New Delhi, Jan. 16: Party bosses could be jailed if their workers burn buses or smash cars during a bandh or demonstration, provided the recommendations of a Supreme Court-appointed panel are accepted.
Leaders are not prosecuted now for property destruction by bandh supporters. Police arrest only those rioting in the streets, but the conviction rate is one person per 400 cases.
The panel says the first task is to lay down which office-bearers of any organisation — starting from the top — should be liable if its foot soldiers vandalise government or private property during any agitation.
The leaders should be charged with abetting the offence and should not only be jailed but also forced to pay a fine equivalent to the market value of the property damaged. The punishment should range from six months to five years — or from one to 10 years if the offence involves explosives, fire, etc.
“Top leaders… who really instigate such direct actions keep themselves in the background,” says the panel, formed in July 2007 and headed by retired judge K.T. Thomas. “If they are allowed to be immune from prosecution, such direct actions would continue unabated.”
Chronically bandh-hit Bengal and Kerala will gain the most if the suggestions are accepted. The apex court may ask Parliament to frame a law, and itself pass an order enforcing the suggestions till then. Parliament, however, can overrule the court order through a two-thirds majority.
The recommendations apply to any call for “direct action” — dharnas, strikes, bandhs and all other forms of protest — by any “organisation”, which refers to political parties, trade unions, students’ or religious bodies or any other group, whether or not it has a formal structure.
The accused must be presumed guilty till they prove themselves innocent, the panel says, pitching for a convention rarely seen outside special terror courts. The prosecution needs to prove only that the accused are office-bearers of the group that called the protest, and that property was damaged during or as a result of the agitation.
The loophole: a leader will be acquitted if he can prove he was in “no way connected” with the protest announced by his party, or that he took “all reasonable measures” to prevent damage to property.
Oh! How I wish this could become true.
However, like all good intentions of the judiciary it is bound to fail.
When the government in power call bandhs and strikes and its worker go on the rampage who is going to pull up the leaders in the government.
We have seen how miserably the the green bench order for seizing autos plying on two stroke engines was flouted by the W Bengal government, expressing helplessness.
Unless we have good politicians, these orders will remain on paper.
Who is going to remove these corrupt politicians?
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