An Unhurried View of the Kutchery

The apex court expressed anguish over an additional sessions judge being threatened by the police and an accused and given no protection. This is the appalling condition in district courts and is a colonial hangover

- Kamaljit Singh Garewal

NOTHING much seems to have changed in our districts, and nothing shall, as long as the executive and the police dominance over judges is allowed to raise its ugly head.

The colonial system in British India centered around the Collector, the Judge, the Civil Surgeon and the Police Superintendent. The first two from the Indian Civil Service, the Civil Surgeon from the Indian Medical Service and the Police Superintendent from the Indian Police. They formed a formidable foursome who held the empire together and kept Indians at bay. They worked in imperial splendour at the Kutchery, often played tennis or bridge together at the club, lived in bungalows on tree-lined avenues in Civil Lines, spread over acres of gardens and looked after a battalion of servants.

Unfortunately, not many judges of High Courts have experience of trial courts. They are often unable to detect where mischief has taken place with the rule of law and how to rectify it.

Their memsahibs dabbled a bit in social work and occasional match-making, but social life of the district was planned around picnics, shikar, polo, galas and balls. Ladies and children spent summers in the hills, leaving husbands as grass widowers in the hot plains. The district officers would socialise with only a handful of prominent and loyal landowners, but never with the business class. Princely India had its own system of governance and traditions under the ruler, who would be something between benevolent and despotic.