APEX ORDEAL AND AYODHYA VERDICT
are the two most impressive and sensational socio-legal developments of most recent days which shook and are yet shaking the nation to its very core. The former especially is unprecedented - rarest of rare event in the annals of our judiciary with no less than eight among the last sixteen Chief Justices of India accused to be ‘definitely corrupt’ by a person of no less eminence than a former Union Law Minister and legal luminary Shanti Bhushan, who adds another two as cases of doubtful integrity. Going by his prima facie accusations, more than 60% of our highest judges seem to be corrupt and if so what could be the fate and state of lower judiciary in the country can be anybody’s guess. Truly, as Justice Krishna Iyer cautions, this issue needs be openly and quite seriously discussed, debated, assessed from several angles and remedied once for all lest the very stakes and honor of our country, already quite low, should fall to lowest possible depths among the international community. It is here that the need for establishment of a viable and effective national judicial commission becomes all the more pressing. And now to come to the latter, we may heave a sigh of relief that the much dreaded scenario of intense communal flare-up following the divided verdict did not come about and largely both communities remained peaceful perhaps because the judgments pointed to a sort of partition of the disputed site between the two communities though no sort of any historic justice was done to the good old Babri Mosque so shockingly smashed before our own eyes in 1992 December ensuing in widespread communal riots first and Islamic fundamentalist and later Hindu chauvinist terrorism next as its undesirable consequences. However, the justification and later validation of the stealthy placing of idols in the central hall of the Babri Masjid and on that reason allotting that part to Hindus may not be correct and not at all desirable since it amounts to condoning and validating criminal trespass, deliberate injury to the other community and wanton destruction of an existing place of worship. Of course, the way of appeal to the Supreme Court is still open and hope necessary correctives will be worked out there but we feel this delicate issue be, and indeed can only be, settled out-of-court on the basis of a historic friendly accord between the now-rival communities §§§
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