Why I Hate Lawyers…. I am pained to reveal that in my opinion the Indian Judicial System is no longer as ethical as it used to be during my ancestor's times. The image of the Judiciary has been tarnished with countless allegations of corruption.
Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. The sheer number of pending cases languishing in the Indian Judicial System gives enough reason to believe that corruption is rampant in the system. We have adjournments and inefficiencies which are perfect environment for middle-men to step in.
Our Judicial System is given to procrastinations, is highly exorbitant and beyond the reach of the common man, who finds it difficult to seek redress. He is at his wits end to have hard cash to oil the wheels of the system. You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, BUT you cannot fool all the people all the time. Right?
If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward, then I must say that we are a sorry lot indeed! In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. There are cases where the accused were powerful enough to subvert justice. The manner in which these cases are handled is a blot on our investigating and judicial agencies. Those who commit crimes have repeatedly and audaciously used their influence and political clout to subvert justice.
Crimes against women in India are rising faster than any other crime. What is degenerating is that investigation of anti-women offenders is more protracted than most others. These cases of crime against women are never in the priority list of any investigating agencies. Delayed investigation and justice, not only frustrates the victim but also provides an opportunity to the accused to use his clout in influencing the investigation. Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
Citing an example, "JUSTICE ELUDES A WIDOW FOR 38 YEARS ( The Times Of India, 02/01/2010). Lalitha Devi kept running from pillar to post for getting her family pension and other benefits due to her after her husband's death. She had even petitioned the Ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam and the Prime Minister, but to no avail. She was turned away on some pretext or the other. The common man begins to lose the meaning in life when he has nothing to survive on. It is a bad society that forces a woman to go from door to door for Justice. The victim is harassed instead of the accused. No one is accountable to anybody. Judges are happy adjourning the cases even when cases are waiting for judgment orders.
Contempt of Court is invoked when someone acts in a way that scandalizes the authority or lowers the dignity of a Court or interferes in the due course of a Judicial Proceeding or in the administration of Justice. Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Lawyers are like rhinoceroses that are thick-skinned, short sighted and are always ready to charge. It is their profession to disguise matters at all levels. The trouble with the legal profession is that 98% of its members give the rest a bad name. The trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs.
What is beyond my understanding is that the Bar Associations do not act against corrupt members! Why cannot a proper code of conduct be followed by the lawyers? We should have a public body that can keep an eye on the Judicial System and a Third eye exclusively on corrupt lawyers. It should be made mandatory that corrupt lawyers will have no place in the system.
The need to be incorruptible and maintain the moral integrity of the institution should be highly emphasized. This is fundamental to sustain the people's trust in the judiciary. Should the institution be corrupt, the common man will become cynical which in turn, will jeopardize the social order.
My Case has been grounded for more than a decade, waiting for the judgment order. Judges come and go on transfers like its a picnic for them. Each trip to the Court has impoverished me further. If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of lawyers in the first place. Our laws don't give our criminals much punishment, but they sure give them plenty of publicity.
The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly for crimes. The houses of lawyers are roofed with the skins of litigants.
An example of lawyers being corrupt: (The Times Of India, 8th July, 2010). A lawyer was arrested by officials of the Special Operation Wing of the Pune Crime Branch for allegedly forging government documents and fake stamps. So, how must the common man react when he places his entire trust, confidence and his life in the hands of his lawyer?
Being a citizen of a country like India which has vast patience and a high degree of tolerance for any difficult conditions that I face daily, I have all my dreams shattered due to the lack of inaction on the part of the bureaucracy. We have all the bigwigs in the government ensuring that their names and images remain untarnished, when they very well know that it is their responsibility and because they feed in the corrupt and oppressive political systems, we have so many cases of red-tapeism in every nook and corner.
I am least concerned with what my lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason and Justice tells me I ought to do. Our government teaches the whole people by it's example. If the government becomes the law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
People involved in corruption think that they can walk away free and no one can put them on trial, simply because they think that they are above the law in all respects. There is definitely a nexus between the corrupt members of Judiciary, the government and the powerful and influential sections of society who contrive to make gains for themselves. It is disheartening to state that there is a constant erosion of ethics in the Judicial System.
The common man is reduced to thinking in a manner as to, "How can the Judiciary remain honest when the people coming into it hail from the same society, which has it's existence on the grounds of corruption?"
As quoted by Robert Ingersoll, "Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty makes crime. Want, Rags, Crusts, Misfortune - all these awake the weird beast in a man, and finally he takes and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that, that is just as logical. What do you do with the criminal? You send him to the Penitentiary. Is he made better? WORSE! The first thing you do is to try to trample out his manhood, by putting an indignity upon him. You mark him. You put him in stripes. At night you put him in darkness. His feeling for revenge grows. You make a wild beast of him and he comes out of that place branded in body and soul, and then you won't let him reform if he wants to."
The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for tomorrow, which can be done to-day. Unfortunately, our Judicial System does not work that way. They love accumulating Cases for decades. How often have I come across people advising me, "If you don't get a lawyer who knows law then get the one who knows the Judge."
