Author:
Publication: News Today
Date: October 17, 2007
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/col.php?section=20&id=669&catid=33
In Transferred Case (Civil) No. 25/2007 filed
by Rama Gopalan and Transferred Case (Civil) No. 26/2007 filed by Dr Subramanian
Swamy, Gopal Subramanium, Additional Solicitor General of India, appearing
on behalf of the Union government, made the following submission to the Supreme
Court, while withdrawing a detailed affidavit which had been filed earlier
by the Ministry of Culture on 10/11 September, 2007: 'The said affidavit was
based upon the instruction provided and material made available till then.
The Central government has taken note of the
wide-ranging public sentiment which has been expressed in respect of the decision
of the Central government to proceed with... 'The Central government has total
respect for all religions, and Hinduism in particular, in the context of the
present case. The Central Government is alive and conscious of religious sensibilities,
including the unique, ancient and holy text of Ramayana.
Having regard to public sentiments, and having
regard to the fact that representations including additional material, are
being brought to the attention of the Government since the filing of this
affidavit, the Central government, without any reservation, in a spirit of
inclusiveness and high democratic traditions, to consider a different point
of view, withdraws the present affidavit, to re-examine the entire matter.
The government assures all concerned that all materials will be re-scrutinised
with care and circumspection, including any alternative suggestion.
The Central government is also keen that its
decisions bind and bring the society together rather than cause any disruption
in the religious and social psyche of one true India. The matter may be adjourned
to enable the government to review the matter, the government seeks three
months' time for the purpose."
After creeping and crawling in such a manner
before the Supreme Court of India, the Government in the Ministry of Shipping,
Road Transport and Highways, apparently upon specific instructions from T
R Balu, have formed a 10-member 'Committee of Eminent Persons' on the SSCP.
The Terms of Reference of the Committee are to invite objections and suggestions
from all concerned including the writ petitioners in the court cases in the
Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, having interest in the Sethu Samudram Shipping
Channel Project and to consider all suggestions/proposals/documents after
giving them a personal hearing.
The Committee comprises :-
i) Prof. S Ramachandran - Chairman of Monitoring
Committee on Environmental Impact Issues, of Sethu Samudram Ship Channel Project
and Vice-Chancellor of University of Madras : Convenor
ii) Prof. R S Sharma - Former Professor of
History, Delhi University (COMMENT: One of Arun Shourie's 'EMINENT HISTORIANS'!!)
iii) Dr. M Sakthivel - President of Aqua Culture
Foundation of India
iv) Prof. Dilip K Biswas - former Chairman
of Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government
of India
v) Dr. J R B Alfred - former Director of Zoological
Survey of India, Kolkata
vi) Dr. S R Wate - Deputy Director of National
Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur
vii) Prof. P Jagadeesan - former Vice-Chancellor
of Bharatidasan University, Tiruchi, Tamilnadu
viii) Prof. Y Vaikuntham - former Vice-Chancellor
of Kakatiya University, Andhra Pradesh
ix) Dr. K Paddayya - Director of Deccan College,
Pune
x) Shri R K Jain, IAS - Managing Director,
Indian Ports Association - Member-Secretary
I interviewed Dr. Subramanian Swamy yesterday
and he told me that this Committee of Eminent Persons can never gain any public
confidence and that he has raised certain fundamental legal/procedural issues
in his letter dated 16.10.2007 addressed to the Chairman of the Committee
of Eminent Persons, Prof. S. Ramachandran.
In this letter Dr. Subramanian Swamy has raised the following points/issues:
i) I am in receipt of the Cabinet Secretariat,
Government of India Notification No. 652/2/1/2007-CA-III dated October 5,
2007, but sent to me on October 12, 2007 i.e. after a week's delay, inviting
me in my capacity as a petitioner in the matter of the Sethu Samudram Canal
Project (as per assurance given on behalf of the Government of India to the
Supreme Court), to file objections and suggestions with the 'Committee of
Eminent Persons' on the said project. The deadline set for receipt of the
said objections and suggestions is 31 October, 2007, but because of the one
week delay on your part in informing me of this, I suggest in fairness that
the deadline also be delayed by one week to 6 November, 2007.
ii) Since the Committee has not been appointed
by the Supreme Court, but by the Respondent/Union of India, hence your calling
for my objections and submissions would tantamount to asking me to disclose
my intended arguments in the writ petition (Tranferred Case (Civil) No. 26/27
of 2007) filed by me which is pending in the Supreme Court for further hearing.
iii) However, in the interest of speedy justice
and early resolution of the matter, I am treating your invitation to send
you my objections and submissions as if it is a part of the Discovery Process
and the Administering of Interrogatories under the Civil Procedure Code. Therefore,
I am also entitled to seek Discovery of Documents in your possession and also
to serve on you some Interrogatories.
iv) I have already an I.A. pending in the
Supreme Court of India seeking the disclosure of a document in your possession.
The matter was brought to the attention of the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 14
September, 2007 and the Learned Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam
(ASG) assured the Hon'ble I Bench to provide whatever relevant documents that
I may seek from the Government. Further correspondence with the ASG is enclosed
with this letter for your perusal and necessary action.
v) I would at the first instance like the
Committee of Eminent Persons to obtain from the Union Government and provide
me with a copy of the Report submitted to the Government by Dr. S. Badrinarayan,
formerly Director of the Geological Survey of India, UOI regarding the nature
of the Rama Sethu Construction, so that I may be able to suggest a positive
course for the deliberations of the Committee.
vi) I request you to make these two documents
available initially so that I may be able to file my objections and suggestions
by November 6, 2007.
vii) The Chairman of this Committee who has
already gone on record several times publicly espousing the Government of
India's stand on the existence of the Rama Sethu and on the viability of the
said project. Hence, unless he has undergone an opinion change and now has
an open mind, the Committee's deliberations would be vitiated by pre-judgement
bias of the Chairperson, which under settled law would negate any claim of
the Committee of having reached a conclusion after fairly and impartially
considering all objections and suggestions. This point also requires clarification
prior to the sending of the objections and suggestions regarding the said
project.
As an indefatigable and fearless spokesman for and on behalf of the public
interest, apart from being a brilliant advocate, Dr Subramanian Swamy is fully
aware of the fact that the right to begin in any judicial proceeding is a
priceless and often squandered asset. His genius lies in the fact that he
has never once squandered this precious asset. He has confronted the Committee
of Eminent Persons (with known shakable cosmetic beliefs, cosmic pretensions
and shaky if not dubious credentials) with unassailable points of law and
procedure.
The pivotal points raised by Dr. Subramanian
Swamy above remind me of the following words of pragmatic wisdom of Justice
Francoise Brandeis and Justice Felix Frankfurter:
"And in the development of our liberty
insistence upon procedural regularity has been a large factor. Respect for
law will not be advanced by resort, in its enforcement, to means which shock
the common man's sense of decency and fair play." (Justice Francoise
Brandeis)
"The history of liberty has largely been
the history of observance of procedural safeguards." (Justice Felix Frankfurters)
There is enough documentary evidence to show
that Prof. S. Ramachandran, The Chairman of the Committee of Eminent Persons
is a biased and prejudiced person who does not seem to have even ordinary
belief, muchless faith, in the processes of equity and natural justice. (Please
see Prof. S. Ramachandran's earlier Press Release dated 11 June 2007 at the
top of this article).
In the United States, the term 'recusal' is
used most often with respect to court proceedings. Title 28 of the United
States Code (the Judicial Code) defines the standards for judicial disqualification
or recusal. Section 455, captioned 'Disqualification of justice, Judge, or
Magistrate Judge,' provides that a federal judge 'shall disqualify himself
in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.'
The same section also provides that a judge
is disqualified 'where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,
or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding;'
when the judge has previously served as a lawyer or witness concerning the
same case or has expressed an opinion concerning its outcome.
Having spoken to the Press several times that
the Rama Sethu is not a 'Man-Made Structure' and that it is a natural formation,
Prof S Ramachandran. cannot be expected to take a different view on the subject
in his new capacity as Chairman of this Committee. Any other self-respecting
man placed in a similar situation would have recused himself with courage
and conviction declaring that justice should not only be done but seem to
be done.
I fully endorse the view of Captain Balakrishnan
on this new and sham Committee of Eminent Persons:
'It doesn't require extraordinary crystal gazing powers to appreciate the
contents of the conclusions and recommendations that 'their eminences' will
be submitting. It's a foregone conclusion. It will be a 'command performance'
in pursuance of 'THEIR MASTER'S VOICE'!!" (Sonia, Ambika Soni, T R Balu
and Karunanidhi!)