“If you feel pain, you’re alive. If you feel other people’s pain, you’re a human being.”—Leo Tolstoy

Newspaper reading is a reminder that man has learnt nothing from his past nor from his present situation. He seems to be repeating the same mistakes and as a consequence suffer.

Let me not go back to millennium past years. The World War I was devastating to mankind during the beginning of the 20th century — 1914-1918. At the end of the war, the map of the world was redrawn, new countries came into existence and mighty empires simply disappeared. Ottoman Empire mainly. And League of Nations formed to prevent another war. But wait till 1938…

Then the World War II (1939 – 1945). This was more destructive to mankind than the World War I and extended to South-East Asia, Japan, too. Again new nations were created and boundaries drawn. Countries were divided. The lesson learnt was that wars would not solve human problems. So was born the United Nations Organisation (UNO) with its Head Quarters in New York, America, to prevent future wars. A new Vatican of member countries was also born and it is called Security Council (SC). A peaceful, war-free world in the future, one thought, was assured.

Soon this too began to lose credibility and became a private club of SC members working to safeguard their own individual country’s interest. Pride and prejudice pervaded the Security Council and India and Israel were the first two countries to suffer at the hands of this SC and the                             UN. No wonder today the UN and the SC have become irrelevant in solving the problems among nations: Look at the ongoing wars — Ukraine and Gaza; terrorist menace and collapse of Syria.

Therefore, each country should think on the lines of Donald Trump, who believes in making his country America Great and America First. Is India listening to Trump?

If this is about man’s failure in external affairs, his failure in internal affairs is worse. For the good of man in a political society there are many laws, systems and institutions. Here let me touch upon only the Law Courts, Presiding Officers (Judges, Magistrates) and lawyers because last Tuesday the Supreme Court said that ‘any complaint without specific allegation must be nipped in the bud and the law should not be allowed to be misused for arm-twisting tactics by a wife or her family.’ This was in reference to a dowry harassment case of one Atul Subhash that had led to a suicide. But this precept should apply to all Court cases.

The point I wish to comment upon here is about the observations made by the Supreme Court. One is ‘any complaint without specific allegation must be nipped in the bud.’ The second observation is, ‘The law should not be allowed to be misused,’ apparently to arm-twist or harass the defendant.

My personal experience with Law Courts since 1961 to this day has been rather toxic. I realised suffering injustice silently as my karma. If so, wisdom lies in avoiding going to the Court and suffer injustice with a Court stamp. But what do you do when the complainant files a case and drags you to the Court? You must defend yourself. It is in this context the Supreme Court made its observations. It means that the Lower Courts should not take on record a case which is mischievous and untenable on the face of it.

However, to act according to the Supreme Court’s advice the Lower Court Judges and Magistrates should be of such learning and humanity that they should conduct themselves as human beings. As Leo Tolstoy said that is possible only if they feel others’ pain. The pain of the defendant facing a case filed only to harass him.

I am a victim of this kind of cases filed against me when I was the editor of Star of Mysore and Mysuru Mithra. Let me mention just one case. This is about a report published in  Star of Mysore about Bonded Labour in Hunsur.

The Divisional Commissioner Jayakumar Anagol had got the bonded labourer freed and got a case filed. Next I get an arrest warrant from a Hunsur Court without a summons preceding it. The Police Officer was sympathetic and allowed me to go to Hunsur that same day. I engaged a lawyer M.B. Charmana, got a bail. Well, the case was not taken to its logical end. What happened? My lawyer told me it was dismissed as the complainant did not pursue or for some reason. But the complainant had taught me a lesson!

The Magistrate or the Judge who took this case on record could have “nipped” it, as the Supreme Court Judge said, in the bud. He did not, why? Your guess is as good as mine.

Any human being of the kind Leo Tolstoy has defined would be deeply moved to hear what Atul Subhash said before committing suicide to which Supreme Court had alluded.

The suicide victim said: “Don’t immerse my ashes until justice is served.”

Now, justice is served in two ways — acquittal or conviction. What happens if the defendant is acquitted? To Atul Subhash, it may not be justice!

And what was Atul’s last wish?

“If my wife and harassers are not held guilty, pour my ashes in a gutter near the Court.”

Wah! What a wonderful    world is ours !

It has been so all along and will be so in the future too. Which is why Marie Curie said: “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individual.” Hence, our Supreme Court should put a system in place where all its subordinate Court Judges and Magistrates are enabled to “individually improve” themselves as Tolstoy’s “human beings.”

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