Military Justice !

Justice is believed to be blind. Kind of immune to any external influence ;just paying attention to the facts , figures and evidence. Like many other concepts this concept does not always prove to be true in the real world. On one hand a sentenced criminal with grave charges like Sanjay Dutt can get one furlough from his jail term after another and then get it extended with superior ease but on the other hand at the end of 2011, a total of 1,486 under trial prisoners were kept in the Indian prisons for a period of more than five  years; 7615  between three to five years; 13592  between two to three years and 30261 between one to two years. This is even before they were convicted of any crime whatsoever. 

 Subroto Roy of the Sahara group was recently provided with an air conditioned office space with  internet , fax and phone inside the jail premises. This was to allow him to conduct business activity and possibly raise $ 650 million to fund his own bail. On the other hand according to the 78th report of the Law Commission as on April 1, 1977, of a total prison population of 1,84,169, as many as 1,01,083 (roughly 55%) were under-trials. For specific jails, some other reports show: Secunderabad Central Jail- 80 per cent under-trials; Surat-78 per cent under-trials; Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya-66 per cent under-trials. More recent statistics would paint a grimmer picture.

What is clear that Justice system works differently for different people. Obviously it is not perfect but usually an independent judiciary is more sympathetic and has highlighted the adverse condition of the poor with regard to justice.  In State of Rajasthan v Balchand  the accused was convicted by the trial court. When he went on appeal  to the High Court, it acquitted him. The State went on appeal to the Hon'ble Supreme Court under Art. 136 of the Constitution through a special leave petition. The accused was directed to surrender by the court. He then filed for bail. It was then for the first time that Justice Krishna Iyer raised his voice against this unfair system of bail administration. He said that  while the system of pecuniary bail has a tradition behind it, a time for rethinking has come. It may well be that in most cases an undertaking would serve the purpose. Further in Hussainara Khatoon and others v. Home Sec,State of Bihar  , the Court laid down the ratio that when the man is in jail for a period longer than the sentence he is liable for then he should be released. Independent judiciary does hold out a beacon of hope.

Military courts usually have dealt with military personnel and have different rules of evidence and court procedures.Military courts have exclusive authority over purely military crimes. Civilian courts have no authority. Some examples of purely military crimes include:Mutiny;Sedition;Failure to obey an order  and Insubordinate conduct.Most crimes violate both civilian and military law. Examples include robbery, assault and murder. The issue becomes whether a military service member will be tried in civilian or military court.Civilian court authority is usually based on the location of the crime. The crime must have occurred within the boundaries of the state. Military court authority is based on the status of the offender.If he's an active service member, the Military courts have jurisdiction no matter where the crime occurs. Non service individuals are not supposed to be tried by them.

Amendment 21 of the constitution of Pakistan  allows the establishment of a military court to try  terror related offenses. This is in response to the murder of 130 odd  school children recently in Peshawar. If we look back in Hazara Town Quetta attack (16 Feb 2013) by Deobandi militant of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (ASWJ – Sipah-e-Sahaba), at least 110 Shia Muslims were killed, majority of them women and children. Several other times baloch children have been killed; sometimes by the army itself. No one cared. Never was the need felt to change the constitution and the army act . Never did any one suggest that the victims should get a speedy justice so let us establish military courts. So what is different this time round? Obviously it the fact that the victims in this instance are children of the army personnel! It hurts. Army can bend ; mold; subvert; revert and cut to size anyone and everything as it suits its needs. Judiciary probably was the last bastion of civilian democracy still sputtering around in Pakistan. With the establishment of  military courts even that has been usurped. As someone said that  if justice can be dispensed by military better than the judiciary. Then maybe the judges should be given a khaki suit instead!

Last time Nawaz Sharief got thrown out in a coup by General Musharraf. This time He has managed the coup himself. Foreign policy and Defence policy   are directly controlled by the army. Army has a say in every other executive function of the government and a hand in all political pies. It eats away 30% of entire country's budget.  It is the one that created, trained and nurtured all shades of terrorist groups and continues to provide mentor ship to their front organizations. It would be funny if this was not so tragic that they now have taken upon themselves to bring these elements to "justice"! Interesting times ahead!