Tamil Nadu Governor must insist that the following judgment by Justice Amitava Roy in the Disproportionate Assets case must be read out (alongwith Tamil translation) in the Assembly tomorrow before voting is held.
J U D G M E N T
Amitava Roy, J.
A few
disquieting thoughts that have lingered and
languished
in distressed silence in mentation demand
expression
at the parting with a pulpit touch. Hence, this
supplement.
2. The
attendant facts and circumstances encountered as
above,
demonstrate a deep rooted conspiratorial design to amass
vast
assets without any compunction and hold the same
through
shell entities to cover up the sinister trail of such illicit
acquisitions and deceive
and delude the process of law. Novelty
in the
outrages and the magnitude of the nefarious gains as
demonstrated
by the revelations in the case are, to say the least,
startling.
3. A
growing impression in contemporary existence seems
to
acknowledge, the all pervading pestilent presence of
corruption
almost in every walk of life, as if to rest reconciled to
the
octopoid stranglehold of this malaise with helpless awe. The
common
day experiences indeed do introduce one with unfailing
regularity,
the variegated cancerous concoctions of corruption
with
fearless impunity gnawing into the frame and fabric of the
nation’s
essentia. Emboldened by the lucrative yields of such
malignant
materialism, the perpetrators of this malady have
tightened
their noose on the societal psyche. Individual and
collective
pursuits with curative interventions at all levels are
thus
indispensable to deliver the civil order from the
asphyxiating
snare of this escalating venality.
4. In
the above alarming backdrop of coeval actuality,
judicial
adjudication of a charge based on an anti-corruption law
motivated
by the impelling necessities of time, has to be
informed
with the desired responsibility and the legislative vision
therefor.
Any interpretation of the provisions of such law has to
be essentially
purposive, in furtherance of its mission and not in
retrogression
thereof. Innovative nuances of evidential
inadequacies,
processual infirmities and interpretational
subtleties,
artfully advanced in defence, otherwise intangible and
inconsequential,
ought to be conscientiously cast aside with
moral
maturity and singular sensitivity to uphold the statutory
sanctity,
lest the coveted cause of justice is a causality.
5.
Corruption is a vice of insatiable avarice for selfaggrandizement
by the
unscrupulous, taking unfair advantage of
their
power and authority and those in public office also, in
breach
of the institutional norms, mostly backed by minatory
loyalists.
Both the corrupt and the corrupter are indictable and
answerable
to the society and the country as a whole. This is
more
particularly in re the
peoples’ representatives in public life
committed
by the oath of the office to dedicate oneself to the
unqualified
welfare of the laity, by faithfully and conscientiously
discharging
their duties attached thereto in accordance with the
Constitution,
free from fear or favour or affection or ill-will. A
self-serving
conduct in defiance of such solemn undertaking in
infringement
of the community’s confidence reposed in them is
therefore
a betrayal of the promise of allegiance to the
Constitution
and a condemnable sacrilege. Not only such a
character
is an anathema to the preambulor promise of justice,
liberty,
equality, fraternal dignity, unity and integrity of the
country,
which expectantly ought to animate the life and spirit of
every
citizen of this country, but also is an unpardonable
onslaught
on the constitutional religion that forms the bedrock
of our
democratic polity.
6.
This pernicious menace stemming from moral
debasement
of the culpables, apart from destroying the sinews
of the
nation’s structural and moral set-up, forges an unfair
advantage
of the dishonest over the principled, widening as well
the
divide between the haves and have nots. Not only this has a
demoralising
bearing on those who are ethical, honest, upright
and
enterprising, it is visibly antithetical to the quintessential
spirit
of the fundamental duty of every citizen to strive towards
excellence
in all spheres of individual and collective activity to
raise
the nation to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.
This
virulent affliction triggers an imbalance in the society’s
existential
stratas and stalls constructive progress in the overall
well-being
of the nation, besides disrupting its dynamics of fiscal
governance.
It encourages defiance of the rule of law and the
propensities
for easy materialistic harvests, whereby the
society’s
soul stands defiled, devalued and denigrated.
7.
Such is the militant dominance of this sprawling evil,
that
majority of the sensible, rational and discreet constituents
of the
society imbued with moral values and groomed with
disciplinal
ethos find themselves in minority, besides estranged
and
resigned by practical compulsions and are left dejected and
disillusioned.
A collective, committed and courageous
turnaround
is thus the present day imperative to free the civil
order
from the suffocative throttle of this deadly affliction.
8.
Every citizen has to be a partner in this sacrosanct
mission,
if we aspire for a stable, just and ideal social order as
envisioned
by our forefathers and fondly cherished by the
numerous
self-effacing crusaders of a free and independent
Bharat,
pledging their countless sacrifices and selfless
commitments
for such cause.
............................................J.
(AMITAVA ROY)
NEW
DELHI;
FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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