Corruption And Creativity

Corruption and Creativity

by Kv Dhananjay on Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 2:47pm

Corruption is eating away India. And the Order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court directing all High Courts to monitor progress in corruption cases is a welcome development. I hope the media in this country will devote time to highlighting convictions in corruption cases. Just this morning, some minister from Kerala appears to have been convicted. And, one thing I can tell here is this:

Those who are corrupt will generally hire advocates to manufacture extravagant arguments and there is only one way to overcome this – complete corruption trials within 6 months.

Without even remotely suggesting that the Hon’ble CM of Karnataka is ‘corrupt’ or that his lawyers have gotten overly creative, let me merely narrate here, how much creative an ‘accused’ can get in a corruption case – btw, I hold the CMs lawyers in great affection and consider them to be the pillars of legal practice at Bangalore. I personally like them.

Welcome to the proceeding before the Special CBI Judge who is hearing the private complaint filed against Hon’ble CM, BSY. The Special Judge is yet to take ‘Cognizance’ and summon the ‘accused’ to stand trial. Yet, the ‘accused’ are already before that Judge asking him to add others as ‘co-accused’ and to do many more things. In particular, the ‘accused’ have already come in to court without being ‘summoned’ and want the proceedings against them ‘stayed’. Of course, the Special Judge's attention has been distracted from examining the original corruption complaint before him - he is required to now absorb elaborate arguments on the 'rights of an accused' and of 'subtlety in criminal procedure' from highly skilled lawyers; even before he could consider whether the complaint should lead to the taking of 'cognizance' by the Court.

I would only request the popular media to spend some time highlighting convictions in ‘corruption’ cases. Or at least, please devote five minutes or five lines each day to bring to your audience, information on who got convicted for being corrupt by which court and for how long. Your generous coverage will go a long way in making life better for the masses who subscribe to you.

K.V.Dhananjay
Advocate