Mathews J Nedumpara
98205 35428
1st May 2026.
1.My message is clear from the very title of this article itself. These words are not those of a disgruntled litigant, but of a lawyer who has spent a lifetime in the legal profession and one who has been relentlessly campaigning for judicial transparency and reforms for at least the last twenty years.
2. If you are an ordinary litigant, a small entrepreneur, or someone who cannot afford to engage a kith and kin of judges or one otherwise favored, your writ petition is dismissed in limine or denied an injunction without even recording your contentions, let alone dealing with the same fairly.
3.You are told that there is a right of appeal. You rush to the Supreme Court, fingers crossed. Your case is dismissed in a hearing which, on average, lasts 93 seconds, if not less. There is no judgment. Only a one-line order: “We are not inclined to entertain the SLP. Dismissed. Pending applications, if any, are disposed of.”
4.You are told there is a provision for review. You file a review, placing faith in the Supreme Court despite all the bitter experiences you had. A few days later, you are told your review petition is dismissed in chambers. To your shock, you realize that there was no hearing. All review petitions are dismissed in chambers without exception by cyclostyled orders.
Most litigants would by this time have lost hope in the judiciary.
5.Some die-hard optimists would still not give up. They file a curative petition. That too is dismissed in chambers. He gives up, having lost all hope. Great injustice has been done to him. But that is of no consequence to the rest of the world. It remains one man’s injury.
6.But that unfortunate scenario must change. I am not sure whether I have the ability to bring an end to this unfortunate state of affairs. But that is no reason I must not make any effort. Because the solutions are simple: Abolish Articles 226 and 32. These Articles, though introduced with good intentions, have been reduced to instruments of injustice. These two Articles are solely responsible for “face law” jurisprudence, which has taken deep roots in our justice delivery system. These Articles are interpreted to be absolutely discretionary. Everything is at the mercy of the judges. Our judges are no longer judges; they are king-emperors.
I have seen it everywhere.
- When Justice Chandrachud was the Chief Justice of India, judges used to discharge the board to hear his son, Abhinav, for hours and hours, days on end. The kith and kin of judges, as practicing lawyers, enjoy this special status everywhere in this country, including my home state of Kerala, where things are not as bad as elsewhere.
8.What is the solution? The government and the political leadership have no time for judicial reforms. The rich and super-rich lawyers in Delhi are the beneficiaries of this system. They subtly, and sometimes even openly, oppose the much-needed reforms—namely, the abolition of face value jurisprudence (i.e., Articles 226 and 32), the abolition of the collegium, senior designations, and contempt of court. They oppose any legislation that will make judges accountable. They stood like a rock behind Justice Varma, who has resigned recently.
9.The press is silent.
Why? To keep this article brief, I refrain from writing about it.
10.What is the solution, then? The simple solution is to institute suits in the ordinary civil courts. They are in an extremely pathetic condition. But there, your case will not be killed overnight. It may be a strenuous path, but you would find it far better than what you had thought it would be.
11. I have all throughout dismissed the idea of entering the streets for judicial reforms. Nothing is possible unless the public at large is educated about our justice delivery system today. The public perception of the judiciary varies like that of the blind men who touched the elephant: different things to different people.
12.My appeal to all is: Nil desperandum. Don’t be hopeless. Judicial reforms are within our powers. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have spent a lifetime campaigning for them. Let us start a campaign. Abolish “face law” from our temples of justice. Abolish Articles 226 and 32. Share this article as widely as you can.