Are there enough magistrates to unearth the truth?

On the one hand the public bays for blood they want those accused of hienous crimes ndash like Akshay Shinde who was charged with sexually assaulting two small girls in a Badlapur school to be hanged from the nearest lamppost On the other hand our country as jurisprudence has developed and as we all know is supposedly governed by the rule of lawThe Constitution guarantees certain mandatory protections and when there is a violation noticed the only remedy available is the Constitutional Court But there are a lot of instances where the constitutional safeguards are openly flouted with impunity and with the connivance of the officialsWe also exhibited to the world our system of law where even Ajmal Kasab who killed hundreds of our brothers and sisters was given a fair trial which is the mantra known as ldquodue processrdquoThe question then is what happens when we see a growing trend of encountersshootoutscustodial deaths which were preceded by serious torture etc Do these fall in the realm of planned executions Just to close a file and to soothe the tempers of the public is this being adopted as an easy way out Is this also as a part of the larger chess game to shield certain individuals who knew the right persons at the right placesOr are these instances cases of the accused people who genuinely resisted arrest or actively tried to escape as the law allows the police officer to use all such means necessary to effect the arrestThe presumption of innocence goes for a toss The law also mandates that no one has the right to cause death of a person who is not accused of an offence punishable with death andor imprisonment for life The new BNSS replacing the Criminal Prodecure Code retains the provision for inquiry by a magistrate into the cause of death which is in addition to the investigation conducted by the police officer with all the powers that the law provides The question is do we have enough magistrates and do we have enough infrastructure staff etc for the real truth to be unearthedThere are timelines in the provision There has to be a willingness to enforce the provision Huge number of innocent people have died and later on evidence of their innocence has emergedOne has to only see the trend on OTT platforms of the kind of violence which is seen by all and the disturbing fact is that even children are exposed to this dark entertainment in the form of abuse and violence in the extreme forms Socalled police encounters have always been glorified and the usual story leading to the shooting is almost the sameGuideline after guideline has been laid down by the Human Rights Commission regarding conducting of magisterial inquiries in case of death in custody or in the course of police action The Supreme Court has also laid down guidelines issued in the PUCL case But are they being followed Who is held accountable in the endThe gruesome rapes molestations and also killings of minor children mainly girls are extremely disturbing These instances lead us to a crossroad challenging us morally spiritually and legally and each one of us stands stupefied as to how to handle this crisis that is happening on a regular basisThe gladiatorial temptation to strangle and kill seems to be growing and unless the systems that pump oxygen into the body known as ldquoRule of Lawrdquo wake up soon only the hunter and not the hunted will live to reveal the real storyThe writer is an advocate of the Bombay High Court