Four men and the law

The lives of four young men and their trysts with the justice system shocked us this week. One that willingly incarcerated himself, another that walked free in spite of killing the third via a fatal chokehold, and a fourth that gave up and checked out of life.

Ivy League-educated, handsome Luigi Mangione has assumed cult status. His brazen shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson catapulted him into an anti-establishment hero raging against a corrupt corporate America. His six pack abs and intelligent, well-travelled persona didn’t harm either. Donations have started pouring in to raise funds for his defence while thousands are supporting his actions. Daniel Penny was another curious case that reached its culmination this week. Penny, a white Marine veteran, walked free this week after killing a homeless, black Jordan Neely by restraining him with a deathly chokehold on a subway car last year. Neely, a street artist, led a tragic life consumed by drugs, never quite overcoming his mother’s violent death many years ago; she was found stuffed in a suitcase in 2007. And the fourth young man is closer to home. Bangalore techie Atul Subhash committed suicide after alleging harassment from his ex-wife and the judicial system; he left behind a 90-minute long video and 24-page suicide note chronicling his mental, emotional, and financial torture. All four cases raise valid and introspective questions on judicial systems. What is a crime, who is a murderer, who deserves to live or die?

Let’s talk about the case that’s unfolding on our shores. Subhash’s death by suicide has outraged the nation throwing urgent attention on the need to quicken divorce and custody cases while also ensuring an egalitarian treatment for those involved. Is the Indian judicial system broken? The stature of the Indian judicial system still largely holds up and more often than not, the ultimate verdict (I stress on the word “ultimate”), is fair and just. However, the judicial system is painfully slow and overburdened. As per estimates, over 5.1 crore cases are pending in Indian courts with about 87 per cent lying unresolved at district courts, almost 62,000 cases in various high courts are over three decades old, while the Supreme Court has 80,221 cases pending. The number of pending court cases have doubled in the last twenty years. In a debate to discuss the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill in 2022, Lok Sabha MPs (members of Parliament) said that over 11.4 lakh cases were awaiting resolution in family courts and the numbers were rising.

Several courts have observed that the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act (2005) has often been misused to harass men. After Subhash’s death, there is now a plea in the Supreme Court to reform dowry and domestic violence laws. But this ignominy of justice is happening because of the upholders of the law and not the law itself. It’s on the police who file false cases or the unethical lawyers who proactively encourage it. It’s equally on the judges who refuse to penalise fake claims; perjury cases are rarely initiated. In fact, judges hand out partial judgements as they too are scared to be seen as “anti-women”. When did wanting women’s rights become about preferential treatment? No, we didn’t ask for that. Here, it’s essential to highlight that being a feminist doesn’t mean being anti-men or being opposed to equitable laws. In India, it’s not the laws that are biased, it’s their implementation.

A true propounder of women’s rights will never want those rights to come at the cost of someone else’s legitimate entitlement to justice. Our demand for strict punishment to perpetrators of rape, abuse, sexual harassment, marital rape, and domestic violence, is not meant to subvert the law, but rather to uphold it. The recent chatter about Indian laws being anti-men are fallacious; the laws have been stitched up because thousands of women were being wronged and needed to be protected. The problem does not lie with the laws that safeguard women’s rights but rather by their misuse that robs another of their rights. Remember that for every Atul Subhash, there’s also an Akansha Sood who jumped to her death last month after being frustrated over her pending divorce.

In India, family law cases are a quagmire; get stuck in one and it may take years to get out. A soul-sucking, finance-depleting, morale-crushing experience that you must not wish upon your worst enemy. Legal cases move at a glacial pace and become long-drawn, intolerable, odysseys. Divorces and custody battles often become more about vengeance or a massive payout, rather than about compromise and closure. Lawyers are often seen advising the husband or wife to actively torture the other into emotional ruination and financial penury; the lawyers’ motivation being a steady income gleaned from acrimonious cases. The ones who can reach a settlement with some understanding or enter divorce by mutual consent turn out to be the wisest. For those trapped in contentious divorce petitions, depending on the kind of legal advice you get, wasting anywhere between 5-10 years is standard procedure. A decade and above is more than enough to completely destroy the people involved. The judicial system must be gender-equal, but most importantly, it must move fast.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal