9 February 2024
“The Supreme Court has to be deeply conscious of an important role that it has been assigned under our Constitution which is to be a counter-majoritarian institution, not anti-majoritarian,” said Justice S Muralidhar, former judge of the Orissa High Court while speaking with The Quint at the 17th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival held during 1-5 February 2024.
“Regarding remissions, the executive and judicial branches function within distinct areas. However, one thing is for sure: a remission order is subject to judicial review. This was the question at hand: could the executive have made this judgment without all the information at its disposal? If so, how did it come to that conclusion? And could it be subject to judicial review? There are two things to consider: the decision itself and the decision-making process. Therefore, the judiciary’s ability to meddle in executive acts that grant pardons and remissions is strictly limited, but not nonexistent,” said Justice Muralidhar.
“These are important issues because you need to know about how long it will take to hear a bail application and make a decision. However, there might be a lot of planning that goes into court appearances, and there might be other facets of the case that you are unaware of and that only those managing it know about. All things considered, I believe that bail applications should be decided upon within specific time frames at every stage of the legal system, including the trial court, High Court, and Supreme Court,” added Justice Muralidhar while speaking about unheard bail pleas, bulldozer justice, and people losing faith in the judiciary.
Very recently Amnesty International has released two new studies detailing the targeting of houses, businesses, and places of worship belonging to the Muslim community across multiple states, and it has urged authorities to immediately halt the “unlawful” demolitions of Muslim buildings.
The two reports titled Bulldozer Injustice in India and JCB’s Role and Responsibility in Bulldozer Injustice in India, document demolitions of at least 128 properties between April and June 2022. Amnesty International says the demolitions carried out by bulldozers have rendered at least 617 people either homeless or destroyed their livelihoods.
The report says authorities in five states – Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi – carried out demolitions as a “punishment” following episodes of religious violence or protest by Muslims against discriminatory government policies.
Earlier, Dushyant Dave, a senior advocate had raised concerns over the rising trend of state governments demolishing homes of the people accused of crimes. He had emphasized the fact that the right to a home is an integral component of the right to life as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. Dave urged the Supreme Court to lay down law against Bulldozer Justice. He also asked the Court to order the reconstruction of the houses so demolished.