Courts of law, investigating agencies, and inquiry commissions (formed as and when required). These are the various layers of our judicial process. But the one which seems to least guarantee deliverance of justice is a commission of inquiry. If we cast a cursory glance on the reports submitted by the various commissions of inquiry since Independence, we can realise that a commission, though apparently formed in right earnest, is set up not to do justice with the case at hand but to cool down the temper the immediate crisis causes or in other words to obfuscate the judicial process. It is in fact willing suspension of justice. The Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan Commission is no exception. Rather it makes the point home more glaringly.
Seventeen long years, 48 extensions, and Rs. 8.15 crore of public exchequer the Liberhan Commission took is a travesty of investigation nay justice. This Commission was set up within 10 days of demolition of historic Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. The then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao was known for his soft corner towards Sangh Parivar, and attending RSS shakhas in his early days. It was in no way that he had not kept in mind the interests of Sangh Parivar vandals who had demolished Babri Masjid while forming a commission of inquiry to probe into the circumstance leading to the demolition of the Masjid. The inordinate delay the Commission made in completing the task it was expected to do within a period of three months gives credence to this apprehension of the community as well as saner sections of society.
The 4-volume Report running over 1000 pages submitted to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the presence of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on June 30, is wrapped and no one knows whether or not it will be ever made public, debated in Parliament and the culprits indicted duly punished. Yet the views expressed by Counsel Anupam Gupta, who had grilled L.K. Advani and other Sangh Parivar leaders during the proceedings of the Commission and who later on dissociated himself from the Commission in 2007 due to his conflict with Justice Liberhan on the question of personally indicting L.K. Advani, point to the uncertainty of justice in this long pending case.
Now one Manmohan has done his job though in an unreasonably longer period of time than it was expected, only time will say how long another Manmohan takes in bringing the culprits of Babri Masjid demolition to justice.
The recommendations advanced by a commission of inquiry are recommendatory in nature. And it is not binding on the government to act upon them. So it would be in the fitness of things to lend more teeth to a commission of inquiry by amending the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1952 so that the sordid plight of the commissions of inquiry may come to an end.
The Congress and UPA government at the Centre should not forget that the present stable government is due to the total support Muslims lent to the Congress in the recent general elections. And it can well imagine the results of ignoring the interests of this second largest majority in the country.