Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Supreme Court's concern for the disempowered

There are occasional references to the plight of the poor and the dispossessed in some judgements pronounced by the higher courts in India. These are ofcourse only obiter dicta and do not have any enforcement obligations. One such reference appears in the judgement given by Justices G.S.Singhvi and A.K.Ganguly in an appeal filed by Mr.Harjinder Singh who was retrenched by the Punjab State Warehousing Corpn.

The judgement laments that courts including "the last court in the largest democracy of the world" have lost sympathy for the common man in pursuit of the attractive mantras of globalisation and liberalisation. The court has warned that precarious consequences would visit the nation if the courts dilute constitutional imperatives and promote the so-called trends of globalisation. "Judges of this court are not mere phonographic recorders but empirical scientists and interpreters of the social context in which they work." The oft-repeated anodyne that "our constitution takes no account of the portly presence of potentates, goodly in girth" also finds a place in the pronouncement.

Lofty thoughts indeed ! But there is no need to get riled by globalisation in order to appear sensitive to common man's sufferings. There need not be any conflict between globalisation and welfare of the common man just as mouthing 'socialism' ad nauseam would not cure the grievances of aam aadmi. What is needed is constructive action on the ground.

3 comments:

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