Mockery Judiciary PDF
Mockery Judiciary PDF
Mockery Judiciary PDF
Vol.1.Issue.1.;2013
A Peer Reviewed International Journal - http://www.rjelal.com
ABSTRACT
A criticism against Indian Judicial system that ‘the failure of modern legal
theory and practice lies in its understanding of what it is to be a human
being’ can be undoubtedly attributed to the themes of Vijay Tendulkar’s
play Silence! The Court Is In Session. The play barbs against existing
judicial system at two levels. Firstly, it can be studied as a ‘legal plea’
which demands for emancipation, equality and liberation of women and
Dr. MEDIKONDA SAMBAIAH stresses the need for a social transformation of law, culture, and social
patterns which release women’s potential, where the legal curriculum has
neglected issues of central concern of women like: rape, domestic
violence, reproduction, unequal pay, sex determination and sexual
harassment, from Benare’s ‘case study’: Secondly, the play can be a
thesis on elite-court relations in India as an unsatisfactory arrangement,
where being structurally part of the state, the courts are expected to
maintain a high degree of independence and to be ensured of a
democratic policy. The play is highly relevant as it discusses the present
atrocities occurring on women throughout India including Delhi ‘Nirbhaya’
Mrs. KATUMALA SANDHYA gang rape case and demands for verdict and bits the elite society to
Article Received on : ponder on the issue seriously.
26/03/2013
Article revised from: Key words: Judicial system, Unequal treatment, Legal plea, elite-court
28/03/2013 relations, Play within the play
Article accepted on:
28/05/2013
The stimulus for Silence! The Court is in Session by the small group, it was rejected by the judges who
came from a real incident for the writer. Tendulkar said it was not play. But later it received The
met an amateur group which was on its way to stage Kamaladevi Chatterpadhyaya award and was
a mock-trial in Vile Parle, a suburb of Bombay. While translated in fourteen Indian languages. The play was
overhearing their conversation, the outline of a play staged all over India in different versions. In a sense
began taking shape in the writer’s mind and resulted Marathi drama found a place on the national map
in the creation of Silence! The Court is in Session. and Tendulkar was recognized at the national level.
The play was written for Rangayana at the instance When asked in an interview: “This play is a caustic
of Arvind and Sulabh Deshpande and was first satire on the social as well as justice….The mental
performed in March 1971 in Madras. When the play agony suffered by the girl throughout the play is in
was first performed in 1967 for a drama competition no way less than the legal punishment. Is that all you
wished to convey or something more?” Tendulkar judicial culture. In fact, all these characters are the
said: representatives of the existing personalities in
judicial circle with their personal, familial,
“This is exactly what I had in mind. educational, ethical and professional defects. Mrs.
If I say anything else now, that will Kashikars, Sukhatme, Balu Rokde, Gopal Ponkshe and
be an after-thought. An undaunted Karnik are the various typical personalities in judicial
girl of Benare’s make-up could have, circle. The very fact of Mrs. Kashikar’s collusion in the
besides defending herself, made a attack on Benare demonstrates how women
counter-attack , tearing to pieces internalize the dominance of men over themselves
the dos and don’ts of the selfish as a natural phenomenon and turn against other
society. Had I shown her aggressive transgressing women as the ‘other’. Had Benare
that would have been attitude, not been the economically power, she might have
hers? Otherwise also the playwright protested more actively. Her present position is
should only suggest leaving the rest evidence that among educated women, concern for
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to the viewers.” status has a positive relationship with age and
employment. It has been found that the working
The opening scene of the play turns into a marvellous educated women have higher concern for status
piece of satire by pitting the self-consciously than the non-working women or house wives.
independent, vehemently assertive, and immensely
cheerful Benare against the utterly selfish, hypocritical The commencement of the ‘Mock-trial’, which
and malicious amateur artists and paves the way as to constitutes a ‘play-within-the-play’, offers Tendulkar
how they are going to judge and reverse the natural ample scope to dissect and lay bare the dormant ills
justice. The scene depicts how an average middle of discontent in the psyche of these urban
class woman strives and struggles for preserving her hypocrites. Though, they gang themselves up
womanhood and motherhood and her thirst to be against a hapless Benare for the time being, they
accepted by the society. As the curtain rises, Samant, a have nothing but spite for one another. Rokde
local chap and Leela Benare, the heroine are found symbolizes lumped public which is enveloped in the
conversing. She springs a surprise on the rustic culture of dependency and carried away by the lures
Samant with a sudden confidential proposal: “Let’s of money, power and threat. Throughout the play,
leave everyone behind, I thought, and go somewhere he is not allowed enough time to exercise his
far, far, away – with you”! [Silence! The Court is in intelligent challenges to prospective jurors. Ponkshe
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Session]. When she makes this observation, she has and Karnik are the other two catalysts who have
Professor Damle in her mind. Benare, after telling their active role in the plot against Benare. When
Samant that the school management is holding an Benare goes into the inner room to wash her face,
enquiry against her “just because of one bit of Karnik takes Ponkshe aside and indicating the inner
slander”. [58] The depiction of unsecured condition of room into which Benare has just gone, tells him if he
Benare explores the problems that exist among Indian knows anything about her: “About her, About Miss.
women towards legal rights and her absence of Benare. Rokde told me”. The stylistic gimmicks used
awareness about legislations and their enforcement by Ponkshe and Karnik sometimes speak a lot louder
and inadequacies of legal provisions. The tragic and than the words they actually speak. As witness their
bottle neck like situation reminds the audience of technique is not to argue the case but to present the
Banavari Devi, Nina Sahni, Tasneem Sheikh Suhail, issues. These two people represent the educated
Delhi model Jessica Lal and Nirbhaya claims Vijay elite in the society, who have to demand for ‘order of
Tendulkar as a man of relevance to the contemporary proof’ as yardstick before asking the jury to measure
society, where the practices like – eve teasing, the complaint. But these people lack the logical
whistling at girls, bottom pinching and are common order of proof for their expert testimony.
phenomenon among Indian youngsters, apart from big The interrogatory procedure is so convincing that the
incidents like gang rapes and murders. legal professionals have been encouraging litigation
The purpose why the dramatist has selected more and more by giving impetus to disputes. There
different persons from different backgrounds can is a widespread belief both among litigating public
give some clues about the judicial circle and their and legislators, the intervention of lawyers in court
However, Tendulkar depicts Benare as “a modern 4. Deborah Rhode. “Justice, Gender and the Justice”
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woman” who is capable of protecting herself and in Crites Lawra L, and Hepperle Winifred L (eds),
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her body in a male dominated society . He does not ‘Women, The Courts and Equality’. 1978, p.10.
let Benare kill herself or feel shy about the whole 5. Roma Mukherjee. Women, Law and Free Legal Aid
episode, but makes her fight till the end. Apart from in India, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd., New
all the criticism as she faced in the play, the Delhi, 1998, p.64.
character of Benare remains as a lovely spark from 6. Sect. (2), Adoptions and The Hindu Maintenance
the thunderbolt of Tendulkar, in the Modern Marathi Act, 1956.
theatre. She is a new woman pleading for freedom 7. Ved Kumari. “Place of Women and Child in
from social and legal norms. Even though Tendulkar Guardianship” in Lotika Sarkar and B.
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said that writing this play was ‘drudgery’ to him, Sivaramayya (eds), ‘Women and Law: Contemporary
the credit of raising him to the top of the Indian Problems’ Vikas PublishingHouse Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi,
theatre goes to this play Silence! The Court is in 1994, p.242.
Session. 8. Sudhir Sonalkar. “Vijay Tendulkar and the
REFERENCES Metaphor of Violence”, The Illustrated Weekly of
1. Vijay Tendulkar. “Drama: The Most Difficult, But India, November 18-24, 1993, p.20.
the Most Powerful Medium.” Interviews with 9. Veena Noble Dass. “Women Characters in the
Indian Writers, New World Literature Series, B-18, Plays of Tendulkar”, New Directions in Indian Drama
p.280 (ed) Sudhakar Pandey and Freya Barva, Prestige
2. Vijay Tendulkar. Collected Plays in Translation: publications, New Delhi, 1994, p.11.
Silence! The Court is in Session, translated by Priya 10. Vijay Tendulkar. “Interview”, The Indian Literary
Adarkar, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2003, Review, Vol.I, p.12.
p.55.
3. Quoted in “System on the Verge of Collapse”, India
Abroad , New York, February 4, 1994.