Justice V R Krishna Iyer Human face Judicial System

Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer (15 November 1915 – 4 

December 2014) was supreme court judge ,member of  

Madras State Legislative Assembly  minister in 

Kerala state and practicing lawyer who reformed the Indian 


criminal justice system, stood up for the poor and the 

underprivileged, and remained a human-rights champion, a 

crusader for social justice and the environment, and a 

doyen of civil liberties, throughout life. Also a sports 

enthusiast and a prolific author, he was conferred with 

the Padma Vibhushan in 1999. His speeches ,writings and 

even judgments are reflections of his human face and in 

addition great literary treat. 


                         

Some samples of his words

'I decline to dig from great dust-heap called history or play 

customary game of each generation calling the next as 

scapegrace."

'" Now that Gandhiji has been assassinated and safely

rests in Rajghat,public morals in public life have been 

interred with his bones and set aflame with his 

body.Undoubtedly ,Gandhian values as precious as Gandhi

 himself ,have been assassinated many times."

"The need of Today is not great heads but good hearts ,not 

loaded learning but deep love,not super intelligence but

utter integrity .We want Man ,not brilliant beast" 

On his college library he wrote "I have not read from that

universal congregation of great authors in every department 

of human knowledge ; but titles themselves taught 

,shelves whispered and latest arrivals looked like 

footsteps of wise men on march

On courts and judges

The Prime Minister and the Chief Justice demand more 

number of courts — in their thousands. This is part of the 

pathological arrears syndrome. The truth is: more courts, 

more arrears, more lazy judges, more examples of 

Parkinson’s Law and Peter Principle. The real cause of the 

escalating arrears is the absence of accountability and 

transparency.

Any judge who seeks immunity from truth under the cover of 

the robe robs the rights of We, the People of India, the 

sovereign of Bharat. Secrecy is unbecoming of the curial 

fraternity and shall be exposed if they justify their freedom 

from revelation from the People of India. The transparency 

of the socio-economic condition of the judges is not negotiably 

fundamental in any civilised system of justice. The court is 

an 

open book and if the Bench seeks an iron curtain between its 

economic interest and the litigant community it is violative 

of 

glasnost.

It is better to be ultimately right than consistently wrong. To 

conceal the truth with regard to assets is unbecoming of fiat j

justicia, civilised justice, justices and justicing. Sorry, chief. 

You still can hold a kindly light amid the encircling gloom. 

No more darkness, but light. You are still the leader of 

luminous 

law and untainted truth, without fear or favour. Judges are 

the spinal cord of the rule of law, and the final interpreters of 

the Constitution. Their judgments govern social and 

economic justice. But oftentimes, as Frankfurter pointed out, 

their failings show up. He wrote: “Judges as persons, or 

courts as institutions, are entitled to no greater immunity 

from criticism than other persons or institutions. Just 

because the holders of judicial office are identified with the 

interests of justice they may forget their common human 

frailties and fallibilities.”

On Bhopal gas tragedy--

A Bhopal tragedy of Hiroshima magnitude — I call it a ‘

Bhoposhima' calamity caused by ‘gasassination.' According 

to some estimates, around 20,000 people died in the tragedy.

In the first place, the government was grossly negligent in 

permitting the installation of the unit. A mega-criminal case 

came up, involving charges under Section 304 of the Indian 

Penal Code. But a pachydermic court, at the level of the 

Supreme Court, without care or conscience reduced the 

gravity of the offences to those involving Section 304A of the 

IPC. The accused corporate, UCIL, and Warren Anderson, its 

Chairman, were not prosecuted. When the Chairman came 

on a visit soon after the tragedy, he was promptly given bail 

and he went home.

O, the pity of it. How frivolous was the prosecution that 

ended in lesser officials of the company being sentenced to 

two years' rigorous imprisonment. A Himalayan offence 

ended in a molehill sentence. The state — which is also a 

suspect in the bargain — settled the case under its unknown 

unlimited power ofpatria potestas — no more future cases, 

no more cases from the same catastrophe. The shocking 

settlement made a mockery of the Indian Penal Code. No 

real compensation has been paid yet. The law is not merely 

an ass, but verily a barbarian in this instance. Social justice 

and 

economic justice in the Constitution would seem to have 

become frivolous phrases in this context.

( I am grateful to the various inputs .Dr A P Bhat)