By P. D. Mathew, SJ
Vadodara: Former Chief Justice of India P. N Bhagwati passed away on June 15. He was 95. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in 1973 and became the 17th Chief Justice of India in 1985.
Justice Bhagwati became the father of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) when he allowed the poor and the marginalized to approach the Supreme Court to seek justice. To make things easy he allowed them to send even post cards and letters to Judges who accepted them as writs and issued appropriate directions to government officials to take legal action in time to help them to get justice.
Otherwise it was impossible for the poor to approach the apex court and High Courts to get justice. This approach of justice Bhagwati later helped many public spirited persons and organizations to approach the constitutional courts to seek justice on behalf of the voiceless and oppressed sections of the people.
Justice Bhagwati showed the world that the work of a judge is not merely to interpret the law but deliver justice to the needy especially the poor and the voiceless millions. He was really an activist judge who responded to the cries of the suffering humanity. He made legal procedures simple to help the poor to get justice. It is this streak of activism that influenced him to pave the way for Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in India.
In Bhanduva Mukti Morcha (Bonded labor front) Versus Union of India & others he turned a letter from a social activist into a writ petition and delivered a landmark ruling that freed hundreds of bonded labors.
In Asiad Stadium building case in 1982 he had appointed members of an NGO (Indian Social Institute, Lodi Road, New Delhi) to study the working conditions of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers brought to Delhi by agents and contractors. The study report on the violations of their human rights has helped justice Bhagwati to deliver an outstanding judgment on the rights of workers.
As a lawyer I was impressed and inspired by him as a judge because he encouraged me to file several PILs to promote justice among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, bonded laborers, child labors and other neglected sections of society. Because of him PIL became an important ally of social activists across the country in their battles against systemic oppression and structural violence.
Justice Bhagwati was criticized for his ruling in the ADM Jabalpur (habeas corpus) case in April, 1976, when he held that the right to life ceased to exist under Emergency provisions. This ruling remains as a stain in the record of India’s highest court. In 2011 Bhagwati pleaded guilty. He said, “Supreme Court should be ashamed about the ADM Jabalpur judgment. I plead guilty. I don’t know why I yielded.”
Thus he apologized for the mistake he had made as a judge. He did not shift blame or put it on the system. Such unqualified confessions of guilt are rare in the Indian establishment. That was the greatness of justice Bhagwati.
Just two years after the ADM Jabalpur case in the famous Maneka Gandhi’s case his bench (5) had ruled that ‘Right to Life is no mere animal existence but it meant Right to Live with human dignity.’
Yes, justice Bhagwati has passed away from Bharat, but his spirit of giving justice to the voiceless millions will remain in the hearts of judicial, legal and social activists of India and the world.
(Jesuit Father P D Mathew is the director of Nyayadarshan at Vadodara, Gujarat. Earlier, he had headed the Legal Aid department of the Indian Social Institute for decades. He is among the first Catholic priests to become lawyers in India.)