We Will Miss You, Justice Abhay Oka!

Justice Oka, much as Chief Justice Gavai, has decided not to take up any government post after retirement. His judicial pronouncements will long be discussed at the Supreme Court as well as Bombay and Karnataka High Courts and he will be remembered as a judge who was committed to constitutional values, liberty and environmental protection

Don’t take this the wrong way, but the word Chakkar has almost become synonymous with our courts.

The Chakkar of courts, the Chakkar of litigations—once you're in, there's no telling if you'll get out.

It’s no longer just a legal process; it feels like an endless loop, a cycle that drags on indefinitely.

-Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur

Simply put, this statement resonates very much with Sunny Deol’s statement ‘Taareeq Pe Tareeq’ in Bollywood movie Damini.

In these columns we have been advocating the need for speeding up the process of delivering justice. We have even highlighted the examples of the results of delayed justice due to pending cases, the lower courts not following the Supreme Court’s repeated directives to treat bail as a rule and jail as an exception. The case of Father Stan Swamy’s death in jail after being denied a simple straw to sip water as he was a Parkinson’s patient remains a classic example of neglect of justice in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case. Similarly, former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba’s eight-and-a-half-year-long fight for justice will long be remembered. He was initially denied bail and got acquitted twice by the Bombay High Court and yet the State wanted to continue to jail him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Saibaba passed away within months of his release from the jail where he said his health deteriorated to the ill treatment that he was meted out in the prison. Though he had permanent polio-paralysis, jail authorities had refused to hand over his medication, Saibaba had told the media after his acquittal, according to The News Minute.

It is in this context and many other issues involved in the delivery of justice that we need to view the ‘parting kick’ statements made by Justice Abhay Oka who retired on May 24.

Justice Oka made very strong points on the prevailing system of granting or rejecting bails, the way the cases are listed for hearing and the functioning and the importance of trial and district courts.

“…people complain that why some cases (are) listed on the next day, but some other cases remain pending for 20 days or even more than that,” Justice Oka said. “And one solution which I found was in High Court there is a fixed roster and once there is a fixed roster, even that does not give discretion even to the Chief Justice. All matters are listed before appropriate benches as per the roster”, he observed.

Isn’t it a fact that Arnab Goswami got an urgent hearing while many continue to languish in jail? As the BBC reported, the speed with which Goswami's case was listed - the lower court had denied him bail just two days before - also appeared to raise eyebrows, prompting one lawyer to write to the court. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was the then President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, has written a letter to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court, strongly protesting against the 'extraordinary urgent listing' of the special leave petition filed by Republic TV Chief, Livelaw.in said.

Justice Oka pointed out that we cannot improve listing unless manual intervention is minimised. Listing should be done rationally. The Supreme Court is not only a Constitutional court, it is also an appellate court and the common man comes here.

He observed that criminal cases and even first appeal cases are pending hearing for 20 to 25 years. While priority is being given to cases related to those who are in jail, appeals by those who are on bail also must be considered. It is “too harsh” to send someone to jail after 20-25 years of remaining on bail, he rightly said.

Describing the trial and district level courts as the backbone of the judicial system as the common man goes there, Justice Oka lamented that cases in these courts have been pending for even 30 to 40 years. The Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai has appointed a committee to work out an action plan to resolve these issues and hopefully the hearings would be speeded up.

Pan-India, over five crore cases are pending in various courts as per Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal’s statement in the Lok Sabha in July 2024. As many as 84,045 cases are pending in the Supreme Court, 60,11,678 in the various high courts.

District and subordinate courts account for 4,53,51,913 cases pending with them, the minister said.

Justice Oka has made a very pertinent observation that no courts are subordinate under the Constitution. Hence, his point that the district and trial courts deserve attention must be taken seriously to bring that much-talked-about last mile smile.

Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, born on 25th May, 1960, did his B.Sc., LL.M. (University Of Bombay). He got enrolled as an Advocate on 28th June, 1983. Started practising in Thane District Court in the chamber of his father Shreeniwas W Oka.

The senior Oka stopped entering the courts the day his son was appointed as a judge at the Bombay High Court in August 2003. What is more, Justice Oka’s sons remained away from the legal profession. Salute for this remarkable professionalism.

He recalled that once a great judge (whom he would not to name) had advised me that “we are not becoming judges to become popular”. “And I followed that advice," Justice Oka said and observed: A judge has to be very firm and should be able to offend.

Justice Oka, much as Chief Justice Gavai, has decided not to take up any government post after retirement. His judicial pronouncements will long be discussed at the Supreme Court as well as Bombay and Karnataka High Courts and he will be remembered as a judge who was committed to constitutional values, liberty and environmental protection.

One of the key judgments led by a bench led by him was the striking down of a Government notification to facilitate post-facto approval of projects sans the environmental nods. In Navi Mumbai, we will celebrate his bench’s ruling upholding the status of wetlands and scrapping a golf course project planned by local city planner government-owned CIDCO on intertidal wetlands. (CIDCO has of course moved the SC against this and a hearing has been pending for nearly six years).

He pulled up the Enforcement Directorate on its style of working, for prolonged detention that could amount to punishment, and upheld the rights of the accused to access all documents seized by the investigating agency so that he could defend himself.

Recently, the bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice A G Masih has also observed that the ED is crossing its limits and undermining the federal structure by filing cases against the state government-owned liquor retailer Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC). Some employees of the corporation were accused of taking bribes and the ED filed cases against the company.

All these should prompt us to think about accountability while delivering justice.Hopefully, the observations of Justice Oka and the rulings by CJI Gavai will lead the nation into an improved justice with transparency. Let us keep discussing this, forfacts are sacred and comment is free.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)