Test of fairness

Test of fairness

Supreme Court’s scrutiny of Pune police stems from its constitutional duty to uphold rights.

Supreme Court’s decision to examine evidence that Pune police claims prompted the arrest of five activists will bring clarity to a case vitiated by departures from due procedure. Those defending the arrested activists have accused the police of trumping up charges of a Maoist conspiracy, violating the Criminal Procedure Code and engineering a media trial. While it is rare for Supreme Court to be involved at such a preliminary stage, the extraordinary circumstances of the case presented a challenge for the legal system.

The nationwide swoop on seven cities spanning multiple high court jurisdictions and subsequent press conferences by Maharashtra police, accusing those arrested of a grave charge like endangering national security even before filing a chargesheet made for high spectacle, comparable to a McCarthyite witch hunt. The suggestion of anti-national activity coupled with the state’s enormous power, wielded like a sledgehammer in the present case, has been used by police with deadly effect on earlier occasions too. The sedition case against JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid has been discredited, as 30 months later Delhi police is yet to file a chargesheet against them.

In the Isro spy scandal three space scientists were falsely implicated by Kerala police of working against national interest, a damning accusation that cut off any hope of a sympathetic hearing from large sections of media and public. As the case demonstrates, creating a frenzy over national security can lead to an eclipse of reason and severe injustice. But in each case, courts have intervened to remedy cavalier police actions. As the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement this month – lifting the yoke of colonial-era laws on homosexuals – demonstrated, it remains the last bastion of civil liberties that are guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.