Right to Potable Water and India! - By Khushi M Pandya

As per the current situation of the Nation, Right to potable water should fall within the category of the Fundamental Rights of Individuals but it has not been specifically or namely categorized in it. In simple words, Potable water is water which is free of pathogens and contains no harmful chemicals and has desirable taste, odor, color and turbidity. It is popular and also known as a ‘sweet water’ or ‘drinking water’ amongst general public of the nation. In India, water is a limited national resource with demands on it increasing on account of a growing population of over one billion. There is a shortage of water in all over India especially for drinking purpose and also for the purpose of the farming, industrial purpose and many more. According to, World Water Development Report, 2003 in the matter  of  availability of water, India is at the 133rd position among 180 countries and as regards the quality of the water available, it is 120th among 122 countries. Of the present water usage in India, 92 per cent is devoted to agriculture; around 3 per cent is used by industries and only 5 percent for domestic purposes like drinking water and sanitation.[1] Water pollution is a serious problem with 70 per cent of India’s surface water resources and an increasing number of its ground water reserves standing contaminated by biological, toxic organic and in organic pollutants.[2]

In the present time, there is unavailability of water for the industrial and agriculture purpose and for drinking purpose because of pollution and inappropriate distribution of water among the territory. In some areas, there are problems regarding the resources for drinking water. For that, Sharing and distribution of the water, requires a regulatory agenda which should include laws and implementation of that laws in real sense, for that, support of NGOs & local authorities and public, traditional & customary practices and saving of rain water.

This post contributes right of water- potable water, overview of Constitutional Provisions and various decisions of Judiciary on Potable water as a fundamental right, Sources of Potable Water in India and its impurity, Right to potable Water as a Human Right, An unfulfilled obligation on the part of Government, Right to Potable Water- rhetoric and Recommendations and Conclusion.

Following heads help us to understand the Potable Water as a Right.

• Meaning of Potable Water-

As mentioned above, potable water must-

-          be free from pathogens (disease causing organisms)

-          have a desirable taste, odor, color and turbidity and

-          Contain no harmful chemicals.

A potable water supply is one which is drinkable. Natural water from a river, lake or borehole usually has to treat to make it potable.

The water cycle of the biosphere depends upon the reciprocity of evaporation and precipitation. Liquid water on the earth goes into the atmosphere as vapours by evaporation and transpiration of the plants. The vapour is returned to the Earth as rain or snow. In simple terms, water cycle is evaporation of water from ocean, sea, river, pond & etc., formation of cloud, condensation into rain or snow, flowing back to ocean, sea, river, pond & etc., depends on various conditions like temperature, density or air, pressure of air, which inturn depends if situation like forest or plant cover on earth’s surface etc. this is an amazing process of nature to convert saline water into sweet water.[3]

• Water- an important substance for human body-

Water is the sustenance of the life cycle of human being. The human body and other organisms require water in its purest form, free from any contamination. For the purpose of drinking, water should be sweet water. There is about 65% part of water into human body for the purpose of lubrication, respiration, circulation, digation, filtration, air-condition and reduction.

Contaminated water cause malaria, jaundice, typhoid, cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. These are categorized as water-bone diseases. The water related diseases are claiming the lives of about 1.5 million children (500,000 children due to diarrhea alone) under 5 years and person-days lost in India are estimated to be about 180-200 million a year (Krishna Kumar, 2003; Parikh et al, 1999).[4]

• Sources of Potable Water- its impurity and causes for impuration-

The source of water that we get for our consumption are mainly from rain, river, ponds and lakes besides from groundwater source but largest water bodies that is seas and ocean gives salty water which is unfit for drinking purpose.

The main resource of drinking water is river. If water at source is impure, it is natural that we got polluted water thus causing problems for our survival. A staggering 70% of available water in India is polluted.[5]  Water sources are polluted due to various  industrial and domestic activities, pollutant from industries comes out in concentrated from mainly because most of the industries do not treat their effluents despite of various act. The threat of pollution from chemical fertilizers & pesticides appear to be relatively small but rising.

Domestic pollutants comes through municipal sewerage and these effluents are not treated due to various reasons, in some case due to non availability of sewerage plant, some case the plants do not run at all.

With the advent of enormous industrialization, population growth and scientific development in various walks of life, the ecosystem has been disturbed and damaged beyond repair. The balance between the mobile living (man, animals, birds, insects etc.), the immobile living (trees, plants) and three sustenance system (soil, water and air) has been disturbed. As Water is an important substance for life, in ecosystem as well as in biosystem, mobile living and immobile living cannot live, exist without water.

Above mentioned all are creating pollution of water in some or other manner. Polluted water is no more useful for the drinking purpose.

• Purity of water- its history-

In India, the purity of water has always been emphasized from time immemorial. In the Rig-Veda, the Atharva-Veda and the Yajur-Veda we find many verses in praise of Lord Varuna (God of Water). In the Yajur Veda water was regarded as a source of life and grain.[6] Bhagvad Geeta also mentions about worshipping of Lord Varuna.[7] This shows that in Vedic times, water was regarded as a component of life and thus was regarded as sacred, not to be polluted. In Manusmriti, the first systematic treatise on various laws, water is regarded as a creator and source of life on the earth.[8] To take away water of a tank or cut off the supply of water was an offence punishable with fine.[9] This proves that in olden times it was the duty of all to keep water pure, and pollution or destruction of water was recognized as an offence.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS AND RIGHT TO POTABLE WATER

Indian constitution emphasis on the protection of Environment. In Several Articles of the Indian Constitution, protection of water as well as protection of environment as whole is mentioned. Those articles directly or indirectly talks about the well being of the person with all necessities.

In India, the Right to Potable Water is not expressly stated in the Constitution. However, the right is implicit, in that Indian Courts have interpreted the Constitutional Right to Life as including the Right to clean & sufficient water.

Art.15(2)- this article of the constitution prohibits subjection of a citizen to any disability, liability, restriction or condition on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth with regard to use the of wells, tanks, bathing ghats..[10] This article of the Constitution is important because in our country there is discrimination on the grounds of the race, caste, sex and place of birth. Such feeling of the discrimination leads people to such sincere experience which prohibits another to enjoy his life. Most of the victims of such discrimination are of the SCs, STs and Vicharati and vimukt thati jati.

Art.21- Article 21 which speaks of the right to life[11] has been freely interpreted by the Supreme Court of India and High Courts of States to include all facets of life. It means that Art.21 includes right to potable water fall within it and it is a fundamental right of an individual as it is necessary for the survival of a person. In F.K. Hussain v. Union of India[12], the Kerala High Court declared that one of the attributes of right to life is right to potable water as it is one of the basic elements which sustain life itself. The Court also declared that administrative agencies could not be permitted to function in such a way to make inroads into fundamental rights under Art.21 of the Constitution.

Art.39(b)-mandates that ‘the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub serve the common good.

   

Above discussed all are the Articles which directly indicate the State to perform some or other task for the protection. Article 51 of the constitution discuss about the Fundamental Duties on the part of Citizens of the Nation.

Art.51A (g)[13]- this article confers fundamental duty on each and every citizen of the India, ‘to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, wild life and to have compassion for living creatures.’ This article generously states that to protect the environment is our fundamental duty.

In the constitution, the primary entry relating to water is Entry 17 (the state list) of List II in Schedule 7.This means that states have control over water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankment, water storage, and hydroelectric power. The power of states is limited only by Entry 56 of List 1 (the union list), which gives the central government powers to regulate and deal with inter-state rivers and river valleys to the extent declared by the Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest, and by entry 57 of the same list, which gives the centre the sole power to regulate fishing and fisheries beyond territorial waters

There are also examples in which right is placed in the Constitution i.e. South Africa and Uganda, others that have included provisions in their National Constitutions defining water as a public good and legislating for fair and equitable access (Ethiopia, Gambia). A specific law have been enacted in US – Safe Drinking water Act, 1974.

INDIAN JUDICIARY ON RIGHT TO POTABLE WATER

In India, the Judiciary is one of the three basic organs of the state and has a vital role in the functioning of the state. The Indian Judiciary has played dynamic role for the protection of all rights-economic, political, social and cultural.

By the below mentioned all case laws, Judiciary recognizes the Right to Potable water and need for the state to preserve and protect the right as the state is the trustee of all natural resources which are by nature meant for public use and enjoyment.[14]

In F.K.Hussain v. U.O.I[15]., the Kerala High Court declared that one of the attributes of right to life is right to potable water as it is one of the basic elements which sustain life itself. The Court also declared that administrative agencies could not be permitted to function in such a way to make inroads into fundamental rights under Art.21 of the Constitution. Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in the Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar(1991), held that the right to live includes the right of enjoyment of pollution free water and air for full enjoyment of life.

In B.L. Vadhera v. U.O.I[16]. And in Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action v. U.O.I.[17] , the Hon’ble Court held that pollution free water includes within the purview of Right to Life guaranteed under Art.21 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court, in M.C.Mehta v. Kamal Nath[18], categorically held that the state is not only bound to regulate water supply, but should also help realize the right to healthy water & prevent health hazard. In Karnataka v. State of A.P.(2000), the Court held that the right to water is a right to water is a right to life & thus a Fundamental Right.

In Narmada Bachao Abhiyan v. U.O.I[19]., it was held that water is a basic need for the survival of human beings and is part of the right to life and human rights. The entitlement of citizens to receive safe drinking water (potable water) is part of the Right to Life under Art. 21. (Sinha, 2001: 48-49)

Above mentioned all decisions directly indicate that there should be a Right to Potable Water and they have stated that this right falls within the category of the Art.21- Right to life. But it is necessary to mention here that the decisions of Hon’ble Court does not bring safe drinking water to all the citizens of India specially who are deprived of it and it does not recommended as Constitutional Right.

---

[1] ‘Troubled Waters: Developing Water, Sustaining Livelihoods’, - A report made by development alternatives

[2]  ‘Troubled Waters: Developing Water, Sustaining Livelihoods’,

[3] Paryavaran Mitra-Edition Nov-Dec 2008 – a magazine on environment publishing in Gujarat in Gujarati Language

[4] Right to Drinking Water in India-C. Ramachandraiah- CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC AND  SOCIAL STUDIES, Hyderabad

[5] according to scientists at the National environmental Engineering & Research Instituue.

[6] Yajur Veda, IX, 6 & 7

[7] Bhagvad Geeta, 10/29

[8] Manusmriti, 1:78

[9] Manusmriti, IX: 281, 274

[10] Article 15(2) of the Indian Constitution prohibits subjection of a citizen to any disability, liability, restriction or condition on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth with regard to- (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of entertainment, or, (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of state funds or dedicated to the use of general public.

[11] Article 21- Protection of Life and Personal Liberty- No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

[12] AIR 1990 Ker 321

[13] Art-51A(g)- it shall be the duty of every citizen of India- (g)- to protect and improve the natural environment including forest, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.

[14] The Right To Water- An Overview Of The Indian Legal Regime by S. Murlidhar – International Environmental Law Research Centre

[15] AIR 1990 Ker 321

[16] AIR 1996 SC 2969: (1996) 2 SCC 594

[17] AIR 1996 SC 1446, para. 55, 56

[18] (1997) 1 SCC 388

[19] AIR 2000 SC 3751: (2000) 10 SCC 664

Ashis Nandy, Atrocity and Anticipatory Bail!

The FIR lodged under Section  506 of Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989(PoA) against Prof. Ashis Nandy for his statements in a discussion at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2013 and the protest demanding his arrest.

The Scheme of PoA does not permit any court to grant an anticipatory bail if the accused is lodged under any of PoA's section. Section 18 of the PoA reads, 'Nothing in Section 438 of the Code shall apply in relation to any case involving the arrest of any person on an accusation of having committed an offence under this Act.' Section 438 of CrPC deals with Anticipatory Bail. 

"Once a provision of law enacted by Legislature is held to be not unconstitutional or not violative of Article 21 of the Constitution, the same stands on statute book and has to be read as it is and court while interpreting the same, cannot read what is not provided for in the provision nor can it ignore what is provided for in the provision,"

"A person who is facing accusation of having committed an offence under the Atrocities Act, cannot legally invoke provisions of Section-438 of the CrPC in view of specific bar contained under Section-18 of the Atrocities Act and a court cannot grant anticipatory bail to a person accused of having committed an offence,"

 -Justice A.L. Dave while deciding the question of Anticipatory Bail.

It is interesting to note that there are various conflicting judgements on the same issue. While some High Courts are of the opinion that a person booked under PoA act has right to get anticipatory bail, some HC contradicts this view by stating that PoA is a special Act and it has overriding effect on any general Act, in the present case it is CrPC.

Prof. Nandy has already clarified his statements and said that he is misquoted and misinterpreted. In this situation Prof. Nandy has an option to approach the court for quashing an FIR. Proff. Ashish Nandy has got good exposure of Criminal Cases and Courts, in 2010, an FIR against Nandy was registered under section 153A (promoting communal disharmony) and 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of Indian Penal Code. He got anticipatory bail from Supreme Court. Prof. Nandy will now know that Atrocity is heinous crime. Prof. Nandy has deep rooted bias against Middle class. Though, the comment was made in connection with "Corruption is an equalizer"; in a sense he has justified the menace of corruption!

Moral of the Story:  Justice G.S. Sanghvi proclaimed while deciding Prof. Nandy's application: " If a journalist cannot write, who else will?" Its the time to reframe the question, " If a professor cannot speak, who else will?"

Justice Verma Committee and Quotical Affair!

Justice Verma Committee comprising Retired Justice J.S. Verma, Retired Justice Leila Seth and Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, was constituted on December 23, 2012, to look into the possible amendments in the criminal laws related to sexual violence against women. Full report is available Here.

More than 650 pages, 80,000 E-mails and just 29 DAYS!!! Here in this post, I  reproduce some of the Great Quotes quoted in Justice Verma's report.

Amartya Sen:

• “…There is no automatic guarantee of success by the mere existence of democratic institutions…The success of democracy is not merely a matter of having the most perfect institutional structure that we can think of. It depends inescapably on our actual behaviour patterns and the working of political and social interactions. There is no chance of resting the matter in the ‘safe’ hands of purely institutional virtuosity. The working of democratic institutions, like all other institutions, depends on the activities of human agents in utilizing opportunities for reasonable realization…”

• “The idea of ‘capability’ (i.e. the opportunity to achieve valuable combinations of human functionings — what a person is able to do or be) can be very helpful in understanding the opportunity aspect of freedom and human rights. Indeed, even though the concept of opportunity is often invoked, it does require considerable elaboration, and capability can help in this elucidation. For example, seeing opportunity in terms of capability allows us to distinguish appropriately between (i) whether a person is actually able to do things she would value doing, and (ii) whether she possesses the means or instruments or permissions to pursue what she would like to do (her actual ability to do that pursuing may depend on many contingent circumstances).”

 

Aristotle:

“The greatest of all means…for ensuring the stability of Constitutions—but which is nowadays generally neglected—is the education of citizens in the spirit of the Constitution…”

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar:

“I feel that the constitution is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile.”

Dr Rajendra Prasad:

“…Whatever the Constitution may or may not provide, the welfare of the country will depend upon the way in which the country is administered. That will depend upon the men who administer it. If the people who are elected, are capable and men of character and integrity, they would be able to make the best even of a defective Constitution. If they are lacking in these, the Constitution cannot help the country. After all, a Constitution like a machine is a lifeless thing. It acquires life because of the men who control it and operate it, and India needs today nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them…

It requires men of strong character, men of vision, men who will not sacrifice the interests of the country, at large for the sake of smaller groups and areas and who will rise over the prejudices which are born of these differences. We can only hope that the country will throw up such men in abundance…”

Edgar Bauer:

• “While the two-sex scheme posits a hierarchical structure in which the female sex is subordinated to its complementary opposite, the Galenic one-sex model establishes a bi-polar hierarchy, which results from the way individuals actualize in their bodies the unique sexual nature of maleness .”

• “On this account, "fe-males" are only imperfect instantiations of the single existing sex and they must therefore be subordinated to "males" as the superior realization of mankind's sexual nature. Although the one-sex model became a determinant factor in Renaissance anatomical studies and its traces are observable even in Sigmund Freud's theory of a unique male libido, it never challenged seriously the pervasive influence of sexual binarism, whose ideological prestige was supported by biblical revelation and allegedly observable factuality.”

• “For its modern advocates, the third sexual mode was an indispensable accretion to binary sexuality designed to closure the possibilities of what is conceivable as "sex". Later on, the third sex was conceived as an emblematic sexual variety that, besides superseding binomial sexuality, initiates a sexual series, which excludes the idea of its own final completion… While the proposal of a "suppletive" third sex sought to overcome the limitations of the sexual binomium by adding a collective category that included all previously rejected or ignored sexual alternatives, the postulation of a "serial" third sex reflected the insight that no final sexual category can do justice to the inexhaustible variability of human sexuality.”

Justice Mukhreija:

• “…..As we have said already, the executive government are bound to conform not only to the law of the land but also to the provisions of the Constitution. The Indian Constitution is a written Constitution and even the Legislature cannot override the fundamental rights guaranteed by it to the citizens. Consequently, even if the acts of the executive are deemed to be sanctioned by the legislature, yet they can declared to be void and inoperative if they infringe any of the fundamental rights of the petitioners guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution…..”

• “The limits within which the Executive Government can function under the Indian Constitution can be ascertained without much difficulty by reference to the form of the executive which our Constitution has set up. Our Constitution though federal in its structure, is modelled in the British Parliamentary System where the executive is deemed to have the primary responsibility for the formulation of the governmental policy and its transmission into law though the condition precedent to the exercise of this responsibility is its retaining the confidence of the legislative branch of the State. The executive function comprises both the determination of the policy as well as carrying it into execution. This evidently includes the initiation of legislation, the maintenance of order, the promotion of social and economic welfare, the direction of foreign policy, in fact the carrying on of supervision of the general administration of the State…..”

Lord Woolf:

“The evolution can be incremental in a way which would be difficult if we had a written Constitution. But flexibility comes at a price. We have never had the protection that a written Constitution can provide for institutions that have a fundamental role to play in society. One of those institutions is a legal system that is effective, efficient and independent. A democratic society pledged that the rule of law would be deeply flawed without such a legal system…..”

“There is hardly an institution performing functions of a public nature which has not been the subject of change. The changes have had an impact on the way in which our Constitution operates…..”

Mahatma Gandhi:

“Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in the minutest details in the activities of man, and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him. She is entitled to a supreme place in her own sphere of activity as man is in his. This ought to be the natural condition of things and not as a result only of learning to read and write. By sheer force of a vicious custom, even the most ignorant and worthless men have been enjoying a superiority over woman which they do not deserve and ought not to have. Many of our movements stop half way because of the condition of our women.”

Marian Anderson:

“[Prejudice] it’s like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.”

 

Mqbul-ul-Huq:

“As we approach the 21st century, we hear the quiet steps of a rising revolution for gender equality. The basic parameters of such a revolution have already changed. Women have greatly expanded their capabilities over the last few decades through a liberal investment in their education. At the same time, women are acquiring much greater control over their lives through dramatic improvements in reproductive health. They stand ready and prepared to assume greater economic and political responsibilities. And technological advances and democratic processes are on their side in this struggle. Progress in technology is already overcoming the handicaps women suffer in holding jobs in the market, since jobs in the future industrial societies will be based not on muscular strength but on skills and discipline. And the democratic transition that is sweeping the globe will make sure that women exercise more political power as they begin to realize the real value of the majority votes that they control. It is quite clear that the 21^st century will be a century of much greater gender equality than the world has ever seen before.”

Nancy Fraser:

“Alternative remedies of homophobia and heterosexism are currently associated with gay identity politics, which aims to revalue gay and lesbian identity. Transformative remedies, in contrast, are associated with queer politics, which would deconstruct the homo- hetero dichotomy…so as to de- stabilize all fixed sexual identities. The point is not to dissolve all sexual differences in a single, universal human identity; it is, rather, to sustain a sexual field of multiple, debinarized, fluid ever -shifting differences”

 Pierre Rosanvallon:

“Our history is directed towards a rationalist conception of democracy. In France, democracy is not based upon the confrontation of interests, it is not based upon the negotiation of demands and needs. It wants to establish itself upon an objective image of the general interest. And this general interest is not determined by confrontation; it is understood by reason”

Pratap Bhanu Mehta:

“The disenchantment with the state often expresses itself in the thought that those who wield state power are not accountable.”

Shiela Barse:

“Thus the meaning of law and the empowerment which law gives and the clothing of man with such Constitutional rights is only to make sure that whether it be State or whether it be man, and after all the State contains men, that with Pausanius, King of Sparta, a man feels confidently that “laws should have an authority over men, not men over laws” in order to see that a human right is also accompanied by an enforcement modus effectualis, it is necessary to give it in the first instance the prime importance which it deserves and which is merited to it in law, after all law itself recognises the high dimensions and dyophysite existence of rights, the one absolute impregnable and the other subject to social regulation by valid statute law.”

Moral of the Story:  A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.

Language of Law, Courts and Litigants.

The Supreme Court of India has rejected the state government's proposal to allow use of Gujarati in the state high court. In India, the official language of Higher Courts and Supreme Court is English. The English is lingua franca in India. Although, States like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan already use of Hindi in the proceedings of their respective high courts.

 

"English could not remain as the official language of the Union for very long as that would be against national self- respect and that only through an Indian language could there be a massive resurgence of the national life."

 -The official Language Commission - 

Appointed on June 7, 1955,

 Report published on 1957

In this post, I am not addressing national self - respect problem and English Language, but deep-rooted problem with our administration of Justice System. Ours is one of the best and effective judiciary in the world. Unfortunately, our judiciary does not see any reason to make a survey whether litigants are happy with the way of its working. They should make a survey and ask the litigants what the areas on administrative side which needs reforms. e.g. In Gujarat High Court, the litigant must give translation of each paper of his brief. If a brief running over 1000 pages then also he has to provide English translation of each of the pages. The cost of translation is anywhere between 40 to 100 Rs per page. Moreover, the practice itself is a time consuming one. High Court registry has strict orders to not put any matter before the bench if full translated version of brief and its annexure is not provided by litigant.  

One of the major problems the litigants are facing is language of the Court. As the matter of fact, only 12.16% of Indian population understand English. According to 2011 census, Gujarat has 74.1% literacy rate. Still, High Court of Gujarat has English as an official language! 

It is well known fact that India has 'Language - Politics' due to South Indian political parties and ShivSena of Maharashtra. The proposal made by GoG is not on the line of politics but to bring a change in justice delivery system. Most of the people of Gujarat have no knowledge of English and Gujarati is the most used language in day - to -day business. 

The Government of Gujarat's proposal to allow use of Gujarati in the High Court of Gujarat reads, 'the use of official language, Gujarati, in the proceedings before the high court would increase active participation, understanding of the people at large in the judicial process and they will be able to redress their grievances in the language with which they are conversant.' 

Justice Must Not Only Be Done, It Must Be Seen to Be Done. 

In Gujarat, most of the litigants have no knowledge of English and they don't understand anything which is going on in the Court of Law. Even if the lawyer is making false statements they can't raise their concern, simply, because they don't understand anything. The Court's orders are also in English Language. I have personal experience of this kind; a matter was dismissed on the ground of 'Non-appearance' of the litigants counsel. When the client asked the reason the counsel who was at a fault, as he didn’t make himself present in the courtroom and the matter was dismissed, told the client that 'Judge doesn't find any merit in your matter and your matter was dismissed! The story has re-occurrence in every single day in the High Court of Gujarat. 

The Indian judiciary system is not 'litigant centric', but, its more 'Judge Centric'. There are many factors for not allowing Gujarati as an official language of the High Court. There are judges who are transferred from another state and have no proficiency of Gujarati language. This is the most cited reason for not allowing use of any local languages in Higher Courts. One more reason is, if a high court adopts the local language, then it would be difficult to cite precedents from this court in other High Courts. Difficulties would also arise in the functioning of the Supreme Court if the High Courts were to adopt different languages. 

There can be no disagreement regarding difficulties arise if local languages are allowed in High Courts. Here, we should apply Bentham's utilitarianism. The litigant's 'Good' and 'Justice' at large must be the centre point for making any decision on Language of the Court. The problems which may be created by usage of Local language can be solved. Every problem has a remedy. It may be difficult but not impossible. The Judges should start seeing the things from the eyes of litigants. 

If we want an inclusive society, every citizen must participate in every aspect of governance. The court of law has higher responsibility. India, currently facing trust deficit and only judiciary has maintained her reputation in the eyes of citizen.

  

If we make Gujarati an official language of the High Court of Gujarat, it will help everybody and litigant will know what is going on in their cases. The CJI must consider this fact and make it 'litigant centric.'  

The litigants are at the receiving ends. In a sense, the ‘Justice’ is at the receiving end.

Moral of the Story: Many remark justice is blind; pity those in her sway, shocked to discover she only knows English Language! 

Rahul Baba Ki Jay!!!

                                



Finally, We are obliged by Kunvar of India i.e. Rahul Gandhi. He is all set to have poison. Today, as a Vice - President he delivered his first speech. Actually, 'READ' would be a better choice. But, I don't want to demean His highness THE Rahul Gandhi. Some of his chamchas go ga ga over his speech. For the matter of fact, they (The Chamchas... oops Congressi) are conditioned to praise their Yuvaraj. Some internal sources tell that today, he farted so many times in Cintan Shivir that the hall filled with healthy gas (the congressi differentiate commoner's fart with Yuvraj's healthy Gas!)

Rahul Gandhi made one of the great speeches of contemporary Indian political history: political&intensely personal, inspirational&emotional.

 - Shashi Tharoor 

Ms Sagarika Ghosh The Rhodes Scholar tweeted, "For the first time I must say a good interesting personal speech from Rahul Gandhi....(sic.)" I am thankful to her that she finds RG's speech only interesting and not inspiring!!!

India has been called a 'dynastic democracy'. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it 'durbari democracy'.

 -Ramchandra Guha

As an Indian, I am not at all shocked or appalled while watching RG's speech on screen and the congressi started clapping, crying and  what not??? But, personally I don't like that our Yuvaraj Made our RajMata crying!!! That's not done RG??? I can't see a wife of shaheed and shaheed's family crying. Moreover, You are the reason of her agony. You owe an apology to Indian Subjects.

Now, I have great respect for Mr Robert Wadra, long ago, he branded the country 'Banana Republic' and her subjects as 'Mango people'. All the mango people who gathered outside of the Palace (10, Janpath) are shouting Long Live Rahul Baba... Baba ki Jay ho. Unfortunately, this 'Baba' word reminds me Sanjay Dutt and to the worst Nirmal Baba.

In 70s-80s, we have a strong Chamcha of this 'First Family'. His name is Khuswant Singh, He was so admired by Sanjay Gandhi that he wrote so many editorial on Sanjay Gandhi's Motor car project in Illustrated Weekly. Though, sanjay's factory did not produce a single roadworthy car. In 2013, Sanjay's nephew has a dozen of Khuswant Singh.

 In this moment of joy, as a Subject of this great Monarchy, I would like to propose 20/01 be celebrated  every year as a 'Baba Day'. 

Moral of the Story:  The semen and the Uterus, these both play very pivotal role in your career prospect. Unfortunately, we have no commond over both of these!!!