In May 2020, in the midst of the Corona lockdown, Justice Gupta retired as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Although most of us may not know much about him, he will no doubt be remembered for having disposed of 33 cases in a single day in 2017.
In his virtual farewell, feeling no doubt freed of the need to exercise restraint in the expression of his personal views, he denounced the inequalities in the law – going as far as saying that the rich were more favourably served by the legal system.
He used some very powerful words which deserve to be reproduced:
“Our laws and our legal system are totally geared in favour of rich and the powerful. If somebody who is rich and powerful is behind bars then time and again, he will approach the higher courts during the pendency of the trial till some day he obtains an order that his trial should be expedited. This is done at the cost of the poor litigant whose trial gets further delayed because he cannot approach the higher court. […]
In this battle between the rich and powerful on the one side and the voiceless, poor and downtrodden on the other, the scales of justice can never be balanced equally. One cannot equate apples with oranges. If real justice has to be done, then the scales of justice have to be weighted in favour of the underprivileged.”
Such words coming from a country like India, which has a fearlessly independent press and a firm grounding in democracy, should give us food for thought in Mauritius.
Let ask the question bluntly – are the rich above the law ?
If we go on the premise that perception is more important than truth, then the answer must be in the affirmative.