DailyPost 2942
RG KAR CASE – AFFIDAVITS DELIVERED!
Affidavits have been an important tool in the judicial and legal process of the country. It has been treated with legal respect and honour way beyond what it has been able to deliver. There are quite a few times the veracity is in doubt and more often than not it is made to take care of legalities in a manner, not to fall on the wrong side of law. When courts are not satisfied with the depositions made and facts seem to be confusing and not dealt with properly, or action not being taken as required, affidavits are asked to be provided to clear the air.
The issue of affidavit comes only if there is no sufficient inclination of act. Going by the word of the government in this case, whatever might be the legality of the document, does not augur well. Courts have asked for affidavits after affidavits, not being satisfied with the preceding one. Given this backdrop, affidavits are destined to be faulty by default. If all affidavits submitted so far in Indian courts were to be true, appropriate, and would have served its purpose, then the fate of the judicial administration would have been different and consequently of governance. If the affidavit is about a fact or decision, easily verifiable, it still works out. For the rest, we can rest peacefully.
The imbroglio that the affidavits create is now being played out in the Supreme Court in the RG Kar case. West Bengal did come out with any honours in this, and the whole world is trying to set right the damage. Their approach has been loud and clear since the beginning. That they have been able to get away with it is the real travesty of justice. If the truthfulness of requirements, nature of work, technical / functional fitness, approvals, budgeting, final sanctions, allotment, right vendor, work order, execution of work, quality, robustness of the tech infra, software, delivering of all features / utilities, training, installation, commissioning, user acceptance (resident docs to validate) and operations and maintenance could be managed, controlled and validated by affidavits, we would have gotten into a different governance trajectory.
The lawyers are trying to prove in the conventional manner whether things have been done or not and the timelines thereof. In place of the feudal affidavits in the AI age, do we not even have data / decision / project execution which can be accessed directly by courts from the government ERP and IT tools. Can all the details of the affidavit not be shown happening live in this digital age? Can the completed CCTV projects not be seen live or recorded from the system itself? Who validates the video analytics which would be at the core of the safety mechanism? What about video footage audit on a daily basis? What has been the Security Audit and the parameters they have worked upon? Such reports should be made public. Who validates the Integrated Hospital Management System, it might take years to become robust. The functional and technical robustness does not happen automatically, huge efforts / involvement is required. Given the details and the pace shown, the timelines are suspect, it is more so to satisfy the court. A detailed data, document and ground level facts reconciliation can throw up any number of contradictions. Do the doctors deserve this mess, while asking for just a safe and congenial working atmosphere?
EVERYTHING THAT IS PROVEN RIGHT ON PAPER AND DELIVERED, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT IS NOT THE DE FACTO DELIVERY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.