stare, her heart ignited and started to miss bits intermittently. Trisha instantly remembered one day that her father said ‘look Trisha, place your ear on my left breast, can you hear something? ‘Yes’ said Trisha. Trisha in simulation could feel something going wrong in her heart! Forgetting about the rest, Trisha then looked at him yet again purposefully and felt that some kind of electric wave and chill going down her spine! Meanwhile, Papri extended her arms and said ‘Trisha taste this platter brought by Maya from her kitchen but cooked by her mom’ and repeated it quite a few times. Papri suddenly noticed in the middle of high decibel sounds, Trisha looked lost and deeply engrossed and then she had to bang Trisha to gain her attention! ‘Papri said to herself Oh! There she is Trisha ‘what’s on Dear?’ Trisha replied blushing ‘Nothing, nothing, I am OK’


Trisha now started to feel more upheavals on her respiratory tract and found no one near enough to confide what’s going on. She was tempted to tell all to Maya but changed her mind in the end. She became ultra conscious not to depict the change in status of her turbulent mind to others and remained careful but went unmindful erratically. For the rest of the party she remained restless and wanted to explode of her own.


Madhumita & Babul initiated to light a small fire right in the middle and Maya said ‘well done guys – it brings a good respite in this lovely chilly night.’ Trisha without any natural will of her own exchanged an eye contact with that being who was saying ‘Come on guys let’s dance and synchronise our steps’. God knows Trisha felt an instant desire to get up and get going only to be stopped by her own conscience and said ‘Babe control yourself, control’ while in deep silence. She thought from the within ‘He is my Hero indeed!!’


In the middle of the night when the horizon was displaying reddish tinge of the dawn, the beagle started to blow from the other side of the hill and the guys started to noise ‘Mera Merir Ghar Jale re Oye, Khaite lage bashi pancha Doi’ (The house is on fire at last, you should eat stale yogurt, ho ho), Ranjan lit the fire on the house, in a moment the fire started to raise high & higher and started to engulf the entire making, Trisha ran fast and went to the other side of the fire caught her hero and placed her lips on to his.

#JaiHind

Secular or Sickular what the Modern Society needs?

Secular or Secularism is the term was grossly misunderstood by me. Hah!


The word to which I got familiar with during my early childhood but did not pay much attention to understand it. Initially mistook it for yet another religion as I was Hindu by birth and culture, so believed someone has to belong to one religion or the other.


Saw a few secularists moving here and there and found they got upset being called as Hindu although born in illustrious Hindu families.


I sometimes wondered what they must be doing during Durga Puja when we joyously celebrated from Chandipath (reciting verses from holy books) early in the morning of Mahalaya (New moon day being day before the onset of Navaratri), till the Durga Idol is immersed in river on the 10th Day called Vijaya Dashami or Dusserra. During the intervening days, schedules were, getting up early in the morning, after taking bath and afresh with purity and going with my father to Puja Pandels to offer flowers (Anjali) to the Goddess of Energy and strength, these were great rituals enjoyed to the innermost core. My Father used to recite Chandi Slokas and my three sisters used to sing devotional songs of Maa Durga or Mahisasura Mardini. I used to hover around with no one taking notice of me. But new clothes, new environment, cultural functions in the evening immediately after evening Aarti or offering of light to the Goddess Durga, used to be an absolute heart purifying and divine activity.

Question never cropped up in mind why do we worship female Goddess?


The “Sandhi Puja” or offering light lamps in the wee hours of the morning on the eighth day used to fill my heart with serenity, tranquility and peace.


At times, one of my sister being busy in exams or sick will never go anywhere near the Temple or Deity. But never found anybody compelling her to do anything against her wishes, just because it was our biggest festival of the year. My mother never persuaded her or uttered, “go out there or you will incur sin.” Nevertheless, it used to extraordinarily activate complete surrender of self to the Almighty or the Supreme or The creator of self and the surroundings, to the extent I can perceive, no limit though that I could comprehend! It used to be a complete spiritual contentment now that I realize.


Now coming back to Secular word it caught my imagination during the Lok Sabha (Upper House) Elections of 2014, thereon I found some Twiteratti calling Secular as ‘Sickulars’ and I was not in a position to comprehend the new satire terminology until I started delving into it in great detail.


To my utter dismay I found it not to be yet another religion per se’!


During my research for the word Secular I found that during the evolution of modern civilization, the issue was that the people were not able to comprehend many natural phenomena starting with whether Sun rotates around the earth or vice-versa, therefore to initiate the human understanding of the events in cosmos relevant to their lives: religion came first to offer guidance. This lead to the framing up of various laws governing human behavior based on religion and thereafter science prospered. With the advent of science gradually day by day many happenings around us began to be derived at by scientific and logical conclusions. Not that as on date we have answers to all our inquisitive pursuits but certainly the gap is narrowing down.


In the meanwhile, Religion started to dominate the human lives and with the formation of various groups in various parts of the world and due to difficulty in communication amongst themselves, various religious sects were formed at different places of the World. Society was formed in clusters far away from each other. With the improvement of the communication and mobility of the masses, various religious groups started to live together due to utter necessity of living and offering services of various kinds required to conduct day to day lives and thus at times produced conflicts of culture and ideas due to this congressional action. Religion now started to interfere in governance of a society. Thus it became a requirement to detach religion from governance and control.


Secularism is the word first coined by British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. Who wished to offer alternative to religious governance by introducing this neutral word, which basically sought Administrative activities free from the control of the Church or of the Christian religious heads or clergies. The roles of Priests are although formidable in growth of society as they are the ones who initiated the control the mass behavior and contributed to law & justice domain to begin with! Advocates gown arrives in the professional attire due to this very fact.


Therefore, in an effort to modernize society and making it free from bias and prejudices and allowing it to follow rule of law, a neutral Secular term as offered to the administrators of modern society. Here the state will not have any declared religion of its own and shall be impartial and allow at the same time practice of any religion as a matter of individual choice and shall not prefer one religion over the other.


Now in a social set up, any idea is subject to manipulation and misrepresentation and that is what exactly has happened to our mother India. Now, politicians whose duty was to prevent misuse started to abuse the term Secular for their own benefit and presented it in the manner beneficial to them. The greatest of the miscommunication took place during Independence of India. It went on to the extreme extent that India was partitioned or divided on religious lines. Thus it gave birth to two nations India and Pakistan. Where partition of India was illogical as two separate, geographically disconnected territories were made part of one country, it also unequally divided the Indus valley Civilisation and its heritage into two. Pakistan got further divided and gave rise to Bangladesh in 1971. Bangladesh was formed due to difference in culture and language to such a great extent with the dominant west Pakistani rulers, that mix and match were found difficult. Therefore, the idea of Partition of India has proven it to be flawed with time.


As of now both Pakistan and Bangladesh are Islamic states and India remains a secular country in its intent to be progressive and not a Hindu state in spite of Hindus being in majority: meaning the Indian state shall not adopt any religion as its own and in order to provide equality to all citizens as enshrined in our constitution vide Article 14, there shall be equal treatment to all the various religious and cultural groups that wish to make India its own motherland.

However, Indians shall be allowed to exercise freely their own religious faith without any obstruction from the state machinery. Further democratic India shall help and allow propagation and conservation by individual groups of their own religious culture, traditions and identity vide Article 25 to 30 of the Constitution of India. This is very fair proposition but the politicians began to present the vastly ignorant populace of the nation in their own way and net result is that the Secularism word started to be perceived as means of giving preference to the religious minorities and even by depriving the majority Hindu community. Mr Lal Krishna Advani the then Dy Prime Minister of India in late nineties coined the word Pseudo Secularism, by which he meant that India is not following the philosophy of Secularism in true sense of the word and spirit.


Fundamentals of Secularism as enshrined in the constitution by our founding fathers as our basic structure is violated quite frequently in India. Chief Minister of West Bengal goes on to provide social security allowances to Imams of Masjid leaving aside saints, seers and priests, archbishops of all other religious communities in despair; provides cycles to poor Muslim girls leaving aside all other poor girls anguished. This is gross violations of Article 14 or equality.


Whereas majority of the Hindu temples are under the control of the Government, but Masjids are under self controlled Wakf Board. Every day early in the morning Supreme Court order on use of Loud speakers of 2005 is violated by breaking silence in the silence zone from 10PM to 6AM and tolerant India don’t protest against it but bear it. This reaffirms the words of Swami Vivekananda uttered in 1893 at Chicago: “I'm Proud to belong to a Religion (Sanathan Dharma) which has taught the world TOLERANCE & Universal Acceptance..!!“


There is subsidy for Haj travel but there is service tax on Amarnath Yatra. There are supposed to be no caste system in Christianity but Scheduled tribes of North East India gets all the benefits applicable for Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes in spite of being from religious community other than Hindu. In fact the Constitutional purpose was to eradicate untouchability, caste system, downtrodden and discrimination which existed only amongst Hindus, all other religious communities claimed no caste system in their parlance. Refugees from West Pakistan (mostly Hindus and Sikhs) who crossed over to J&K after 1944 but before 1954 were denied Permanent Resident Certificates as of today. They cannot apply for jobs and their children can’t get higher education in the State of J&K. On the other hand Adnan Sami subject of Pakistani origin is given Indian Citizenship for contribution in the field of art and culture. So discrimination and disparity, one of the aggravated forms exist, even now.


Now, finally in the modern era where the society is no longer agriculture based but industrialized, mobility of persons from one corner of the world to the other is inevitable due to various skills sets that fetch the living and wanting exchange of ideas in greater degree: immigration and Globalization is order of the day. The society is gradually drifting from religious basis to skill or knowledge or domain expertise or core competency basis; there is urgent need all over the world to have a uniform order based on scientific temper and modernity. It is now difficult even to keep one family in one continent forget about keeping them confined to one village or one city.


With the advent of internet, modern communication, modern mobility equipment like Aircraft and Supersonic Jets there may be a World Global village and unification of the World order is due. Say for example, in olden days the Childbirth was a matter of chance and God’s will but today it can be controlled, even to the extreme extent of illegally identifying the gender of the foetus and exercising options.


World order is changing in a rapid pace, weather can now be predicted with much more accuracy than ever before, environment thus need to be sustainably protected for healthy survival of all the living beings, and our beautiful world can also be destroyed in less than a second by click of a nuclear button!


Hence, it becomes all the more important to understand the need for peaceful cohabitation or coexistence, secular, multicultural, multilingual society, which shuns religious fundamentalism, terrorism and bring about a vibrant, ever changing, dynamic and modern civil society.


Finally, to make this earth a better place to live what we need is not "Sickular" or Sick by any means but "Healthy" is the order of the day.


#JaiHind

Juvenile – What this term can lead you to?

Recently, the word ‘Juvenile’ propped up in Indian national Media in colossal terms as our law makers kept some Bill pending in Parliament for reasons best known to them!


Country’s legislators lead the law making appear an impossibility, thus assumed standstill position and provided a stalemate situation in the Parliament: the Temple of Democracy to where the citizens who had sent them with high hopes to legislate on their behalf and not otherwise. So much so was the expectation that “We the People of India” hoped that now we can afford a better life style or improve the quality of our lives or in a nutshell the country shall progress. But in despair, all hopes drowned.


Not before Citizens of this country had to remind the legislators of their duty and not become obstruction of Justice through the social media movement, in the end, which otherwise seems to have been forgotten by Parliamentarians in obsession for their ego, desire to latch on to the power in spite of people’s verdict against them and not going beyond their own party lines and not pursuing the nationalistic and patriotic measures that they are supposedly adhere to meet the hopes of highly expectant electorate.


The one incident that turned the table and forced Parliamentarians to pass the bill: courtesy the gruesome incident of Nibhayer’s rape and murder same time around three years back in 2012 and the action of none other than the parents of Jyoti Singh the victim, known as Nirbhaya codenamed for trial, who had to leave their home and camp in India Gate, Jantar Mantar etc., in Delhi to raise the cause of their daughter’s plight and in absolute self sacrifice and for protecting the rights of the upcoming generations of India’s Daughters.


Going back a little, interestingly, here out of the six culprits booked, five were adults that are above the age of eighteen years have been handed over death sentence and the other lone convict six months short of the magical figure of eighteen at the time of commission of crime or the Juvenile, awarded three years imprisonment. Juvenile was under police custody and was about to be released on Supreme court order after undergoing three years term. Supreme court upheld earlier decision on a fresh plea on the ground of lack of law made by the legislatures, that is in a way pointing towards the law makers inability to have adequate law. This was the turning moment for legislators to wake up.


Immediately after the Nirbhaya incident there was huge uproar in all media including the social media where an innocent girl and her movie going male companion were attacked in a running bus supposed to take to their destination, instead the girl was raped by all six of the convicts and gruesome act of inserting iron rod into her vagina was carried out. Leading ultimately to her death in a Singapore hospital where the Government of the day decided to fly her out in critical condition a few days after the incident had occurred.


Thereafter, three long years have passed but our legislators could not get together in their united wisdom to act and agree to a law to punish the offenders of age less than eighteen but committing heinous crimes.


In the meanwhile a British Film maker made a documentary film on Nirbhaya episode and taken interviews of the convicts inside the Tihar Jail premises and also the counsels for the defendants or the defense lawyer. Both passed derogatory comments to make the girl’s behavior responsible for the rape and assault. The documentary named as ‘India’s Daughter’ was later on banned by the Government. India’s leading newspapers and media had started rhyming rape and it was in continuous print that Times of India had consistently had the Rape word in the headlines for some time making the news papers unsuitable for adolescents and family view. It also turned India as a rape capital of the World and country’s image was largely tarnished abroad. Many conversations we came across from tourism communities as “Is India safe to travel for Women folk?” Such was the insecurity feeling that India lost large revenues in tourism sector!


As per Indian law at the time of Nirbhaya incident, it had strong laws but was weakly implemented. Post Nirbhaya and Shakti Mills Mumbai gang rape incidents the punishment of death penalty for the repeat offenders of rape was introduced in 2013 Criminal Laws amendment bill. Although many deny affect of retributive punishment but the net result is after the death penalty for rapists were pronounced in fast track courts for both Nirbhaya and Shakti Mill case, Times of India had to retract and not put ‘Rape’ word in their headlines not as frequently as they used to for the sake of TRP etc., obviously due to lack of reported and hyped cases. This may be in a way assumed to be success of the movement by all kinds of media.


Here comes the factors where the adolescents the fragile word for Juvenile need to be handled carefully. This is the age popularly known as formative years and there has to be methods to deal with such unstable minds. It’s a matter of so much delicate probity that any misadventure by the person concerned or its guardians may lead to disaster during this time.


Juvenile mind is as fragile as glass and if it falls from grace then it would break beyond repair. Information inflow to the adolescent mind should be controlled in a manner as how food intake is controlled. As for food that we take determine partly our behavior and should be able to take and offer right food for nourishment and not for sparking any kind of incitement to the tender minds. Information feed plays a very vital role in development of the mind of the teenagers being the food for the mind and psyche and thus environmental transformation of the mind in the right direction depends much on the quality of information feed. In the present days of availability of information and content over the internet and its absorption plays a crucial role in development of the future minds of Indians. The role of mother and DNA is all the more of paramount importance being factors to determine the behavioral traits of the Children and its psyche. The Children of today who are supposed to look after and determine the future of India.


Law making for Juvenile is thus critical. In India prior to this law for Juvenile or Children or adolescents less than the age of eighteen years were to be punished with a three year imprisonment for heinous crimes duly to be awarded by Juvenile justice board and to be kept in remand homes for their transformation. Here Juveniles are not to be kept alongside hardened criminals as this would lead to more disaster as we are offering them a horribly adverse environment and not a conducive one for the betterment of the child in question.


Evolution of human beings makes the race get advanced by every day. So this cut off of eighteen years decided more than half century ago needs to be advanced as per law of the nature. Carefulness is to be exercised especially in case of crimes which are threat to the society. In other progressive countries of the World crime and nature of crime gets precedence and not age. But there are compulsions in India to adopt such so called stringent measures. There are certain mentors of leading political parties in India who speak in favour of Child criminals is also another extreme view point although condemnable, law makers have to deal with such opinions as well.


Nevertheless passage of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill 2015 put through both the houses of the Parliament is an welcome step and now Juveniles from sixteen years onwards will be treated at par with adults of over eighteen years of age in terms of commission of offence and punishment for heinous crimes. However, the ambit of ‘heinous offences’ as defined in the legislation doesn’t merely restricted encompass gruesome crimes such as rape and murder. Juveniles accused of counterfeiting, cheating, arson, kidnapping, causing grievous hurt, dacoity, burglary or committing theft in a building are all now liable to be tried as adults. Furthermore, Centre for Child and the law elsewhere in various occasions where a Juvenile can be tried as adults are such as Sati, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Arms, Offences as per Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in case of atrocities on Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities, Control of Organised Crime and Food Safety and Standards Acts, etc.


However, this is not the end; the Indian law needs to be improved further and to treat all in the same plane in case of heinous crimes irrespective of age is much needed, as now if a fifteen year six months old performs the crimes then what do we do? Do we go back to our drawing board once more?


Can we now expect a safer society? The answer is obviously “NO” as researches suggest that all depends on the character building in a country rather than retributive punishment or reformative measures, as these are actually not preventive measures but a post facto procedural action.


It is thus suggested that the curriculum in educational institutions to include subjects of character building, patriotism, psychology and special training on how to behave and lead lives, rather than restricting to pure text bookish knowledge is need of the hour.


Hence, Character building of Citizens of the country should get precedence over everything else.



#JaiHind

NATIONAL JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT COMMISSION OF INDIA: Dream or a Reality?

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Independence of Judiciary is vital for sustainable Democracy. Hence, it is of paramount importance that the Judiciary remains free from external influence and it does not face interference and or control from the other two organs of the Government, i.e. Executive and Legislature. As Democracy is well known by its expression, “For the People, Of the People & By the People.” So consequently discharge of functions by the Judiciary needs to remain free from fetters of political compulsions till our democracy and polity assumes further maturity.


Judiciary also needs to be insulated from Public pressure, Popular uprising, so that justice can be delivered without fear or favour with an Independent thought process of following due process of Law: this is undoubtedly in the interest of the Citizens and people at large.


When fundamental rights of the Citizens are violated; “We the people of India” have option to take recourse with our Judiciary & not usually seek justice from Legislatures or Executives. Hence savior of Democratic Rights of Citizens is certainly the Judiciary and not necessarily the other two organs of the Government.

Question is now how to address such a complex issue and maintain balance of power at the same time!



1.1 CURRENT SCENARIO

National Judicial Appointment Commission Act of 2014 was struck down as unconstitutional or ultra Vires to the Constitution by the Honourable Supreme Court of India in a five bench Judgment by a majority of 4:1 on 16th Oct 2015. On the other hand Collegium system was evolved out of a Judgment by nine Judges Bench. Hence, any more modification to the existing system preferably be addressed by a bigger bench & not smaller, is one thought process that needs deliberation.

National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Bill of 2014 was passed by Lok Sabha on 13th August 2014 and in a unique show of solidarity unlike recent times, Rajya Sabha passed it on the very next day on 14th August 2014. President, after due deliberations with his counsels gave accent to the Bill on 31st Dec 2014.

May be the date of passing the bill in Lok Sabha was not auspicious as many may comprehend!

Collegium system is being practiced for more than two decades since 1990s or popularly referred to as Judges selecting Judges, this have come under severe criticism in media and particularly social media mainly due to lack of transparency and non reflection of popular democratic mood prevailing in the country. There is no mention of Collegium system or any other such procedure of similar nature prescribed or described for any official appointments in the constitution of India or its successive amendments.


1.2 NJAC or National Judicial Appointment Commission

What it means: National Judicial Appointment Commission or NJAC in short was conceived to be of six member commission to appoint and transfer Judges of Supreme Court and High Court.

First member shall be the Chief Justice of Supreme Court who shall have primacy over the decisions. The other members are the two other senior most Judges of the Supreme Court, then Union Minister of Law & Justice and two more Eminent persons. Newly introduced two Eminent persons shall be nominated by the committee of Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister of India & Leader of the opposition or Leader of the largest political party in the Lok Sabha. Out of the two Eminent persons one person shall be from Scheduled caste / Scheduled Tribe / Other backward Class / Minority / Women.

Major drawbacks of NJAC where it’s members were in even numbers, thus in case of equal opinions it would be impossible to arrive at any conclusion. The number of members is small, apprehension of political interference looms large – the very cause for which Collegium was enacted by constitutional jurisprudence conferred in accordance with Article 141 of the constitution, defeats purpose.


1.3 OUR CONSTITUTION – The Supreme Law of the Land

Article 124(2) in The Constitution Of India 1949

(2) Every Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with such of the Judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts in the States as the President may deem necessary for the purpose and shall hold office until he attains the age of sixty five years: Provided that in the case of appointment of a Judge other than the chief Justice, the chief Justice of India shall always be consulted:

(a) a Judge may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign his office;
(b) a Judge may be removed rom his office in the manner provided in clause ( 4 )

Article 217(1) in The Constitution Of India 1949

(1) Every Judge of a High Court shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State, and, in the case of appointment of a Judge other than the chief Justice, the chief Justice of the High court, and shall hold office, in the case of an additional or acting Judge, as provided in Article 224, and in any other case, until he attains the age of sixty two years Provided that

(a) a Judge may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign his office;
(b) a Judge may be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in clause ( 4 ) of Article 124 for the removal of a Judge of the Supreme Court;
(c) the office of a Judge shall be vacated by his being appointed by the President to be a Judge of the Supreme Court or by his being transferred by the President to any other High Court within the territory of India

Judge can be removed by impeachment an act of Parliament in accordance with Article 124(4)



1.4 INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARY – a requisite for sustainable Democracy

Judiciary should be able to exercise Judicial Powers and without any fear or favour. That the Judicial members should not have any burden of present or future prejudices like future appointment by the Government of India and post retirement assignments. Judiciary should be able to exercise administration of Justice without any political influence or Popular Public opinion or pressure or prejudices. And follow the due process of law strictly in line with legal requirements laid down. Independence of Judiciary is in the interest of the Citizens and to establish faith for administration of Justice and its system in the minds of ordinary Citizens and popularize the number of law abiding populace for peace and prosperity of any nation.



1.5 COLLEGIUM SYSTEM merits and demerits

More than two decade old system evolved out of two landmark and famous judgments known as Second Judges case and Three Judges case. Collegium system was evolved out of a Judgment by nine bench and NJAC declared unconstitutional by a 5 Judges bench. Usually any modification to the existing system preferably is addressed by a bigger bench & not otherwise, so that may be a procedural lacuna identified here.


Collegium consists of Chief Justice of India and four senior most Judges of Supreme Court besides him to make it odd number of five. So in case of split Judgments it is easier to handle. If two judges out of five give adverse report then appointment & transfer is withheld. Collegiums for High Court are Chief Justice of the High Court and two senior most Judges do due diligence and recommend for appointment as judges of the High court. The shortlisted candidates are scrutinized by a Collegium of five senior-most judges of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India before being cleared for appointment. The same Collegium of the apex court identifies serving judges and chief justices of high courts for transfer and elevation to the Supreme Court. The entire process of selection and appointment are handled in strict confidentiality.


The collegiums system thus is opaque as all appointments & transfers are secret matters and treated with extreme caution and confidentiality. This is one of the greatest disadvantages of Collegium system in terms of transparency. Transparency need not necessarily bring credibility but of course help the cause to a certain extent. Which High court Judge will be elevated to Supreme Court is the sole discretion of the Apex court collegium. Thus power is far from decentralization.



1.6 WHY NJAC ACT 2014 Held Unconstitutional

Supreme Court struck down on the ground that it violates the basic structure of the constitution and Parliament has got no power to alter the basic structure of the Constitution as spelt out in Kesavananda Bharati Vs State of Kerala (1973) vide recital. The basic structure of the constitution was violated as three organs of the Government was supposed to be ruled under the Doctrine of Separation of powers and its maintenance thereof of autonomy of the Judiciary as all the three organs need to remain independent and free from interference and control of each other.

Montesquieu’s pristine theory of Separation of power, mutual Cooperation amongst three organs of power is indispensable though.


Yet another disadvantage of NJAC is it is a six member committee and in case of tie of the decisions how it will be handled it is not known. Hence it is one of the Chief drawbacks of the NJAC system.



1.7 COUNTER ARGUMENTS

Doctrine of separation of powers are not strictly followed and maintained in our constitution evolved by our founding fathers. As for example President and Governors are empowered to grant pardons and commute for the convicts, say for example for life and death sentence of convicts: - a judicial decision. This itself tantamount to exercise of executive control over the Judiciary and it is an unusual obstacle in the Judicial function to deliver administration of justice. No absolute power to Indian parliament as all laws enacted by the Parliament & subsequently accented by the President who works in an executive capacity is also subject to Judicial review and our Parliament is not Sovereign unlike United Kingdom House of Lords!

No provision in Democracy can be subjected to the Tyranny of the unelected over the elected and not reflect the popular mood of the people of India.

More than transparency, credibility of the Judiciary is important for people to repose trust and faith in Justice System and in the process of administration of Justice so as to produce and popularize law abiding Citizens for peace and prosperity of the nation.

Collegiums system lacks transparency and the appointment and transfers of Judges are treated with extremely high degree of confidentiality and is truly secretive, therefore opaque and works in an air tight compartment, leave aside availability of information in public domain, it is not done and out of question.

That the Collegium system doesn’t find any mention in the Constitution of India and its subsequent amendments but cannot be ruled Unconstitutional or void Ab initio at the same time as interpretation the constitutional provisions if Article 141 or elsewhere needs to be debated.



1.8 JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT IN OTHER PROGRESSIVE COUNTRIES

1.8.1 France Judges Selection

In France, the Higher Council of the Judiciary Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature - CSM Some attributions of the CSM are related to the appointment and discipline of judges and Public prosecutors. These rules are aimed at sheltering the judiciary from the risk of partisan influences. In France, the CSM assists the President of the Republic who under the Constitution has the mission to guarantee the independence of judicial authority. The President does not sit in the Higher Council of the Judiciary when it has to take decisions on disciplinary matters. The 2 benches in the Council are the Judges and the Public prosecutors, and they are composed of 16 members. Twelve of them are elected judges and 4 are appointed jointly by the President of the Republic, the President of the National Assembly, the President of the Senate and the General Assembly of the Council of the State.

Hence here the political influence and reflecting the popular mood of the people is in existence.



1.8.2 England Judges Selection

In England, where appointments to all but the highest level in the judiciary by a body called Judicial appointment Commission or JAC. Commissioners or the members are drawn from the judiciary, the legal profession, non-legally qualified judicial office holders and the public. All are recruited and appointed through open competition with the exception of three judicial members who are selected either by the Judges' Council or the Tribunals' Council. There are fifteen Commissioners, including the Chairman.

The JAC is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. JAC was set up in 2006 in order to maintain and strengthen judicial independence by taking responsibility for selecting candidates for judicial office out of the hands of the Lord Chancellor and making the appointments process clearer and more accountable.

The Appropriate Authority can accept or reject a recommendation, or ask the Commission to reconsider it. If the Appropriate Authority rejects a recommendation or asks for reconsideration, they must provide written reasons to the JAC.

This system is more independent and out of absolute control of polity and Crown.



1.8.3 United States Judges Selection

The Selection of Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges are all appointed by the United States President, and must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, including the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Federal Court Judges, Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges etc., are also nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate, as stated in the United States Constitution.

The process by which the chief justice of the Supreme Court is selected is the same as the initial selection of a judge or justice. The president nominates a person to serve as chief justice, the Senate Judiciary Committee reviews the nomination and makes a recommendation, and the Senate as a whole votes whether to accept the recommendation of the Judiciary Committee.

Here the involvement of the peoples representative i.e. The President & Senate is vital and not independent of it.



1.9 WHAT CAN BE DONE OR OPTIONS

Judicial reforms are progressing at a very slow pace in India and thus needs to hasten to keep pace with the fast changing scenario of polity, democracy and evolving society.


As a result of fall out of the NJAC act, out of many ideas one can be to increase the number of members of the commission to around fifteen or more and number should be odd and not even. The number of members of the Judicial commission or the modified Collegium to be in multiple of five and not divisible by two, in order to avoid tie in any decision making process.


All India Examination may be conducted for selection of the committee members for appointment and transfer of Judges in the model of IIT – JEE (Indian Institute of Technology – Joint Entrance Examination) or CAT for MBA Aspirants (Common admission test for Masters in Business Administration) or alike methodology. Two most successful and controversy free credible methodology is mentioned here by name as above, now equivalent similar model to be adopted with a different name. The examination may be conducted for Judiciary by Independent bodies like UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) also well known for transparency and credibility. Accordingly, for Judicial Service alone there need to be an Independent body which will work as Secretariat for the Collegium or the Commission also. It shall address recruitment of all Judges in all courts, appointment, transfers & other administrative issues involved with the judicial service. This body may also act as judicial service regulator in line with other regulatory bodies already in existence.


Appointment of Chief Justice of India: Multiple parameter system like Qualification, Experience, Service records for the last ten years, Age and other criteria shall be considered. In addition more parameters to be developed involving merit attributes, i.e. number of Judgments delivered, number of conciliatory decrees delivered, lack or availability of allegations or charges against the Judge, Competency level in measurable parameters etc. Weightage system shall define the seniority. Senior most Judge thus arrived at by systemic approach mechanism shall be recommended as Chief Justice of India by the Commission or the modified Collegium by majority votes.


Only Chief Justice of any HC and Judges of SC will qualify for Chief Justice of Supreme court of India to be appointed in consultation with the President of India by adopting the procedure as explained above. Other sub-ordinate appointments are to be ratified by the Chief Justice of India in consultation with President of India also after following due process.


President will have veto power to either accept or reject recommendations of Commission or Collegium in line with the philosophy and power to grant pardons in accordance with Article 72.

President of India shall also be empowered to consult the Cabinet committee of Judicial affairs comprising of Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues and leader of the largest opposition party in combined strength in both the houses of parliament in case of doubt and dispute. Minister of Law & Justice must be of cabinet rank. Here the Constitutionality part of the appointment and the legality of the enactment are adhered to. This will address the will of the people as President is also a person elected through Electoral College in accordance with the popular will of the people of India at any given duration of time. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues along with the leader of the largest opposition party representing the popular mandate is included in the decision making in situations of uncertainty. But they are to step in only in case of stalemate or logjam as a good governance initiative.


Appointment results are to be made available in the web site of Supreme Court of India. It also to be subject to RTI act so that if any Citizen wishes to know details of the procedure for appointment of any and all legal authorities deciding their fate; the same can be sought legally. This will solve the issue of transparency.


One third of the posts of the members of the committee may be reserved for women. The number of women members should not be less than one third but may be more so as not to disturb the final numbers as multiple of five and not divisible by two. Here no recommendation of any caste, creed, religion or minority has been done, because the author feel that women are only deprived class in India who being 50% of the population are unrepresented in most sphere of the society. Once Women’s position is uplifted and upgraded it shall truly represent the entire society. This is recommended as Women play a major role in making or breaking and evolving of the society silently. We need to pay heed to our major voice which is otherwise silent but expressive in the form of results in the society in delivering in the areas of literacy, growth, maturity and prosperity. All these progress parameters heavily depend on mothers and their upbringing. Here the famous quote of Swami Vivekananda prevails, “Can you better the condition of your women? Then there will be hope for your well-being. Otherwise you will remain as backward as you are now.”The reservation for women has to be gradually increased to touch the magical figure of 50% in ten to twenty years time frame.


Judges are to be subject to impeachment by act of parliament in accordance with Article 124(4) of the Constitution of India and in addition by the fifty percent of state assemblies with majority decision.


Remuneration to Judges to be suitably enhanced and post retirement benefits to be doubled or more and all members once selected and performed duty of any duration should be barred from assuming any position in the Government of India or in related establishments, post retirement. Judges retirement age may be enhanced to 67 years subject to mental and physical fitness. Judges life post retirement should be made well secured and fully paid for by the Government. This will help in removal of bias or prejudices from the Judicial system and enhance credibility.


Training Institutions for working Judges are to be modernized and upgraded to meet the International standard requirements following the most advanced democracies of the World. Judges should be allowed to publish papers in Journals and actively participate in Seminars and workshops. There needs to be free flow and exchange of ideas all across the National spectrum. Judges are also to be sent abroad in periodical manner to get themselves acquainted in the areas of development of Law across the Globe. This opportunity is currently missing in our system also it will act as motivation factor and lead to more job satisfaction, leading to healthy well informed atmosphere for dispensing justice.




2.0 CONCLUSION

The democracy if for the people and the elected representative should have some stake in all the decision making process in a healthy democracy to be successful. Its is not be called tyranny of the unelected over the elected in any system being part of true Democracy. The Democratic system must reflect the popular mood of the people at any given point of time but with caution. Hence people’s verdict and popular will cannot be entirely ignored.


While on the other hand the Government is the largest litigant in this country, can the Government be given opportunity of selecting Judges as it violates the rules of natural justice “Nemo Debet Esse Judex in Propriya Sua Causa.” No man can be judge in his own case.
Hence the dilemma, duality and ambiguity and cause of all confusions.


Therefore, Governmental control needs to be minimized without absolutely ignoring it and then given an opportunity to intervene only in case of doubt and dispute and not otherwise. So that collective wisdom of the electorate is used at the hour of need.



Thus Judicial reforms in this country is overdue and thus to be taken up in right earnest to see our democracy attaining maturity for a progressive and developed India.



#Jai Hind