The Promise of a Court at Delhi

Below is a piece I wrote for Bar and Bench, a law magazine starting in June. Here’s also wishing them the best in their new endeavour. 

The ongoing conflict between the state and the Maoists in Chattisgarh has resulted in the deaths of more than 2000 civilians and 40,000 more being displaced and fleeing to Andhra Pradesh with numerous villages being burnt. What started as a supposedly peaceful movement called the ‘Salwa Judum’ involved shifting the tribals to camps away from the villages, burning their villages down and the commission of numerous atrocities that never seemed to stop. I was in Dantewada, Chattisgarh a little while ago to document the violence during which I stayed in a village (lingagiri )that had just rehabilitated after a gap of three years. For these families, the one act that is possibly responsible for their rehabilitation is the latest order of the Supreme Court asking the Chattisgarh Government to ensure smooth rehabilitation of the villagers who fled during the conflict. Though the Government hasn’t been responsive enough to the Order, the work of NGOs in this field is quite impressive.

Gantal Raju, is one of those just came back from Andhra Pradesh with his family. His village Lingagiri has no electricity, facilities to buy food, and till a few days ago didn’t have water and he had to rebuild his house from scratch. In 2006, his father was shot dead by the forces and he had to witness his sister being raped and killed. He still recognizes the people who committed these brutal acts. I was there to explain to him that the Court had taken up the matter of the violence and killings in his family and would mostly order an independent investigation into it. For him, I noted, that the Court was not a mere four-walled structure. Never had I seen someone have so much faith in a Court of law and considered it an independent, impartial body hearing his case. If it hadn’t been for the Court, he wouldn’t even have dared to come back to his village or even figured that some justice could be done to the deaths in his family.

His case is not one in isolation but similar to the 40 families returning to Lingagiri and the many more who will return to their respective villages. Since 2007, the Court has been quite active in this issue and lately has asked the Chattisgarh government to disband the Salwa Judum and frame appropriate schemes for compensation, rehabilitation and investigation of the violence committed there. More relief is expected to come.

Back in civilization, I read of accusations of corruption in the bench and low opinions of the Court that are partly created by the media, about incessant delays in the justice delivery system and supposedly wrongful acquittals by the Court, about how people are losing their faith in the judiciary. Amidst all this, I found it quite impressive that somewhere in the midst of India’s hidden war, where the nearest road is 25 kms away and urban civilization does not have any reminiscences, there are people who live their daily lives with the promise that a Court in New Delhi would someday deliver justice to them. 

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