so the law is either the written word or customary practice.. but what about when the written word is ambiguous and the practitioners are stumbling all over themselves to figure out what to do??? then we get the case of a man in Judicial custody being taken up and down the judicial ladder while judges all over the place try to assign authority to each other.
SA Kazmi was arrested under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the UAPA.He is currently in custody of the Delhi Police Special Cell. While I , and indeed the rest of teh world, don't know enough about the charges against him and the evidence available to even begin to hazard a guess about his guilt or innocence, the past couple of weeks have shown me that the Legal system in place to handle such special laws is quite seriously suffers from ambiguity and lack of clear authority structure.
The Police brought him before the Chief Metropolitan magistrate, the highest of the lowest rung of criminal judiciary. Then the Sessions court, which is the next rung on the said that the CMM does not have the power to hear cases under the UAPA. So the matter stood still for a while and then was heard by a Sessions court. Then the police decides to approach the High Court of Delhi, the highest judicial authority in the state. The high court decides to deliberate on the question of jurisdiction, and in the interim says that the prevailing practice i.e of bringing such cases before the CMM's court, should continue. The High court will now decide on the question in October.
Meanwhile, this man who has been in police custody for over three months is taken to four different courtrooms in the span of two days while judges remain confused. Is this really how a legal system with such a huge number of written statutes is supposed to work???
And he isn't the only person affected by this legal confusion, questions may be raised about the legality of the detention of others, including suspected terrorists allegedly belonging to the Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar -e - toiba, simply because the courts haven't decided who exactly is competent to hear cases of people arrested under the UAPA. If the High Court decides that the CMM never had jurisdiction, then the courts will be left with a fair amount of eggs on their faces, specially because the fate of terror suspects hangs in the balance.
SA Kazmi was arrested under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the UAPA.He is currently in custody of the Delhi Police Special Cell. While I , and indeed the rest of teh world, don't know enough about the charges against him and the evidence available to even begin to hazard a guess about his guilt or innocence, the past couple of weeks have shown me that the Legal system in place to handle such special laws is quite seriously suffers from ambiguity and lack of clear authority structure.
The Police brought him before the Chief Metropolitan magistrate, the highest of the lowest rung of criminal judiciary. Then the Sessions court, which is the next rung on the said that the CMM does not have the power to hear cases under the UAPA. So the matter stood still for a while and then was heard by a Sessions court. Then the police decides to approach the High Court of Delhi, the highest judicial authority in the state. The high court decides to deliberate on the question of jurisdiction, and in the interim says that the prevailing practice i.e of bringing such cases before the CMM's court, should continue. The High court will now decide on the question in October.
Meanwhile, this man who has been in police custody for over three months is taken to four different courtrooms in the span of two days while judges remain confused. Is this really how a legal system with such a huge number of written statutes is supposed to work???
And he isn't the only person affected by this legal confusion, questions may be raised about the legality of the detention of others, including suspected terrorists allegedly belonging to the Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar -e - toiba, simply because the courts haven't decided who exactly is competent to hear cases of people arrested under the UAPA. If the High Court decides that the CMM never had jurisdiction, then the courts will be left with a fair amount of eggs on their faces, specially because the fate of terror suspects hangs in the balance.
