A few words more• HANG a few from a lamp-post.” These words do not behove the highest court of the country. As Plato said, law is passions tempered by reason. If reason is absent and only passion is there, it ceases to be law. And even if such a law permitting hanging from a lamp-post as the court wished were there, that will be unconstitutional and violative of the human rights law prohibiting inhuman and cruel punishment and the general international consensus against death penalty. The legitimacy and authority of the judiciary comes from the reasoned adjudication through its words in the judgment and therefore the words spoken by the judges both inside the court and outside must be sober, wise and just. Even if these words were the expression of deep anguish, the judges could have used cautious words. Congratulations on your editorial, ‘Rules of law’ (IE March 8). — Girish Patel, Ahmedabad• THE essential function of the judiciary is to administer justice in accordance with law and to interpret legal provisions in a manner which carries out the intention of the legislature. If the judges find that social requirements have outgrown the legal provisions, the judge may recommend the necessary changes which can satisfy the social need; but while undergoing such exercise there is no scope for emotions to colour verdicts. Moreover, are we sure that the sight of a person hanging dead from a lamp post would not attract sympathy for the person hanged rather than attracting fear of punishment?— T.U. Mehta; (Retd) Chief Justice, High Court of HP, ShimlaAlignments ahead• This refers to Shekhar Gupta’s ‘National straw in Pubjab wind’, IE March 10. In India there are two national parties, the Congress and the BJP. The former stands for appeasing one community while the latter stands for protecting the other. In a sense, both should be communal, for both woo a particular community. H.R. Kumaraswamy, Deva Gowda’s son, has teamed up with the BJP in Karnataka and another former PM, I.K. Gujral, was present at the Akali-BJP government swearing-in function. This can hardly surprise us. In politics we cannot rule out any kind of realignment. — Prasad Lele, BarodaVote for heirs• THIS refers to ‘Reflections of a ‘veteran’ political pundit’ by Tavleen Singh (Fifth Column, The Sunday Express, March 11), informing the reader of the completion of two decades of her column. Singh’s grouse in the note is that the Indian voter quietly accepts the heirs of politicians stepping into the shoes of their parents. If we look around, we’ll see children stepping into their parents’ shoes in a variety of professions — medicine, law, engineering, grain trade, construction work, acting. It is easier for youngsters to slide in and occupy the ‘chair’, as the infrastructure is already there. Even in that Mecca of modern democracy, the US, George W, Kennedy and Hillary Clinton were approved by the electorate. I like Singh’s final words in the note, though. Columnists do not retire; they go on and on and on. Just like politicians. That’s the tragedy.— K. Raghu, Ahmedabad
