10. Reading Skills Comprehension: Television

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TELEVISION

1. On a recent television programme, the question posed was: “Is the judiciary the last hope of our country?” The verdict was a resounding “Yes”.

2. We have all heard about a series of sentences pronounced by the judiciary on the high and mighty in the last few days. This sent a clear message to the officials, perhaps for the first time, that judicial directions cannot be circumvented. The Apex Court added one more punch by categorically ruling that no prior sanction is required for prosecuting the elected representatives in cases of corruption.

3.T his has caused a huge vulnerability for all those high-profile public officials whose cases were hibernating due to the non-receipt of sanctions. With the present trend, the day of reckoning seems to be at the doorstep of almost all of them. All this is not fun to write. In fact, it is painful. And even more when it concerns those who were under an oath to uphold the law but did something totally to the contrary.

4. How have things come to such a pass? The fact is that we have inculcated social acceptance and recognition of law-breakers-turned-power-usurpers and ill-gotten-wealth accumulators. We, as a society, have developed tolerance, fear, apathy, hypocrisy and even self-aggrandisement with an indulgence to go along with many of them.

5. For long, everything has needed a contact, a reference or an incentive—or else you are in waiting forever. Today, senior and upper middle-level generations of officials in any field are, by and large, products of a subculture which perpetuated indecision, inequality, fear and patronage in delivery services. Can a VIP even today be questioned, leave alone be arrested by an officer empowered by the law for visible disproportionate assets without the highest clearance? So where is the Rule of Law?

6. But today, thanks to growing desperation and public awakening, critical issues are being addressed with speed and in a language, many in power are not used to. The key issue now before us is whether this speed will be restricted to only those who are high-profile? Or will it also extend to the low-profile cases? My earnest prayer is that if we truly want to practise equality and restore faith and trust, we must do the following:

(a) Fill up all existing vacancies of judges in subordinate courts and High Courts, which are around 22 per cent as of now. Records show that subordinate courts are able to dispose of as many as 88 per cent cases filed before them in a year despite the existence of 21.92 per cent vacancies in their sanctioned strength. Thus, even if the vacancies are brought down by 12 per cent, it will logically lead to the disposal of 100 per cent cases filed during the year.

(b) Improvement of legal procedures to reduce pendency.

(d) Computerisation at every level at the judiciary.

(e) The greater practice of the recently introduced plea bargaining.

(f) Increase in the number of public prosecutors.

(g) Evolve an alternative system of grievance redressal like the Gram Nyayalaya Act of Madhya Pradesh.

(h) A delegation of powers for compounding of petty offences.

(i) Fast track courts for case trials by magistrates.

(j) Video conferencing facilities for remand prisoners.

(k) Alternative Dispute Resolution,

(l) Amendments in the Perjury Law.

Word-Meanings

Para 1. 1. Verdict (noun): opinion, judgement 2. Recent (adjective): fresh and new 3. Posed (verb): put forward 4. Resounding (adjective): forceful and emphatic

Para 2. 1. Sentences (noun): judicial judgement/punishment 2. Pronounced (verb): delivered as judgement 3. High and mighty (noun): arrogant people 4. Conviction (noun): an act of finding someone guilty 5. Bureaucrat (noun): a government official 6. Non-compliance (noun): refusal to obey 7. Circumvented (verb): to find a way to avoid a difficulty or a rule 8. Apex Court (noun): highest court/the Supreme Court of India 9. Punch (noun): blow 10. Prosecuting (verb): to take legal action against 11. Categorically (adjective): absolute and without any conditions 12. Sanction (noun): authoritative permission or approval 13. Corruption (noun): dishonest practices.

Para 3. 1. Vulnerability (noun): fear of attack 2. High-profile (noun): very strong and important 3. Hibernating (verb): lying dormant 4. Reckoning (noun): judgement 5. Contrary (adjective): opposite, different 6. Uphold (verb): to support or defend

Para 4.1. Inculcated (verb): instilled, produced 2. Apathy (noun): lack of feeling 3. Hypocrisy (noun): pretence 4. aggrandizement (noun): artificially increased reputation 5. Indulgence (noun): tolerance 6. Usurper (noun): one who forcibly takes power from somebody without any legal right

Para 5. 1. Incentive (noun): encouragement 2. By and large (adverb): on the whole 3. Perpetuated (verb): made to continue 4. Patronage (noun): favouritism 5. Disproportionate (adjective): excessive 6. Assets (noun): property

Para 6. 1. Desperation (noun): despair 2. Issues (noun): matters 3. Key (adjective): essential 4. Earnest (adjective): sincere, serious 5. Restore (verb): reestablish 6. Subordinate (adjective): of lower rank 7. dispose of (idiom): deal with 8. Procedures (noun): ways 9. Pendency (noun): state of being undecided 10. Arbitrary (adjective): according to one’s own views 11. Adjournments (noun): postponements 12. prosecutors (noun): people who institute legal proceedings against someone before a court 13. alternative (adjective): another 14. Redressal (noun): remedy 15. Delegation (noun): bestowing authority or power to another person 16. Compounding (verb): settling 17. Dispute (noun): quarrel 18. Perjury (noun): false testimony 19. Petty (adjective): minor 20. Magistrates (noun): judicial officers 21. Remand prisoners (noun): prisoners who are sent back into custody to await trial or continuation of the trial

Questions:

1. Choose the correct option:

(a) To reduce pendency, there should be improvements in …………..

(i) judiciary (ii)jails

(iii) schemes and suggestions (iv) jails procedures

(b) Who is responsible for the ills in society?

(i) Elected members (ii) Police

(iii) Bureaucrats (iv) Public apathy

(c) In which state was a minister and a bureaucrat convicted for the non-compliance of court orders?

(i) Bihar (ii) Assam

(iii) Maharashtra (iv) Goa

(d) The existing vacancies in the High Courts and subordinate courts are……….

(i) 21% (ii) 22% (iii) 21.2% (iv) 18%

(e) Choose the correctly spelt word:

(i) burocrat (ii) buerocrat (iii) bourocrat (iv) bureaucrat

(f) In the sentence ‘How have things come to such a pass?’ the word ‘pass’ means…………

(i) state (ii) to succeed (iii) turn (iv) passage

2.Answer the questions briefly:

(a) What message was given by the recent convictions of high-profile persons?

(b) In what way did the Apex Court add one more punch?

(d) Whom does the author hold responsible for the sorry state of affairs?

(e) The adverb ‘by and large’ used in paragraph 5 of the passage means

(f) Write one word for the expression: ‘at the step of the door’.

Answers:

1.(a) iv (b) iv (c) iii (d) ii (e) iv (f) i

2. (a) The recent convictions of high-profile people have sent the message that judicial directions cannot be outwitted any longer.

(b) The Apex Court added another blow to this by ruling that no prior sanction would be required to prosecute elected representatives in cases of corruption.

(d) The author holds society as a whole and its apathy towards the criminals responsible for the miserable state of affairs. We have come to tolerate and accept the law-breaker-turned politician.

(e) on the whole

(f) doorstep

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