Portents after the vaccine rollout

Economists, psephologists and assorted soothsayers were getting prime-time attention for months due to the uncertainties caused by the coronavirus. What's certain is that the situation is not going to change anytime soon and they will be in high demand. The judiciary is better placed in this respect, for well or ill. For instance, it is certain that a new chief justice will head the Supreme Court in three months, hopefully heralding a less disturbed regime. 

It needs no crystal ball to see that physical courts will slowly return after about 11 months since the lockdown. Some high courts like in Mumbai and Uttarakhand have already gone ahead in this respect. Most courts have learned to live with virtual hearings. However, some SC judges were so irritated last week by technical glitches creating an echo chamber effect that they recorded it in their order.

Since the lockdown in March last year, a large section of the legal profession and litigants has found that virtual courts (VCs) are a beneficial innovation and should be institutionalised. Lawyers can argue from anywhere around the globe, in several courts on the same day, and litigants need not travel to physical courts spending time and money. Therefore, another safe forecast is that VCs will continue to exist, along with physical courts.

The courts and tribunals have been extending interim orders like status quo and stay during the pandemic. They had also relaxed rules of limitation. Slowly, they are lifting the bar, like the Allahabad High Court last week. This trend will be a boon for those exasperated by such freeze orders. On the other hand, those who have benefited from them, like bad cheque artists, will find the noose tightening around them.

Looking at the past record, it can be taken for granted that Nirmala Sitharaman’s red bahi khata, or cloth ledger carrying the Budget, will bring little cheer to the judiciary. It has been the long-standing peeve of judges that the infrastructure of courts and tribunals is starved of funds, getting less than 2 per cent for decades. With VCs and live-streaming requiring more investment, the situation is bound to go from bad (no toilets and furniture) to worse (digital blips). Consequently, another sure-fire prophecy is the continuing detention for hundreds of thousands of prisoners without bail or trial in jails crowded 14 per cent over capacity, two in three being “undertrials”. Also, the SC’s recent order to conclude the criminal trial of MPs and MLAs (4,442 of them) in six months will be unrealised. Further, it can be reasonably predicted that there would be an upsurge of suits bottled up during the dark months.

Chances are high that the government will continue its winning spree in the SC. Decisions on Ayodhya, Aadhaar, the communication lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir and the Central Vista project are indicative. What are not decided for long are also omens, like questions on Article 370, electoral bonds and demonetisation. Never in its history has the court been asked to judge on a bundle of highly combustible issues like the status of Kashmir (140 petitions pending), Citizenship (Amendment) Act, reservation within reservation, love jihad, to name only a few. The idea of tossing hot potato issues in the lap of high courts is likely to continue. The eloquence on human rights in high-flown judgments will get lengthier though the relief in the petitions is likely to be as short. 

The rising curve of legal gains of the government has led to a new trend in which commoners have begun to judge the judges, shedding their traditional reverence for the judiciary. Earlier, criticism of judges was confined to jurists and well-versed commentators who used guarded language. Now even comics, cartoonists and twitterati have dared to enter the field. In the coming weeks, some of them are going to stand trial for contempt of court. Expect the judges and the attorney general to draw the Lakshman Rekha on the right to laugh.

On all counts, the nation is eagerly waiting for a turn of the tide in higher judiciary. Justice N V Ramana, the next in line to be CJI, recently said that a judge must be fearless, brave and able to resist pressure. It is for him to remove the misgivings prevailing among the public who want the SC to be great again.