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One question that has been troubling intellectual circles over the past few years is what wounds constitutional democracy more – a corrupt and compromised media, or a pliable judiciary? While the intellectual and moral integrity of both the media and the judiciary are critical for the survival of democracy, the dominant view is that corrupt judges demolish the last hope, spreading cynicism about the whole system. Nothing delights the conscientious citizens more than a judicial verdict reinforcing the power of truth and justice.

What’s not open to dispute is that the decline in judiciary in recent years has been scary and none of the top ministers, or the prime minister, in this regime has expressed concern about it. While successive tenures of several Chief Justices of India have deepened the crisis, the judicial inaction in the cases of special intensive revision (SIR), defections of MLAs and MPs and the open defiance against the Places of Worship Act compelled the intelligentsia, including judges and top lawyers, to express despondency over the situation. Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal once said in a programme, “Don’t expect justice from the Supreme Court in political cases.” 

It’s a national tragedy that democracy is endangered because of judges and journalists, not fools, bigots and criminals.

Justice Deepak Gupta, who retired from the Supreme Court a few years ago, recently wrote in an article that the number of black sheep in the judiciary is increasing. Shouldn’t this rattle the prime minister and trigger a national debate? How many TV channels, that ceaselessly debate silly statements given by clowns and criminals, picked up this disturbing question? Justice Gupta pointed to the failure of courts to protect fundamental rights and warned against drift towards majoritarianism. He declared, “No country can claim to be independent unless it has an independent and fearless judiciary” and asked the sitting judges to introspect. 

“This can and must be done because if people lose faith in the judiciary, the judiciary itself becomes irrelevant. That will sound the death knell for a democratic India.........

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