[Reader-list] Justice Pasaiyat and Animal Rights. by K.G.Kannabiran

[Venugopalan K M]

  Justice Pasaiyat and Animal Rights.
by K.G.Kannabiran

The rapid decline of animal and bird population was a matter of grave
concern and a few animal species were extinct and few were nearing
extinction. The concern was for what we ordinarily describe as cruel animals

like tigers lions bears cheetahs, panthers and other varieties of carnivores

who in their old age or  on account injuries in the paws turn these
carnivores into man-eaters . The old Act protecting Animal  life was out
moded > Now we have a right based wild life protection law In fact Maneka
Gandhi of the Maneka Gandhi case,  secured for the people of this country an

expanded meaningof right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution  and
it became so popular that many lawyers know onlyArticle21.in the
Constitution.  After fighting her case for right to life she appears to have

decided  to work to fight for the rights to life. of wild life  She and
Amala Akkineni  and other activsts keep pushing the governments to amend the

law to provide the animals greater safeguards to prevent the emergence of
forest depredators like Veerappan who killed around one hundred and odd
elephant.s and all of them tuskers . To protect and encash his kill he was
alleged to have killed one hundred and odd police personnel. Animal are
taken care of and allowed to live in their natural forest habitats  If they
are trapped for any reason whatsoever they are  housed  in National Parks
 in which the arboreal conditions are reproduced to make the animals lives
comfortable. Villagers and tribes who have been sharing the forests with the

wild animals are vacated from these areas so that they can enjoy their
rights fully. The wild animals are not hounded and shot as they do to
terrorists and animal rihts activists are neither shot nor incarcerated as
do the human rights activist…

This leads tour Supreme Court judge’s remark in a seminar conducted in the
Indian Law Institute, New Delhi that the terrorists donot need human rights,

but they need only animal rights. Coming from a judge of that level this
remark would not be enjoyed by any right thinking person. If he thinks it is

a very clever statement it is not and if it is used as a pejorative it is
contumacious of human dignity which he, as a judge, is worn to uphold.  What

we should know is that animals are looked after well. And with much more
concern. It is the people  who are all citizens whose right to vote is
recognized as a fundamental right to remove replace and select their
government, who is hunted and hounded because he is branded a terrorist or a

naxalite  or a Maoist and in this human zoo they allow a Muslim ,a Sikh or a

Chritian to be mauled and killed. Sir, the Constitution  expects  the
institutions of justice to maintain high standards of justice and culiural
levels in the debates and discourses from the incumbents of the
institutions.. Whatever remarks the incumbents make and the views they
express will be taken by the people as  the views of the judges. So far as
the people are concerned every one of you represent the institution and
every ones bad behavior/good behavior,/ and non good behavior will be that
of the institution. My immediate reaction to the statement made by Mr.
Passaiayat was to ask him to demit his office.. Every judge should remember
that you are neither elected or selected but nominated to the Bench. You are

made  irremovable to provide you necessary confidence to adjudicate issues
without fear or favor and always be conscious of this fact so that you do
not turn yourself in to an insufferable oligarchy. You are installed so that

the executive does not turn tyrannical. You have no authority to overstep
the mandate given to you by the people.. This understanding should structure

your discourse in side and outside the court. A judge should discipline
himself to function in tandem with an understanding of the constitutional
scheme and the value system.

Terrorists and criminals are produced by the Society, its structure and its
practices. Crime and criminals Terror and terrorists have always been a
response to misgovernance of unequal societies . We have been engaged in
cultural genocide against Sikhs followed by genocidal violence on them and
the response was Sikh terrorism and later we were engaged in cultural
genocide and genocidal violence against Muslims and you have what we have
christened as Islamic terrorism. There is a theory that Parsees and Jews are

gests and Christians and Muslims are invader and the latter who are invaders

have to accept what is given to them and should, like Oliver ask for more..
Basically it says that even modern societies need their Helots.  If we don’t

allow them the equality of status we have assured them each minority
community will produce its own terrorist. A statute which suspends Rule of
Law  to contain terrorism and investigation and prosecution whose only aimis

to nail the offence on the suspects have not succeded in eliminating
political dissent and that is the lesson which history taught us.

K.G. KANNABIRAN
National President, PUCL
Plot 300, Street 6, E. Marredpalli
Secunderabad 500 026, AP
Phone: 040-27730632


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