Lamenting the stark reality of our judicial system, MADHAVI NALLURI pens a poem on the different treatment meted out to people in setting them at liberty by the Courts.

———

 

There was once a man in a La La Land,

Who lost his sheep to a bunch of thieves.

The man grieved over his loss helplessly

And decided to seek help from the powerful, reluctantly.

 

Knocking the doors of the protectors in khaki,

He narrated at length his sorry tale;

Only to be turned down by a defiant lackey,

Calling him a liar and putting him in jail.

 

“How dare you accuse those men with reputation?

People like you need to be taught a lesson.”

With the man behind the bars, his children cried,

Ran pillar to post to free their father as they tried.

 

Go to the lady of justice and get your father back, one advised,

Off went the kids to the hallowed corridors with their hopes held high.

Down came the gavel bleeding their hopes dry,

“No urgency in the matter, after a few months you may try.”

 

Dejected at their loss the kids wandered through the halls,

Thundering and screaming they could hear through nearby walls.

Peeping as they did to see a few angry men shouting at their brethren

“My client is innocent Milord! He is being trapped and that’s all.”

 

“Liberty for all souls is what the Constitution mandates,” the man in the high

chair observed,

“Each of us deserves protection from actions malafide and untoward.”

“Free the man behind the bars,” he ordered, “immediately!”

For any other order would reflect on us poorly.”

 

The kids yelped with joy thinking their father was at last free,

Little did they know these were two different orders for men of the same

country.

 

(Madhavi Nalluri is an advocate practising in the Bombay High Court after pursuing her Masters at the University of Cambridge.)