Kangaroo courts rise and thrive in India -Shobha John

-The Times of India

Jitendra Choudhury will probably never forget March 2, 2013, the day he was hung from a tree for beating his wife. A kangaroo court in Bokaro held at the behest of JMM legislator Jagannath Mahto reportedly meted out this medieval-style justice after his wife complained that he often got drunk and misbehaved with her.

Primitive, powerful and potent, large swathes of India are still governed by kangaroo courts that take arbitrary decisions ranging from stealing of cows to inter-caste marriages. And even as the judicial courts are neck deep in pending cases, the country's parallel courts are dispensing justice quick and fast, often with deadly consequences.

Kangaroo courts, says Dr Binod C Agrawal, D-G and social scientist at Taleem Research Foundation, Ahmedabad, existed before the British came to India. "Kings and panchayats solved social issues, which ran parallel to the Indian Penal Code that came into force during colonial times. But the multiplicity of forums now is causing friction."

If anything, these arbitrary courts, that form as quickly as they dissolve, are alive and thriving. In Jharkhand, unlike the rest of India, kangaroo courts are organised by Maoists. At least three Jan Adalats in Gumla, Lohardaga and Palamu districts in the last four months led to five persons being killed and others mercilessly beaten. On November 30, two tribals, Laxman Lohra and Raj Kherwar, were returning from a haat when Maoists intercepted them and blamed them for being goat thieves. Their hands were chopped. Both died of excessive bleeding. IG (Ranchi Zone) M S Bhatia says, "They are called Jan Adalats to mislead the police, but it's just an excuse to kill rival groups."

In Tamil Nadu, says Tamil writer Imayam, once the court is held, it's clear something horrible will happen. Like it did on November 7 when a mob of 2,000 went on the rampage in three dalit colonies in Dharmapuri district, torching 260 houses. This happened when a 48-year-old man committed suicide after his daughter married a dalit boy. A kangaroo court met after the marriage and ordered the boy's parents to send the girl home but she refused, setting off a deadly trail.

Odisha's kangaroo courts are steeped in superstition. On February 12, when some residents of Kiralaga village fell sick, they blamed three women and an elderly man for practicing witchcraft. In a kangaroo court, villagers assaulted them, blackened their faces and paraded them naked.

K S Subramanian, former IG, Tripura says these courts thrive because people have lost faith in the police. "The criminal justice system has failed," he says.

In Haryana, while these courts often deal with intercaste marriage issues, social etiquette, too, is tackled. On August 8, 2012, Bhoja Ram of Rewari hired a DJ to celebrate the birth of a child. As the music continued late into the night, neighbours complained to sarpanch Santosh Devi who fined him Rs 5,100 after a gram sabha meeting. In Hathiawan village in Bihar, boozing was tackled by the panchayat by banning the sale/consumption of wine, grocery owners were ordered not to sell anything to violators and quacks told not to treat them.

Agrawal predicts kangaroo courts will be around for some time. "After all, it's easier to settle village disputes this way than go to actual courts."

(Inputs from Deepender Deswal in Chandigarh; Yagnesh Mehta in Ahmedabad; Abdul Qadir in Patna; Sanjay Ojha in Ranchi, and M T Saju in Chennai)