Law Minister, Salman Khurshid, wants the SC to bring in reform and consistency

The new Law Minister Salman Khurshid in his first interview to ET gives his views on the stand taken by the Supreme Court in not granting bail to corporate honchos and ex-ministers involved in various corporate scandals. He also talks about the recent confrontation going on between Judiciary and the Government..Khurshid says that he wants Supreme Court to speak in one voice and reform in the direction of consistency. He has indirectly tried to suggest that the corporate honchos, ex-minister and members of parliament arrested in the 2G spectrum scandal and other corruption cases deserve to get bail..Khurshid pointed to the precedent of the judiciary giving bail to industrialist Lalit Mohan Thapar in 1986. “I can’t say all those judges were wrong, starting from Krishna Iyer. Lalit Mohan Thapar was given bail at the judge’s residence. Now you may not like it but the point remains that that was the law of the land. That you must go the extra mile to ensure that the person does not suffer before you are able to finally, institutionally condemn him. This is not my view but the view of the Supreme Court. The judges can change their mind and there is nothing wrong with it. But my question is: Is it the position of the court or is it one of the positions it has taken?”.According to Khurshid, the media seems to have played a big role in pressurising the judges in rejecting the bails of all the accused involved in various corruption scandals..Recently, the Supreme Court has come down heavily on the Government in both Black money and the Salwa Judum cases. The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the government-backed anti-Maoist militia group Salwa Judum. The Supreme Court also took over the investigation of the black money case by appointing a special team which did not go well with the Centre. The Centre has approached the Supreme Court seeking a review and recall of its order for setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising of retired judges to take over the probe of all black money cases..Khurshid admitted the government’s shortcomings, but said the judiciary, too, has failings it must correct. Khurshid took the view that Supreme Court should give a collective view on the matter instead of one or two benches giving their opinion. He gave examples of Pakistan, the US and Canada, where all the judges of the top court sit together to hear cases, but not in India..Khurshid also commented on the recent exit of Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium. According to Khursid, Subramanium did not get along with Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati..“It didn’t, unfortunately, appear to work like a well-oiled machine and there may have been reasons of different nature on why things were not working that effectively. I am sad it came to this point”, he said, referring to the relationship between the two men..Khurshid has recently replaced Veerappa Moily as the new Law Minister in the second cabinet reshuffle. The new Law Minister now faces a number of challenges specially the confrontation going on between the judiciary and the government with regard to several cases of national importance.