Press Release – 30.9.2022

Press Release

As a lawyer at the bar for almost four decades, the incident which happened in  Jabalpur today, a lawyer taking the extreme step of committing suicide, having been unjustly treated, insulted, unfortunately comes as no shock to me.

 In the temples of justice across the width and breadth of the country, lawyers and litigants are insulted and ill-treated. It is a question only of the varying degree. The southern states may be a little better. The lawyers who dare to question injustice and ill-treatment are silenced by summarily rejecting their cases, denying stay, and rejecting bail. Sometimes even the power of contempt is used, and that too in a well thought out and designed manner.

 The courts, today, are the exclusive province of a few families of judges and lawyers and their progeny. Any lawyer who challenges their supremacy is sought to be silenced in the most ruthless and unethical manner. I, for one, can speak from personal experience. The press while demonising the political executive, when it comes to the injustice in the temples of justice, don’t dare to venture to utter a word. The press far from standing with the  oppressed and silenced, the meek and weak litigants and lawyers, clearly for the sake of TRPs and sensation, add insult to injury.

The political executive, which has a duty to make the judiciary accountable has completely abdicated its duty. The AGs and the ASGs who are duty bound to protect the interests of the executive fail to raise even the slightest of voice against judicial overreach. The question is, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” – Who will guard the guardians themselves?

It is high time that the common people unite and raise their voice. I will be in the forefront of such a movement against tyranny and injustice by the judiciary.

Mathews J Nedumpara