Justice Amitava Roy, the second judge on the Supreme Court Bench which delivered the verdict in the Jayalalithaa wealth case, gave a three-page evocative judgment on the plight of the common man, the upright and the honest who find themselves in the minority in a society where corruption has spread its ‘malignant’ hold over every strata of society.
Identifying with the ordinary man who suffers in distressed silence in a world where the corrupt are held in awe and fear, Justice Roy exhorts his fellow men to join in a “collective, committed and courageous turnaround” to “free the civil order from the suffocative throttle of this deadly affliction.”
“Every citizen has to be a partner in this sacrosanct mission, if we aspire for a stable, just and ideal social order as envisioned by our forefathers and fondly cherished by the numerous self-effacing crusaders of a free and independent Bharat, pledging their countless sacrifices and selfless commitments for such a cause,” Justice Roy wrote.
‘Deep concern’
In court, moments after Justice Ghose read out for the Bench the operational part of the main judgment in the case, Justice Roy introduced his short judgment as an expression of the court’s ‘deep concern’ for the escalating corruption in the country. He pointed to the Jayalalithaa case as a ‘startling’ example of how corruption has a stranglehold over both the perpetrators and the sufferers.
Calls for judicial action
In fact, Justice Roy said the case was indicative of how contemporary lives seemed to even acknowledge and remain reconciled to the “all-pervading pestilent presence of corruption almost in every walk of life.”
The judgment called for judicial action and legislative vision to battle this “vice of insatiable avarice.”
The courts should ensure that the corrupt do not hide behind evidential inadequacies, processual infirmities and interpretational subtleties, all artfully advanced in their defence.
Corruption cases should be conscientiously dealt by courts with a sense of moral maturity and singular sensitivity to uphold the law, otherwise, Justice Roy warned, the coveted cause of justice would end up in crutches.
