Are legal wars Narendra Modi government's Achilles' heel?

Electoral wins have come easy for chief minister Narendra Modi, but this has hardly been the case for the government in legal battles, where it has suffered one setback after another in recent times. The state has faced defeats in several crucial cases despite hiring top lawyers.

The latest one is the case regarding translocation of Asiatic Lions. The case was instituted way back in 1995. The apex court’s April 15 directive in favour of Madhya Pradesh came as a jolt to Gujarat government. The case garnered lot of public attention as nobody wanted the ‘pride of Gujarat’ to be shared with Madhya Pradesh. The state is now in the process of filing curative petition in the Supreme Court in the issue.

Another key case in which the government faced a setback was the one related to paying fixed wages to employees in various government departments. The Gujarat high court ruled that recruitment by the government on fixed wages was illegal, and ordered that the employees be paid full wages as per sixth pay commission recommendations. The government has challenged the HC ruling in Supreme Court.

The Modi government also lost cases where minorities were seeking their rights. A minority organisation had filed a case before the high court seeking funds for reconstruction of religious places, mostly mosques and shrines, destroyed in the 2002 communal riots. The government had strongly objected to the contention, but had ultimately lost the case.

Law minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma and minister of state for law Pradipsinh Jadeja could not be reached for their comment.

The government was dragged to court after it objected implementation of the scheme for pre-matriculation scholarships to minorities. The case was heard by a five-judge bench and the state lost, with three judges ruling against it. This case is also now in the Apex Court.

Interestingly, the government has been on the backfoot in legal battles irrespective of whether it was the petitioner or a respondent.

One of the most embarrassing defeats in a legal battle for the Modi government was related to appointment of justice (retd) RA Mehta as the state’s Lokayukta. The government had challenged his appointment to the key post by governor Dr Kamla in the HC. The HC, and later even the Supreme Court, upheld Mehta’s appointment. The government has filed a curative petition before the SC as the last legal resort in the issue.

The government had also lost cases related to denial of promotions to two top IPS officers, RB Sreekumar and Kuldip Sharma, both of whom were at loggerheads with the Modi government.

The state government has also faced one setback after another in the fake encounter cases of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Tulsi Prajapati, Sadiq Jamal, and Ishrat Jahan. In spite of the government’s stiff opposition, the cases are now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“Such a situation can arise in two cases - malafide action of the state or a weak case. All issues are decided by the court on the basis of merit alone. The government should act according to law in letter and spirit,” political critic and human rights activist Girish Patel opined, when asked to comment on the string of legal battles lost by the government.

“It is not that the government does not hire good lawyers. Even if you hire the best of lawyers to argue the case, if the action is malafide, spiteful or vindictive, the case cannot be sustained. At times, even top lawyers may fail to present the case properly,” he added.

Though it may have lost its cases in both the courts — high court as well as supreme court — the state is in no mood to accept defeat in its legal battles but is continuing to fight with hopes for some positive outcome till the dead end of all legal remedies.