Race Course Road

India Today, December 21, 1998
Dec 28, 1998

RACE COURSE ROAD
The Enemy Within

An incompetent Law Ministry spells trouble for Vajpayee.

Prabhu Chawla

Jayalalitha may have damaged Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's image from outside. But her loyalist Union Law Minister M. Thambi Durai has inflicted a serious blow to the Vajpayee Government from within. During the past eight months, the Union Government has invited such strong judicial wrath that it has raised serious doubts about the integrity of the Law Ministry and the loyalty of its senior officials to the government they are serving.

Last week, a five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice A.S. Anand dismissed the Union Government's petition seeking a review of an earlier judgement in the multi-crore rupee JMM bribery scandal. The Government's plea was rejected not because of any serious legal flaw but for the frivolous reasons given for the delay in seeking the review. The Government pleaded before the apex court that the delay in filing the appeal was due to "paucity of staff" in the ministry concerned. The bench, while rejecting the appeal, justifiably concluded that "delay occurring due to paucity of staff is hardly any ground for condonation of delay". Considering that the Law Ministry has over 2,000 employees and legal experts on its rolls, the Supreme Court's stricture is hardly surprising.

This is not the first time that the Centre has received judicial admonition. The Law Ministry's cavalier style of functioning was evident from the beginning when the Government had to suffer humiliation over the appointment of the chief vigilance commissioner and other members of the Vigilance Commission. A junior official who had the audacity to misquote an earlier judgement of the apex court was duly reprimanded by the honourable judges. If that wasn't bad enough, two months later the Centre was forced to reverse its own orders transferring Enforcement Director M.K. Bezbaruah as the transport commissioner of Delhi. Needless to say, the Government's action just about saved it from another judicial stricture.

Last week saw the Government tying itself up in knots once again. On Wednesday, the Defence Ministry suffered humiliation when a division bench of the Delhi High Court turned down the Government's request to stay an order of a single-judge bench quashing the appointment of Lt-General H.R.S. Kalkat as the GOC-in-C of the Eastern Command. If all this proves anything, it is that the Vajpayee Government is being deprived of sound legal advice on sensitive matters.

These judicial indictments can be dismissed as being of no consequence to the prime minister personally. But they do put a question mark on the credibility of the Government. If this trend of judicial reprimand continues, it may eventually compromise the authority of the prime minister and his colleagues. Vajpayee faces this new trouble at a juncture when he is under severe pressure to deliver on every front as well as contain the revolt against him. It also reinforces the general perception that barring a handful, the majority of the Union ministers either do not enjoy the support of their civil servants or are not taking their jobs seriously.

At a time when the prime minister is engaged in a multi-pronged battle with recalcitrant partymen, a vociferous Opposition and a defiant bureaucracy, such sabotage by one of his ministries is the last thing that a fragile 18-party coalition needs.

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