Chapter 353 Collegiate Chamber
Back in New Delhi, Ron wasted no time. With the help of an official, he planned to visit the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
In India, the Chief Justice has enormous power. This is not about his influence on a particular case, but the power to influence the system.
Yes, the Chief Justice and the four senior judges of the collegium have the power to appoint officials to the judiciary.
This refers to all judicial institutions across India, such as judges of the Tamil Nadu Supreme Court.
It sounds like this power is in conflict with the Indian government's administrative system because it is the power of the Organization Department in New Delhi.
The judiciary is an exception, with the exception of the Chief Justice, who is recommended by the Cabinet. From top to bottom, all judicial officials are appointed by the Collegium.
It is euphemistically called judicial independence.
No minister, not even the executive as a whole, can recommend any candidate for the Collegiate Chamber to the president.
It was a closed bureaucracy, more independent than the civil service of the Executive Council.
Although the Indian Constitution does not explicitly stipulate that the collegium is part of the political system, the institution has continued to exist strongly for hundreds of years.
How strong is it? The Collegium has the power to interpret the Constitution.
When there are disagreements in certain cases, the collegial chamber can provide innovative interpretations of the Constitution.
This power is great. The collegiate chamber not only becomes the defender of the law, but also the maker of the law.
To put it more bluntly, the collegial panel has the final say on how the case is decided.
If existing laws don't support their claims, create one on the spot.
It's simply outrageous. Why are those foreign-funded enterprises suddenly brought to court?
Because the collegial panel can trace the law back decades and then change the original provisions with just a stroke of the pen.
This is the power to interpret the Constitution. Cases previously judged may not necessarily be valid!
There is no doubt that doing so is tantamount to destroying India's judicial authority and is more like a joke.
But this is India, what hope do you have for justice?
If the judiciary really worked, there wouldn't be tens of millions of cases accumulated in many places, enough to be tried for hundreds of years.
To put it bluntly, India's laws only work when those in power need them.
Take Jayalalithaa for example. When she was the chief minister, the judiciary simply failed.
When the opposition comes to power, they immediately become prisoners. The role of the judiciary is very flexible.
But for Ron, this is also a good thing. As long as he can deal with the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court of Tamil Nadu will naturally know what to do.
If you don't obey, the Chief Justice has the power to appoint and dismiss local courts.
The Supreme Court in New Delhi is located on the north side of Raisinath Hill. It is a dome-shaped building with outstretched arms, known as the "Scales of Justice".
The center beam is the central wing of the court, consisting of the Chief Justice's collegial chamber, the central court, and two court halls on each side.
The right wing has a bar, a restaurant and is a place for leisure consisting of rooms, offices of the Attorney General of India and other law officers and the court library.
The left wing is the court's office, where judges review files.
The building is flanked by 15 courtrooms, which act as the legs of a balance wheel. Two semicircular hooks at the ends represent the plates of the balance wheel.
From a distance, it looks like a scale, literally a scale.
What surprised Ron was that there were not many people here. To be more precise, there was no judge except the cleaning servants.
He looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock in the morning.
"Is there any holiday today?"
"No, today is a normal workday. I told you, Ron, we're too early. It's not even time yet."
“When does the judge start work?”
"Maybe ten o'clock, or maybe in the afternoon." Vijay shrugged.
“How is this different from taking a vacation?”
"It's so big that you won't see them for three days during vacation."
Ron sighed. This is even more comfortable than being a civil servant at the University of Tokyo.
Vijay said that judges in India are like the aristocracy of the colonial era, leading a very high-class life.
A typical workday for a judge usually starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 4:15 p.m., with at least an hour for lunch in between.
Of course, this assumes normal work. In reality, many judges only start work at 2 p.m. and work less than two hours a day.
Judges also have many holidays, and most Indian courts postpone sessions for all national religious holidays.
India has more religious festivals than any other country in the world. In addition to the mainstream Hindu and pastoral festivals, there are also anniversaries of the national independence struggle and many festivals of Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism.
There are no mandatory regulations for these festivals and participation is voluntary, but most Indian judges observe them.
So, in a year, some judges work less than 200 days.
Why can judges live such a leisurely life without fear of being replaced?
Because there are still many vacancies in the judicial system, they are so blatantly absent.
India has one of the smallest ratios of judges to population, but the country's high court is in no rush to fill vacancies in its branches.
In some places, nearly a quarter of all judgeships are vacant.
Vijay blamed it on "maskha," which means flattery in Hindi.
Some ambitious judges will lobby the House, claiming that they have sufficient ability to deal with the existing judicial workload.
With the collegiate chamber around, no matter how difficult the case is, it can be resolved easily.
They used sweet talk to lull the five members of the House into not rushing to fill the vacancies.
The collegium also fears being accused of corruption, bias in appointing people, or incompetence.
So they just kept the vacant position vacant so as not to take any risk.
For them, the risk is all about who they appoint.
Of course, India also has some upright judges who regularly check out any judiciary that is out of balance and make timely adjustments.
If it weren't for these few people, the judicial system might have collapsed long ago.
India should be thankful that it has a group of highly educated people working hard to keep the country running.
However, since the 1990s, as the economy has opened up, the best lawyers have become less and less willing to become judges because they can earn higher incomes in the private sector.
While a judge in India can expect a car with a driver, a residence with a garden and a chef, no expenses involved and a high level of prestige, the official salary of a judge appears to be shrinking over time.
At a monthly salary of 30,000 rupees, or about $750, a High Court judge in the late stages of his career earns less than a young engineer at a large company.
For example, the technical engineers at Sur Electric have a salary of about $1,000, which is higher than that of Supreme Court judges.
The salary of some software engineers in Bangalore is also comparable to this. Tata, Reliance, and Birla can all achieve similar levels.
Furthermore, the further you go in life, the more high-paying positions there are. However, salaries in government departments like the courts remain relatively stable for several years.
Some outstanding lawyers either join top law firms and large companies, or simply serve the mafia.
The mafia is one of the few organizations willing to pay lawyers extremely high salaries.
Take the Dawood gang in Mumbai as an example. Many of the lawyers they hired were poached from top law firms.
Things can only be done easily if you have money. If you want to send your children abroad or even to a good university in India, a judge's salary is far from enough.
Pensions are also closely linked to salary, so once you retire, the official residence and driver will be taken back, and you will have to consider other income sources.
That is corruption, which is called "deal-making" in the legal world.
Some judges can even be hired openly to handle a case, knowing full well that they cannot be removed from office.
Like government officials and civil servants, Indian judges are rarely fired or punished.
To remove a High Court judge, at least two-thirds of the votes in Parliament are required.
What does that mean? That's the same number of votes needed to amend the Constitution.
Certainly, this has never happened.
Vijay also revealed that there is a black market in the judge profession, and there is a fixed price for hearing any case.
If you are being tried for a slug-related offense, you can get bail by paying 3,000 rupees, and if you are being tried for murder, you can get bail by paying 20,000 rupees, and so on.
Some judges even run the operation like a family business, having their sons or sons-in-law complete the deals.
In other countries, if you do something shameful, your first thought is to keep it from your family.
This is not the case in India because family members will help you with advice.
The motto of the Indian judiciary is "Justice delayed is justice denied", but the judges themselves are late every day.
This kind of casual procrastination is not a new trend. Some ancient books record fables that warn people.
Legend has it that a king named Nikah let a case involving a cow wait too long, and was reborn as a lizard.
If that were the case, Indian courts would be full of lizards today.
In fact, the lizards haven't woken up yet, or they are enjoying their leisure time.
Ron couldn't just wait here, so he turned the car around and went straight to the Chief Justice's house.
All senior officials in New Delhi have official residences allocated by the government, and they are very grand.
For example, the current Chief Justice Verma, his house is not much worse than the villa that Ron bought.
The garden has obviously been carefully maintained. Not only are the various plants and trees artistically cultivated, but the flower arrangements on the windowsill also exude a refreshing and bourgeois feel.
Ron came uninvited and walked into the hall without waiting for the servant to finish the announcement.
He was stunned when he entered the room. There were not many people here except a girl.
(End of this chapter)
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