Justice Lodha, who retired today as Chief Justice of India, criticized me strongly ( without naming me ) when I made public disclosures about a corrupt Madras High Court Judge whom powerful politicians were protecting and promoting. He said that some persons ( meaning obviously me) were trying to defame the judiciary. He also said " For God's sake, don't shake the confidence of the public in the judiciary ".
In other words, shove corruption by Judges under a carpet, for disclosing it will do much more harm than actually doing corruption.
This was not a novel theory invented by Justice Lodha. Many people before him have believed and said that it is unwise, and even dangerous, to disclose corruption in the judiciary. What such people forget is that even if one buries judicial corruption under a carpet, the bulge will show.
In this connection Judge Jerome Frank of the U.S. Court of Appeals said :
"I am unable to conceive that in a democracy it can ever be unwise to acquaint the public with the truth about the workings of any branch of government. It is wholly undemocratic to treat the public as children who are unable to accept the inescapable shortcomings of man made institutions. The best way to bring about the elimination of those shortcomings of our judicial system which are capable of being eliminated is to have all our citizens informed as to how that system now actually functions. It is a mistake, therefore, to try to establish and maintain, through ignorance, public esteem for our Courts . "
