The ones who cannot be sent back to society is not our burden, Kemal Pasha saidThrissur: There is no regret or feeling of guilt over the death sentences awarded to those found guilty of such offences, retired High Court judge Kemal Pasha has said. However, with the passing of age, such opinions too could change, he said at the TV Achutha Menon award function organised by the Press Club here on Tuesday.
The Constitution does not examine the question of whether a judge can authorise the culling of a life. The failure or reluctance to award the sentences mandated in the Constitution was in itself a violation of the rule of law. The ones who cannot be sent back to society is not our burden, he said.
If the common man does not get justice, judiciary would collapse, he said, justifying his recent mention that 'courts are not anyone's personal property.' The former judge said he still had in him the courage to call out on irrelevance and bluff.
Kemal Pasha was recently in the news for his statement that all was not well in the higher judiciary. He stated in a function got up on his retirement day on May 24 that appointment of judges should not be like partition of assets in a family.
He said: "Judges come and go, but the court will have to bear the loss. Judges should not be appointed like wealth-sharing in families. Any caste or religion cannot monopolize it. It's my impression that those under consideration now do not have the merit for the job.”
Pasha, who retired after five years at the Kerala High Court, was behind several judgements that had sent ripples across the political sphere.
Read more: Latest Kerala news
