Probe into inquiry
Justice has seldom been insulated from malpractice in India
By Nitin A. Gokhale
Justice SN Phukan's blatant justification of accepting lavish hospitality of the defence forces when he was heading the Tehelka panel enquiring into wrongdoings in defence purchases should not come as a surprise given the nature of these appointments. Most enquiry commissions, set up either at the Centre or in the states, are used by governments of the day either as tools to obfuscate the truth or as coverups for culprits. Those who head such probes are therefore chosen with great care. Often politicians appoint judges with proven malleability. If that does not work, then governments choose people who are favourably inclined, or, better still, those who can be 'guided' towards a particular conclusion. We may never know what exactly prompted the National Democratic Alliance (nda) government to appoint Justice SN Phukan as head of the Tehelka panel after Justice Venkataswamy resigned. But for most of his legal career Phukan was regarded as a bit of a plodder who knew how to work the system. More important, he also knew how to avoid unnecessary attention.
Inquiry panels are
used by governments
to hide the truth
and protect the
culrprits. Those who
head the probes are
chosen with care
After retiring from the Supreme Court in 2002, Phukan became chairman of the Assam Human Rights Commission (ahrc). Then the nda government pulled him out of relative obscurity to head the Tehelka panel in January 2003. Even as he was conducting the probe into the Tehelka episode, Phukan continued to hold on to his post as chairman of ahrc. This, former colleagues say, was typical Phukan: have Plan B ready if something goes wrong with Plan A. He could have easily let someone else take up the ahrc post while handling the Tehelka panel, but having worked with the government for over two decades, he knew the value of a fallback option. Throughout his career, Phukan always shunned the limelight as a strategy. Except once, in 1998, when he wrote to the then President KR Narayanan threatening to resign as a protest on being superceded.
Like his justification about defence ministry junkets, Phukan did not find anything wrong in pointing out that he belonged to Assam and therefore any slight to him might lead to a terrible feeling of alienation among the people of the Northeast. Now the quiet man from Jorhat is having to live through his 15 minutes of infamy. He is, however, not alone. Take a random survey of the fate of most inquiry commissions, and in a majority of cases there is bound to be a hidden hand guiding the conclusion. Phukan is only one among a long list of men in gowns wearing tainted hallows.
May 14 , 2005
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