Attending a talk at Lamakaan

For some inexplicable reason I love Lamakaan. The name, the architecture, the décor, the ambience, the canteen and the free wifi.

This is what the people who run Lamakaan say:

 Lamakaan is an inclusive cultural space that promotes and presents the best of arts, literature, debate and dialogue with a commitment to being open and accessible.

Lamakaan is: 

• A non-sectarian space with deep respect to grassroots work.
• A place where new generation of artists, thinkers and activists interact and grow.
• A place where people come together and ideas are born
• For new and creative conceptions of unity, rejuvenation and resistance

Lamakaan is yours. Do what you will with it.

The best part is people/ artists/ organizations can use it for free. It used to be the house of M Hassan a documentary film maker who gifted it to his near relative who in turn turned it into a free space for expressions and creativity. What a noble gesture considering the fact that this house ‘Lamakaan’ is situated in one of the post localities of Hyderabad – the Banjara Hills.

Now about the talk I attended on 19^th December, Tuesday was on “Looming Judicial Crisis “by a senior advocate of the Hyderabad High court L Ravi Chander.

I will sum up a few points from the talk that are very relevant to our times now.

·         The judges of our courts to begin with have been put on a very high pedestal, we call them ‘Your lordship, My lord,..’  So I guess they have begun feeling they are above the law as they are already above us the mere mortals. They decide what cases are important and what are not. Never mind the public. A judge is a judge who will even judge whether your petition is worth his precious time.

·         And they all are at least a majority of them politically motivated which explains why some political leaders get away despite heavy accusations of corruption.

·         There are around 46% of vacancies for the posts of judges which means several courts across the country do not have judges and the remaining 64% are burdened. And the Government demands speedy disposal of the trials. Well with so many judges missing speedy trials can mean hasty judgments.

Coming to our state, the Osmania University from where sprouted thousands of activists lobbying for a separate statehood has several vacant posts of lecturers. The Government has not bothered to fill up these vacancies from the last couple of years, expecting that the vacancies for Judges will be filled is definitely a tall order.

·          Public Interest Litigations – the petitions filed for justice on behalf of all the people have in the past yielded wonderful results with so many landmark judgments. But now these PIL’s have become almost extinct  because of the new rules framed by the High court with direction from the Supreme court. As per the new rules the petitioner has to keep a fixed deposit of Rs.50, 000/- which he loses if he loses the litigation. Apart from this the petitioner has to provide all his details including his bank details and sources of income. And he has to be among the one wronged. While earlier any person who was not part of the injury/ damage or had a personal grievance could file in the interest of the others who were wronged.  

·         So gone are the days when PIL s were filed and justice was ensured. With the making of these new rules the process of judiciary has become less democratic.

·         And last if a suit for recovery of Rs. 50,000/- is filed today the person will be granted the order when the value of the 50K becomes RS.5/- which means it will take at least 15 years for a judgment to be passed.

 One thing is clear that today voices of dissent are being stifled and democratic spaces are shrinking.