November 21, 2024

Misuse Of Central Agencies: Politicians Cannot Demand Higher Immunity, Says The Supreme Court

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-04-06 02:23:05

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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The Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by 14 opposition parties that asked the court to check the misuse of Central investigation agencies and issue pre and post-arrest guidelines to ensure that the government did not harass political opponents. Although the political parties did not ask for special treatment for politicians, the court was quick to recognize that the petition demanded just that. The court rightly said that politicians are also citizens first and cannot claim special privileges in seeking such guidelines exclusively. It said that issuing such general guidelines would be wrong and asked political parties to approach the court for relief in specific cases.

The court also said that the remedy for misuse of Central agencies should be legislative and not through courts. The court said "this is a petition filed by 14 political parties. You give us some statistics. On the basis of the statistics, can we say there should be no investigation or no prosecution against political leaders if the offence is not heinous? Politicians are basically citizens and the law will apply in the same rigour. Even though this petition focuses on politicians, they do not enjoy immunity higher than that of citizens". It advised the political parties to seek a remedy in the political space only.

There is increasing tendency among politicians to think of themselves as a privileged class much above the ordinary citizen. Disregarding the accepted norm that everyone is equal before the law politicians think that the law should give them special benefits. In case of pre and post arrest guidelines, why should the court give 'extra' or 'special protection to politicians? In fact, if politicians represent the people they should never demand such special privileges. They must be subjected to the same due process an ordinary citizen is subjected to. They must approach the courts only if they think that due process is being abused in their case. The Supreme Court is right in saying that general guidelines cannot be issued in such matters. It is also right in saying that the legislature is the best place to rectify the lacunae, if any, in the respective laws.