Rajeev Yadav and Shahnawaz Alam have been fighting a lonely battle to document hate speech and advocating for terror suspects booked in false cases for the past decade. What started off in 2005 from Mau found a reason to stand firm in face of adversities when UP’s special task force picked up Tariq Qasimi and Khalid Mujahid from Azamgarh for their alleged involvement in the 2007 serial blasts.
Detained for 20 days illegally and forced into confession, Qasimi and Mujahid were shown as arrested on December 22 that year from Barabanki railway station with RDX and other weapons.
Armed with footage Rihai Manch has wanted to turn the tide against the harbingers of hate in court.
Mayawati, chief minister then, formed a judicial commission headed by RD Nimesh to probe the case.
The report in 2012 confirmed the worst fears that both had been implicated by the cops. Qasimi had been handed life imprisonment by then, Mujahid died in police custody.
The Manch helped give legal assistance to people trapped by police deceit.
Rihai Manch campaign completes ten years on 16th December.
The advocacy group associates including former Lucknow University vice-chancellor Roop Rekha Verma has been instrumental in holding ‘Jan Sunvai’ to help people with court cases.
The Manch has helped over 14 people charged with terrorism be acquitted. Whatever they have done thus far has not surprisingly invited sharp reactions. They picked up their editing skills at JNU and Allahabad University.
Speaking at an event organized by them at the UP Press Club, activist and senior Supreme Court lawyer, Prashant Bhushan said innocent minorities are being targeted by the top echelons in connivance with the police and the judiciary.
He said this was happening in a country where less than 1% justice was being delivered via the court of law.
He said only 80% of people had the werewithal to pay a fee to get legal help and those of whom who were paying for legal help, 90% of them did not get justice easily suffering from the tareekh pe tareekh problem.
In a scathing attack at the powers that be, Bhushan said that the judicial system is moving from bad to worse and corruption is spreading into the judiciary , allowing the judicial system to become a tool in the hands of powerful politicians.
“The entire system needs to be overhauled to keep it corruption free and affordable to the people,” he said. He also called on the government to be more transparent.
With undertrained and corrupt lawyers the problem is trebled. For the past 25 years several reports of the law commission have called for change repeatedly.
The concept of the West of the People’s court can actually come in handy says Prashant Bhushan where it will cut down justice delivery time drastically. Within 20 minutes justice in courts is possible, he says.
In a candid confesson, Prashant Bhushan says with arbitration having turned into a business, very few Chief Justices are ready to improve judiciary. Even after retirement now legal luminaries are minting money. With per sitting cost of arbitration being nearly 2 lakhs the legal eagles earn in crores, he admits.
Bhushan reacted to the fine imposed by the Supreme Court on his NGO – Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) -saying CJAR in its petition sought a special investigation team, headed by a retired chief justice, to probe allegations that SC judges were being bribed to influence a medical college admission case.
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Spelling out the dangers of the corrupt judiciary in no uncertain terms, Prashant Bhushan speaking at a packed room spoke of the Prasad Educational Trusts Case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on September 19 booked a former judge of the Allahabad, Orissa and Chhattisgarh high courts, Ishrat Masroor Quddusi, and others under Section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-b of the Indian Penal Code.
The scam allegedly involved tapped phone chats between judges, hawala racketeers and officers of the Prasad Education Trust, about influencing higher judiciary and getting favourable verdicts from court. The trust wanted regularization of the Lucknow medical college, blacklisted by the Medical Council of India (MCI).
Bhushan said, “there is a coordinated working of police, government and judiciary which is hand in glove that is tormenting innocent minorities who are being jailed. Several public hearings have come to the fore where it has surfaced that lives of the youth are being trampled upon.”
He further added, “Situation in the country remains grim wherein the times of the emergency are once again being seen where under the Indira regime civil liberties were being trampled upon. Rape threats, abusive language, murders, cow slaughter issues, love jihad all have become the buzz word off late. Take for example the killing of Mohd Afrazul. A machinery of lies is at play. Cooked up stories and images being created to spread misinformation. CVC, CEC, CBI , judiciary and other agencies are in grave danger.”
Bhushan rued in the CVC out of three members two are graft tainted persons. He talked off how both the Sahara Birla diaries had laid threadbare how 40 cr was paid by Sahara and 25 crore by Birlas to then Gujarat CM.
Referring to reports Bhushan said The Sahara Group and an Aditya Birla Group company allegedly made massive payments to prominent Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress politicians in 2013-14 and 2012 respectively as per documents bundled with application in a pending writ petition filed by citizen collective Common Cause.
The Sahara payments among the entries against which large sums of money are listed are the ‘CMs’ of Gujarat, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in 2013-14 says a The Wire report first written about by The Hindu.
Bhushan said selective targeting of opposition especially Rahul Gandhi in poll code violation instead of the Prime Minister himself where he does a rally on poll day is an element of bother.
He called for Independence of judiciary from government and also to probe corruption in judiciary without any hiccups.
While talking of checks and balances to avoid blackmailing of institutions, he said corruption must end, adding the only way forward was creating an SIT of 5 senior judges. Giving charge to a retired SC judge.
“Current scheme of things suggests that you cannot question the judiciary on pending cases or appointments. Bring in transparency in process, lay down guidelines and criteria, strong need for a foolproof judicial appointments commission. Need a system overhaul, make system independent, accountable and answerable”, he said making a case for cleansing of the judiciary.
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