The comments of the Gujarat High Court Judgment on the Best Bakery case have negated the process of justiceby ridiculing those seeking justice, something perhaps unprecedented in the history of Independent India.
If there was any hesitancy about the justification for demanding trial of such cases outside Gujarat, thenthis judgment ought to remove the last vestige of any such doubts. We knew it is not possible to get justicefrom the Government and the Police in Gujarat. Now this judgment has cast an indelible shadow on Gujarat’scriminal justice system too in no uncertain terms.
At no stage has the verdict shown any concern or regret, let alone compassion, on the heinous crime that wasBest Bakery. Neither was there any sympathy shown to the victims of this most brutal of all crimes.
Instead of condemning this unfortunate state of affairs, the Hon’ble Court has chosen to transgress thelimits of judicial propriety and fairness by coming down heavily on those very activists - holding the causeof justice at heart - as "anti-social and anti-national". Any right-minded person or group wouldhave lauded these activists for their enormous sense of duty as fellow human beings and for acting so nobly atgreat risk to themselves.
The Court had, further, nothing to say about the questionable judgment of the lower court, which apart frombeing a travesty of justice had contained gratuitous remarks on issues of no relevance. The High Court verdictis found to be totally unconcerned about its primary task at hand, that is, the delivery of justice to victimsof the Best Bakery tragedy.
An obvious effort to play to the gallery was the most unwarranted and uncalled for remarks on those displacedand uprooted seeking justice in the Narmada dam issue. These remarks were out of context and speak of adeliberate effort to deviate from the task at hand, namely rendering justice to the victims of the macabre andgory incident that was Best Bakery.
Comments from the Judgement
Some extracts from the judgement need no commentary from us but some explanation from the Court may berequired and from those who think that this judgment is a fine piece of jurisprudence (numbers indicate Paranumbers from the judgment. The grammar and language are from the original.):